Sneha Gulrajani
When writing a term paper or during finals when students are trying to cramp in every minute they can get for studying, eBooks can be very helpful and the cost is free. The Pierce College library added more eBooks, digital versions of published print materials, to its collection earlier this semester, which currently has more than 15,000 eBooks already gathered including reference, research and reading materials. “It is useful for people who cannot afford to buy textbooks”, said Pierce student Sapna Gambhir. The two types of eBooks available from the library include full textbooks and reference books. The Gale Virtual Reference Library has more than 320 multi-volume titles that can be useful for many research papers or projects. Librarian Florence Robin said, “You can get information that is reputable and legitimate.” Gambhir said, “It is so much easier to be able to read it all online. It’s faster, you don’t have to skim through pages looking for a chapter, you can just click on the chapters that you want to read and it takes you right to it.” The free eBooks can be accessed anywhere with Internet at any time of the day without any checkouts or late returns.
More than one person can use the same eBook copy at the same time.
“You would save time by not having to go into the library and not having to worry if someone checked out a specific book,” said Pierce student Ryan Gutierrez. “It is better because many people could use it, not just one.” In order to get access to eBooks anywhere at anytime off campus, a student must first set up a free user account from one of the library computers. The same process applies for accessing eReferences in the Gale Virtual Reference Library while away from the school. “It’s like having your own reference library in your house,” Robin said. “I think it’s pretty amazing.” Some of the advantages of having access to eBooks include not having the difficulty of locating specific information in a book, because eBooks has search boxes which will easily find content for the reader. Much more content is currently in print than online.
“There are things in print you will not get online because of copyright issues,” Robin said. “Sometimes you need a balance, you need that and the actual print.
“We own this collection, unlike the databases that are articles,” she said. “They’re subscriptions, so every year we have to pay for them.” Gambhir said, “It is definitely a good idea for any college, whether it is a community college, a Cal State, or a U.C.” “That’s our mission,” Robin said. “We are here for the students academically.”