E-books Available Online

Our collection of netLibrary electronic books (e-books) contains 3,772 copyrighted books and thousands of public domain titles. The 3,772 copyrighted e-books are also available via our online Catalog.

New York State
Library E-book Collection

Accessing E-books in the NYSL Catalog: Search for online electronic books
available to registered New York State Library borrowers and onsite users:


(Search will open in a new window.)

 

A valid New York State Library borrower's card with a P number is required to access copyrighted e-books. On your first visit to the netLibrary site, you will need to create an account at netLibrary:

  • Set up a netLibrary account. [FOR FIRST TIME USERS] Use this link to set up a netLibrary account via the State Library's proxy server. Please use your New York State Library borrower's card number and PIN as your netLibrary username and password. If your PIN is not long enough, please add two zeros to the end of your PIN number.

    For best results, once you have created a netLibrary account, log out of netLibrary. Use the Back button on your browser to return to this page and click on the link below to re-enter netLibrary. Use your new netLibrary account to log in.

Use netLibraryexternal link. If you've already set up an account with netLibrary, use this link to access netLibrary without going through our proxy server. For more details about logging in to netLibrary, see How to Access E-books.

netLibrary Public Collection of E-books

netLibrary's Public Collection includes thousands of classic works of fiction, speeches, government reports, and other texts that are in the public domain (no longer copyrighted). All of these e-books have an electronic table of contents, and are searchable. A list of the free e-books is located on the netLibrary site.

Note: You do not need to be a registered New York State Library borrower to access the public domain titles at netLibrary; however, you must still create a personal netLibrary account in order to check them out.

Tips for Using netLibrary

Searching for e-books: When searching for a book, be sure to include synonyms or to truncate. You will get more results in free text rather than keyword searching. In a Quick Search, truncation is automatic. When doing a Command Search, use the asterisk (*) for truncation.

Viewing e-books: There are two methods of viewing e-books online at netLibrary - BROWSE and CHECK-OUT.

  • BROWSE allows you to view the book online for a short time. However, once you actively stop turning pages, the e-book will become inactive after 15 minutes (so as to be available to others). While using BROWSE and actively moving through the e-book, no one else can access the book.

  • CHECK-OUT exclusively reserves an e-book to one Library borrower for the length of the CHECK-OUT period.1 When the checkout time expires, the e-book is automatically returned to the Library.
    ( To return the book before then, select "Check in E-book" from the drop-down list on the Ebookshelf page, or click on "Check In this E-book" from the Reading Room tab.)

NetLibrary has a Help section with more information about search options, reading online, printing, and other frequently asked questions.

1 Note: - The 17

2 e-books in the New York State Library's own collection have a 7-day check-out period. The 3,600 e-books shared with other libraries may be checked-out for four hours. Within both of these collections, however, any books designated as "Reference" can be checked out for only two hours. If you wish to see time remaining for your check-out period, or if you wish to return your e-book, click on "Reading Room" on the netLibrary site.

Last Updated: June 8, 2009