The Bentley Library's collections are curated to support the curriculum at Bentley University. Our books, eBooks, and audiobooks (and much more) can be discovered using the Bentley Library Search.
The Bentley Library does not generally purchase textbooks. There are a number of reasons for this including budgetary reasons.
In many cases with online textbooks, we simply can't purchase them. Publisher purchase models for online textbooks are designed for individual purchase between the publisher and the intended user, often confined to the publisher's proprietary platform. This prohibits libraries from purchasing textbooks for student use.
We encourage faculty to consider placing a print copy of their assigned textbook on reserve if possible. For faculty who may have a spare second copy, consider loaning the book to the library for the academic term. We will process the book for reserves and handle the loaning of the title to students. At the end of the semester, the book will be returned to you.
Depending on the book you are interested in using, the title may be available in our print collection or in one of our existing eBook collections. In this case, we'll be happy to process this title and add it to the course reserves for your class. Just let us know!
Placing materials on Course Reserve is a great way to help provide ways for students to access course material without requiring additional purchases, but you could go even further by adopting Open Educational Resources (OER) such as OER Textbooks to use in your classes!
Each eBook platform acts slightly differently in how the books can be accessed. When thinking about assigning or using eBooks from our collections in teaching, it's important to be on the lookout for how the platform may impact not only how students can get to the material but how many students can access the content at the same time.
Books in these collections require that users check out the book for a period of time. No other users can access the book until it has been returned.
The OverDrive eBooks & Audiobooks collection provides fiction and non-fiction eBooks and audiobooks, and can be used with the Libby mobile app and/or your preferred device. Formats include OverDrive Read, ePub, and Kindle for ebooks, and mp3 and OverDrive Listen for audiobooks.
Books in these collections do not require check out but there are multiple access models that can vary from title to title within the collection. The book record in the eBook database will share the access model for the title and will let the potential user know if the book is available for use.
1 User: One user at a time can access this book.
3 User: Up to three users can access this book at the same time.
Unlimited: Any number of users can access this book at the same time.
Books in these collections do not have a cap on how many users can access the titles concurrently.
Skillport (Books 24x7) offers books and audiobooks about consumer electronics, data analytics, finance, information technology, health and wellness, productivity, and other business-related topics. The collection also includes exam study guides, and software manuals for business and statistical applications such as SAS and SPSS.
O'Reilly Online Learning offers books, audiobooks, videos, and interactive tutorials on in-demand technology and business topics. Exclusive conference content and case studies from leading organizations are also included.
The Bentley Library welcomes suggestions for purchase from faculty for materials for curricular use that can support their teaching in the classroom.
Faculty can reach out to their department's liaison librarian directly or use the Suggest a Purchase form on the library website to submit requests. When placing a request, please let us know if you have a preference of format (print or electronic).
We will check to see if the book you are interested in is available to us in your preferred format and will let you know what access options are available for the title, budget permitting.
That depends on which platform the book is on and which book you are interested in using. There may be restrictions applied on the number of pages that can be downloaded, printed, or emailed (outside of general copyright guidelines). The number of pages permissible can vary by title as these are set by the publisher of the ebook and these allowances cannot be changed by the library.
Some platforms may allow for eBooks to be downloaded as a whole to a device for offline reading using compatible software. The downloads in these cases will have DRM technology attached so the book will be returned at the end of the loan period set by the platform.
Books from OverDrive are an outlier in this scenario. While whole books may be downloaded to a device for offline reading, features such as specifying downloads of specific chapters, emailing, or saving are not available.
Each book record in the eBook database will tell you the particular permissions available for each book. If you have questions, contact a librarian at the Bentley Library Reference Desk for assistance.