Most of you probably received an email from the VP of Finance and Administration with the subject line: “Campus Announcement – E-Learning through SkillSoft is now available!”
That DID get my attention, so I immediately went to the site and started investigating. I’ll tell you what I found out in a minute, but I also want to make sure you are aware of OTHER online books you can access for FREE, provided you are on the BSU network (meaning, you are on your office computer and have logged on using your name and password.)
Safari Books Online is a service that BSU Library has offered for a couple of years. If you’ve never used it or even knew about it, don’t be embarrassed. Now you do! You should be able to access this service if you are on the BSU network: http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/
This database is for IT and tech books, but it is really rich and provides a lot of resources. I noticed that not all books were available (some had a “Preview” notice on the page), but then some of them are completely available. It’s not perfect, but you COULD look up a book that might interest and be helpful to you.
The SkillSoft 24/7 books that BSU recently notified us about has a pretty good selection of Microsoft Office books, but is weak in other software programs. For instance, when I did a search for “Dreamweaver,” nothing showed up. However, if you are struggling with using the new Microsoft Office 2007 programs, then take a look at this site, as there are quite a few selections.
Finally, don’t forget that the library (actually it’s funded through the State of Idaho) offers e-books and eAudiobooks through NetLibrary. (I also wrote about downloading an audiobook to my computer using this service on a previous blog posting.) This database doesn’t have much in the way of tech books, but then we all need a break from technology from time to time.
Technology Teacher 
Thanks for a great post, Barbara! You’re right that if you’re in the BSU network the Safari Books Online is freely available online.
The best way to access this and other databases is via the library’s database list at http://library.boisestate.edu/indexes/indexlist.htm . This way the proxy access to Safari and other database is already taken care of, otherwise you’d be asked for an user name & password.
Similarly, if you do a _Subject Browse_ for “Electronic Books” in the library’s catalog , you’ll get a list of all 920 (and growing) e-books in our collection.
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Oops, I forgot to add the library catalog’s URL: http://voyager.boisestate.edu/
Thanks!
Memo
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This is the last link, I promise, on e-books that the library has access to:
http://library.boisestate.edu/reference/subjectindexes/ebook.htm
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