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Finding Books

Use SuperSearch to find books by title, author, or keywords. Apply the “In the Library” and “Books” filters to narrow results to physical books.

Learn more about using SuperSearch, including Advanced Search options.

Can’t find the book you need at Cowles Library? Try borrowing from FastTRAC or Interlibrary Loan (ILL). You can also request that the library purchase a copy for our collection.

Finding eBooks

Use this form to find eBooks in SuperSearch. Results will be pre-filtered to “Full-text online” and “Books.” If you are off campus, you’ll be prompted for your Drake credentials to view eBook content.

eBook Search

All eBooks can be viewed online with a current browser on a Mac or PC. Many collections also allow you to download chapters or even the full book. See the table below for more information.

eBooks as Course Materials

Instructors looking for eBooks to use as course texts can get assistance from your library liaison. Our Course Materials page has more information.

Major eBook Collections

Cowles Library subscribes to a number of eBook collections. Here are some of the most prominent:

Collection Full Title
Downloads		 Chapter
Downloads		 Notes
AccessPharmacy  No No Over 20 pharmacy and health science books, including Depiro, Goodman & Gilman's, Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, and NAPLEX review questions.
ASHP eBooks Yes Yes Pharmacy-specific clinical and management information.
Cambridge Histories Online  No Yes More than 290 volumes published since the 1960s, covering more than 15 academic subjects.
CREDO Reference  No Yes More than 500 highly regarded reference sources covering every major subject, from art to medicine, psychology to history and technology to literature.
Directory of Open Access Books Yes Some Thousands of academic, peer-reviewed books from hundreds of publishers. The ability to download individual chapters varies by publisher platform.
EBSCO Academic eBook Collection  Yes Yes Chapters can be downloaded as PDF files; check out our tutorial.
Other download options require Adobe Digital Editions and a My EBSCOhost account.
Mobile requires free BlueFire Reader app.
Elsevier Freedom Collection Books Yes Yes Book chapters from more than 11,000 science, medical and technical books. Downloading the full book actually creates a .zip file of all individual chapter files.
Gale eBooks  No Yes A collection of reference works on the Arts, Business, Education, Law, Literature, Medicine, Multicultural Studies, Nation & World, Religion, and the Social Sciences.
JSTOR Books No Yes Access more than 65,000 eBooks from scholarly publishers.
Oxford Handbooks Online  No Yes Online versions of the Oxford Handbooks, available in Business & Management, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, Literature, Psychology, and History subject modules.
Oxford Reference Online No No Access to dictionaries & reference works in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences is limited to 5 simultaneous users.
Oxford Scholarship Online  No Yes Over 4,000 eBooks published from 2016-present in the humanities, sciences, business, and social sciences.
Oxford Very Short Introductions No Yes Hundreds of concise, original texts on wide-ranging topics. Each book discusses the central issues in a given topic.
PharmacyLibrary (APhA) No No Dozens of key pharmacy texts. Online viewing only.
Springer eBook Collections  Yes Yes Many titles offer MyCopy, which allows you to buy a softcover b&w copy of the book for $24.99.