Yale University Library Research Guides: Paleontology Library Resources at Yale: eBooks

Where can I find these?

Ebook collections can be found in several places.

The library catalog — using the Online filter when you reach your search results.
We take purchase requests for electronic books with several caveats:
- Some publishers don't make ebooks available to libraries that are available as ebooks to the general public.
- We prefer acquiring DRM-free ebooks, which are more accessible than Adobe Digital Editions and other closed-access or single-user books.
- You can read more about our collection development policies here.
Historical resources such as the HathiTrust, Yale Digital Collections, and the Digital Public Library of America.

HathiTrust
HathiTrust is a collection of older books — including valuable things like taxonomies. Some items are search-only, while others are full text — this depends on copyright restrictions and whether or not we hold the item in print.
An example full-text search for fossil ferns.
This search is just an example. I have looked up fossil ferns — using the basic search, which looks in full text and all fields. It retrieves 286,923 items.
An example search for fossil ferns — limited to what's in the catalog record.
If you don't want full text search, you can also search the catalog records. Catalog records include the author(s), language(s), publisher/date/location, subjects, and physical description. Occasionally, you will find other information (edition, ISBN, notes). Here's a Chinese book on fossils as an example.

How do I log in?	A login is not required to search materials in HathiTrust. You may log into the system if you wish to take advantage of additional platform functions, like saving materials to your personal collections. To log in, click "Log In" and select "Yale University" from the drop down menu. Log in with your netID and password.
Is an e-reader required?	Materials can be accessed in your browser, so an e-reader is not required.
How do I access materials?	Some content can be read online, downloaded as a PDF and printed in full. Other texts are limited to in-text searching. Users may also save items to their personal account.
Limitations?	Due to copyright restrictions, some texts cannot be viewed but can be searched with keywords. Search results will provide the number of times keywords are displayed per page, but users cannot view surrounding text: For example, a search for the word "cheese" in the "Original Whitehouse Cookbook" by Hugo Ziemann and Mrs. F.L. Gillette yields the following results: p. 223 - 13 matching terms p. 217 - 7 matching terms
More info	HathiTrust help guide