ebrary (the "e" is lower case) was an online

digital library A digital library (also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, a library without walls, or a digital collection) is an online database of digital resources that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital ...

which held over 100,000 scholarly

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...

s in 2014. It was available in many academic libraries and provided a set of online database collections that combined scholarly books from over 435 academic, trade, and professional publishers. It also included sheet music (9,000 titles) and government documents. Additionally, ebrary offered a service called "DASH!" for customers to distribute their own PDF content online. ebrary had 2,700 subscribers (mostly libraries) at the end of 2009. Users gained access through a subscribing library and could view, search, copy, and print documents from their computers. ebrary was founded in 1999 by friends Christopher Warnock and Kevin Sayar. It was headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and was acquired by

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for l ...

in 2011. In 2015, ProQuest replaced ebrary with ProQuest Ebook Central. Before it was replaced, it held over 900,000 documents.

Reception

Staffordshire University in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

supplied texts to ebrary and encouraged use by students and faculty. A study of usage there reported, "The ability for students and researchers to search across the full content of 30,000 e‐books in one 'go' and then capture that information quickly and easily is also very valuable." At Hacettepe University, a large school in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, usage had proven valuable because of the limited library collection. More generally, Anne Morris and Panos Balatsoukas reported that other universities also had studied usage and considered ebrary a valuable resource.Anne Morris and Panos Balatsoukas. "Usability evaluation of Ebrary and Overdrive e-book online systems." ''Libraries without walls'' 6 (2006): 211-223.

References

Journal articles

* Fialkoff, Francine. "The Book Is Not Dead," ''Library Journal'', (June 15, 2009) Vol. 134 Issue 11 * Godwin-Jones, Robert. "E-Books and the Tablet PC," ''Language, Learning & Technology'' Vol. 7, 2003 * Mullarkey, Marty. "Ebrary and two international e-Book surveys." ''The Acquisitions Librarian'' 19.3-4 (2008): 213-230. * Qiuping, Zhang, and Yuan Hao. "Integration of Ebrary Electronic Books to OPAC System." ''Library Journal'' 1 (2008): 007. * Raisinghani, Mahesh S. "Wireless Library Aids Student Productivity," ''T H E Journal'' Vol. 30, 2002

External links

Archived version of the ebrary website

"The State of Worldwide Library eBook Lending"
by Michael Kozlowski {{Authority control Commercial digital libraries ProQuest American digital libraries