Tom Masson once famously quipped “[T]here are 70 million books in American libraries and the one I want is always out” (IFLANET, n.d.). Electronic books (e‐books) that allow multiple users can alleviate this problem. Greenwood have created this digital collection of e‐books in order to provide a sophisticated research platform of reference, academic, and general interest e‐books featuring high‐quality, authoritative, scholarly products for libraries. The Greenwood Digital collection offers 3,000 titles. These titles can be customized for individual libraries based on their needs. This is not simply a collection of PDF documents but is instead the complete texts, which are fully searchable and include images as well.
E‐books have numerous advantages over print: access can be from anywhere with an internet connection; only a web browser is needed to view; as observed, multiple users are able to access the same title; searches can be made across all accessible e‐books in one query; and searches can be limited by subject category. There are other advantages to Greenwood's Digital collection. No proprietary reader software is required to view these e‐books. Additionally, a useful feature is the fact that all images, illustrations, and charts from the print editions are available in the e‐books.
Each page includes the option to view by title, subject category and author. Users can search their individual collection or browse a comprehensive A‐Z list. Each title includes ISBN numbers as well as prices. Users simply have to click on a title from the list to view an image of the book cover along with product information, award information and reviews including those from Choice. A QuickSearch box is prominently displayed on each page. Additionally, there is an Advanced Search option which provides more robust search features, such as the ability to search Keyword, Title, Author, Dewey or LCC search fields. The Advanced Search function allows users to sort results by the number of terms found, title, publication year and author. Limiters include publication year and 24 subjects to further narrow searches. The latter include broad topics such as Anthropology, Arts, Business, Communications, Economics, Education, Health, Law, Multicultural Studies, Political Science, Religious Studies and Sociology.
The Greenwood Digital Collections is very well organized. There are not too many choices to look through, which allows for quicker selection. Common links at the top of every page provides a consistent layout and enables easy navigation. Across the top are tabs such as Your Greenwood E‐Books, My Bookshelf and My Bookmarks & Notes. Users will need to sign in to access their personalized bookmarks and bookshelf. Users can create a password‐protected profile for themselves and store bookmarks and notes. For performance reasons these bookmarks and notes are deleted after six months, but there are no limits on the numbers in each category a user may create.
Users are able to search within an e‐book or they may browse each title through the table of contents available to the left of each page, by “flipping” through the pages via the arrows immediately above and below the text, or by entering a page number in the Go To Page box at the bottom of each page. Notes and cross‐references, as well as references to figures, images, and other sections, are also linked conveniently from within the text. When linking to a chapter or section from the table of contents, the contents will expand to display major subheadings within that section to help orient the reader within each e‐book. Users are able to personalize the display of information. The table of contents can be hidden in order to take full advantage of the width of the screen. At the top right‐hand corner of each page are links for Printing, Citation, and for Settings. When viewing a page, a user has the option of clicking the print link to view that page or a range of up to 20 pages without any navigational elements. The browser may then be used to print the “clean” page as needed. The Settings link may be used to customize the e‐book display such as selecting a different font or size for the display, or choosing whether to hide or display the table of contents.
This web site is current and new titles and collections are updated monthly. The site is customer friendly with the minimum system requirements clearly specified and a User Guide available for download. Cookies must be enabled. Free technical support is available with all Greenwood electronic products and users can call or email technical support very easily on every page.
Because of the ease of use and the very clear purpose of the web site, I would recommend this resource for academic librarians, especially those interested in building personalized e‐book collections.
