The inconvenience of going to the Hammermill Library to check out a book and finding that it is not available can be avoided with the new e-books Mercyhurst College’s library now offers.

Instead of physical hardback books, e-books are electronic literature that can be found online. They can be read page by page, or specific words and terms can be searched for if a student is looking for a particular part of the book.

Unlike the library where there usually isn’t more than one copy available, e-books allow many people to read the same book at one time.

Mercyhurst has received more than 47,000 e-books during the past few weeks, and these are all available on the Hammermill Library Web site.

These 47,000 e-books cover a wide variety of topics.
Library Director Darci Jones was the main force behind the idea to to bring e-books to Mercyhurst.

“By subscribing to e-book collections like ebrary Academic Complete, the library increases the access to the libraries’ virtual front door,” Jones said. “I think it will benefit the library tremendously and (I) wanted to see this happen for our school.”

Students seem to realize the benefits of ebooks as well.
“I love the idea of having a physical book in hand, but I think the convenience of e-books is a good idea and will save on paper,” sophomore Cassie Seligman said.

Students will be able to highlight the e-books as they would a normal textbook.

Sophomore Ben Snedden also thinks the e-books will be convenient.

“E-books are a good idea because then you would never need to leave your dorm,” Snedden said.

The new advancement in literature costs an annual fee of $12,000 for an initial two-year period, according to Jones.

“It’s definitely well worth it,” Serials Librarian Penny Wise said. “The only downside is that we’re only renting the books online.”

The books are constantly updating, but Mercyhurst must pay the yearly fee to still occupy them.

“The online books are saving us convenience and time,” Wise said. “With e-books there is no need for labeling books with bar codes and stocking them on the shelves.”

Click here to access the e-books on the Hammermill Library Web site.

Training sessions for students and faculty to learn how to use ebooks will take place during the upcoming winter and spring terms.

Jones recommended students stay tuned to campus news to find out more about the current wave of electronic changes happening at Hammermill.