Library Guides: Literature in English: Books

UC Berkeley Book Catalogs

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Search for and borrow items from all 10 UC libraries.

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eBooks

Most of these ebooks can be found by using UC Library Search. However, you may occasionally wish to visit specific ebook platforms.

ACLS Humanities e-Book (HEB) Collection This link opens in a new window
An online collection of thousands of books of high quality in the humanities. (American Council of Learned Societies Humanities e-Book Collection)
Provides full-text and full-page-image access to titles in most humanities disciplines and in area studies. The books included have been recommended by scholars as significant contributions to their respective fields. Offered by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) in collaboration with ten learned societies and nearly 80 contributing publishers.

Cambridge eBooks
The Library has access to many, but not all, eBooks from Cambridge University Press, including research monographs and reference titles. Cambridge eBooks can be found in UC Library Search.

Digitalia This link opens in a new window
eBooks in Spanish, English, and Catalan published in Spain, Latin America, and the United States.
Digitalia e-books can be read as PDFs, HTML, or Flash files. To date, the UCB Library has purchased more than 2100+ titles which are all discoverable in UC Library Search.

EBSCO eBooks
Full-text titles from thousands of academic and commercial publishers. Available in UC Library Search.

Google Books This link opens in a new window
Search and preview millions of books and journals digitized from library collections such as UC Berkeley. Titles out of copyright are available in full.
Searches the full text of books and many journal runs on many subjects, including some from the University of California libraries. The full text of a book can be displayed only if the book is out of copyright (generally, published before 1923).
HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
A digital repository providing long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives. (Hathi Trust)
Pronounced "hah-tee", this cooperative system contains millions of books scanned from UC and other major research libraries, including those digitized by Google and the Internet Archive. Search on information about the book (such as author or title), or words in the text. Full text is available for items that are not protected by copyright. Anyone can view public domain materials but to download a .pdf to a laptop or flash-drive, users need a login/password which is their CalnetID/password. Items in the HathiTrust catalog can be grouped into collections and shared online. For details, see the FAQ page.
Internet Archive: Text Archive This link opens in a new window
Full-text of books and other texts available, mostly published before 1923 and in the public domain, from a variety of Libraries.
Searches and displays the full text of books and other texts on many subjects. This archive was created in part by the Open Content Alliance, which includes the University of California. All materials are in the public domain. Close to 10,000 volumes from UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library book and serials collection is available through the Internet Archive: The Bancroft Library portal.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
eBooks on JSTOR are available to download as unrestricted PDFs, though must be downloaded one chapter at a time.
For more sophisticated search capabilities, go directly to JSTOR advanced search.
OverDrive eBooks and Audiobooks This link opens in a new window
Borrow popular ebooks and audiobooks to enjoy online, on your device, Kindle, or eReader. The collection is strongest in high-use and popular fiction. Check out materials using your CalNet ID.
For help, see our getting started guide for Overdrive.
Oxford Scholarship Online This link opens in a new window
Academic ebooks published by Oxford U Press. Narrow to Literature and to "unlocked" books. Read online or download by chapter.
A cross-searchable library containing the full text of over 750 books and at least 200 new and recently-published books are added each year. [Please note: There are several other modules to this resource; the Library subscribes only to modules listed above.]
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
eBooks on Project Muse are available to download as unrestricted PDFs, though must be downloaded one chapter at a time.
Topics include literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics and many others. Books are available in PDF format, searchable and retrievable to the chapter level, with no restrictions on downloading or printing.
ProQuest Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
Ebook platform with access to hundreds academic publishers. The individual ebooks in this collection are also listed in UC Library Search.
A database of more than 77,000 complete e-books covering 16 key subject areas including: business and economics, computers and IT, literature and linguistics, history, political science, and more. These ebooks are also listed in the library catalog.

Springer
Academic eBooks to download to PDF all at once or chapter by chapter.

Wiley Online Library Ebook Collection This link opens in a new window
Academic ebooks. Narrow to Humanities > Literature. We have access to books with an open lock. Download by chapter.
Exclusions to the collection are textbooks and major reference works.

Taylor & Francis eBooks
Literature and Language collection.

Catalogs with Historical Info

UC Library Search - WorldCat
Includes records from libraries all over the world.
Library of Congress
Online catalog of the largest library in the world, with over 162 million books, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, music, recordings, images, and electronic resources. Library of Congress cataloging dates back to 1898.
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Records for some materials cataloged before 1980 are only available to researchers onsite in the Library's Main Card Catalog.
Copac
Union catalog of over 90 major UK and Irish libraries, including Oxford and Cambridge, National Trust, Royal Botanic Gardens, and the British Library.

English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) This link opens in a new window
List of items published between 1473 and 1800, mainly in the UK and North America, and mainly in English. Originally called The Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue.
Includes all English monographs printed between 1475-1700. Contains over 400,000 citations to English and English-language letterpress materials.

National Union Catalog (NUC) Pre-1956 Imprints
Catalog of books and journals published before 1956, compiled from American library records. 754 volumes. In addition to the digitized version, see also UCB holdings: http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b12909853~S1

Publishers

Literary Market Place : LMP
Literary Market Place (LMP) is the directory of America and Canadian book publishing. The International Literary Market Place (ILMP), begun in 1965, provides a similar scope of publishing data for more than 180 countries around the world.
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Featuring listings on more than 30,000 Publishers, Literary Agents, Distributors & Sales Representatives, Wholesalers, Book Producers, Exporters & Importers, Manufacturers & Printers, Translators & Interpreters, Paper Suppliers, Remainder Dealers, Reference Books & Magazines,Literary Association, Societies & Awards
FOB: Firms Out of Business
FOB aims to record information about printing and publishing firms, magazines, literary agencies and similar organizations that are no longer in existence. Where possible the entries in FOB identify successor organizations which might own any surviving rights. FOB is run jointly by the Harry Ransom Center and University of Reading Library.
AcqWeb Directory of Publishers and Vendors
List of publishers and vendors used by libraries. No longer actively maintained.

How to Find eBooks

Go to the Library homepage.
In UC Library Search, enter your keywords.
On the results page, find the Refine Your Results column. Under Show Only, select Available Online. Then, under Resource Type, select Books.

How Do I Read a Call Number?

To read a call number, take each section one at a time: BF 1556 .Z66 2010

BF
Read the 1st line in alphabetical order: A, B, BF, C, D, DC...
1156
Read the 2nd line as a whole number: 1, 2, 3, 32, 100, 101, 1000, 1100, 1156, 2000, 3000...
.Z66
First read the 3rd line alphabetically. Then read the following number as a decimal: .C51, .D49, .Z616, .Z66, .Z8
2010
The last line is the year, and is read in chronological order: 1989, 1992, 2000, 2010, 2016

How Do I Request Books in UC Library Search?

No time to go hunting around the library stacks to find the books you need? Use UC Library Search to find the book you want,. Authenticate yourself with CalNet, and follow the prompts. UC Library Search will ask you where you want the book(s) delivered to. You will get an email when the books are ready to be picked up (usually within 1-3 days).

You can also use this button to:

Request materials from NRLF
Place holds on items that are checked out
Place holds on an item.

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Literature in English