The SABES project has made it possible for you to access a wide range of research, reference and reading materials online. eBooks are easy to use and are accessible from any location — your library, home or office. Searching them is fast and efficient. You can search every word in every eBook our library holds, as well as search within a particular eBook. Plus, each eBook is embedded with the American Heritage Dictionary of the American Language (4th ed.).

Your personal account will also allow you to take advantage of all of the features netLibrary® offers, such as keeping track of eBooks you want to remember, and allowing you to take notes online and add to them at another time.You can also add bookmarks, as well as maintain an online list of your favorite eBooks. Once you have an account set up, you can browse and checkout eBooks on netLibrary simply by going directly to: www.netlibrary.com

Step One: Set Up an Account

The license agreement by which SABES is able to offer netLibary services restricts access to Massachusetts library users. If you have a library card from just about any Massachusetts public or school library, go to this Web page to create your account: mblc.state.ma.us/books/ebooks/index.php

Your username will have to be unique across all netLibrary sites, so if you get a message saying your chosen username has been taken, add a couple of digits to your name. Be sure to record your netLibrary login name and password in some safe place!

Step Two: Connect to netLibrary

Click on the netLibrary logo or the link just above. Near the upper right corner of the netLibrary screen, fill in your Username and Password, then click on "Log in." Search to your heart's content, looking for books by author, title, subject, keywords, and/or publisher. We currently have access to the full text of about 7000 "free" eBooks. In a search results list, any titles which do not have "View this eBook" under them are not available to us. (The titles would be available if SABES paid a fee for accessing them.)

If you want to browse a book while online, by all means, do so! However, you also may "check out" a book for a fixed amount of time (usually 24 hours). The book will be placed on your very own eBookshelf and, although you can only read the book while logged onto the Web, you may disconnect from the Web, then reconnect and return to the book on your bookshelf (if you're still within your borrowing period, of course).

When done browsing, click on the "Log out" link. When done with a book you've checked out, kindly remember to "check in" the book, so that others may access it. (If you forget, that's okay: the book will be returned automatically at the end of your borrowing period.)

Lastly, remember to visit your friendly SABES Regional Support Center in person! We'd love to see you.