This guide primarily highlights sources available through BLS Library and publicly accessible sources.
BLS Library tries to provide multiple-user access to ebooks. For example, BLS patrons have "unlimited" digital user access to the essay collection: American Capitalism: New Histories (2018), to the history: Philip J. Stern, Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations That Built British Colonialism (2024) and to Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History (2023). But sometimes vendors do not offer this purchase option or the option is expensive.
Tip: BLS students who plan to work off campus and do not live in a BLS residence: implement the BLS proxy server instructions for 1 web browser, then close/reopen that browser. BLS librarians recommend implementing the proxy instructions for Firefox browser. This will allow you to access BLS ebooks off campus. (If you successfully implement the BLS proxy instructions, a prompt will appear requesting your BLS username/password.)
Need help implementing the BLS proxy instructions? Contact: library.lab@brooklaw.edu
Tip: Google Books states it now provides "more than 10 million free books." These include public-domain works, works available free at the request of the copyright owner, and U.S. government documents.
Tip: HathiTrust Digital Library states it provides digital material (over 18 million sources) from the collections of 60+ academic and research libraries. All users can read public domain/open access texts and search the complete Hathi Trust Digital Library. Among the "featured collections" is:
Tip: New York state residents can apply online for a New York Public Library (NYPL) card to access ebooks, audiobooks, and many databases. For example, NYPL provides many circulating digital copies of Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History (2014) and 2 digital circulating copies* of Daina Ramey Berry, The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation (2017). NYPL provides remote access to some of its databases, such as Gale database: Indigenous Peoples: North America (contains digitized archival sources). Those who live, work or attend school in New York state can apply online for a Brooklyn Public Library card.
Tip: To place interlibrary loan requests for books, book chapters, articles, reports and other material: Click tab: ILL in SARA catalog > enter your BLS user name (in format: firstname.lastname) & password > click: New Request. Click: Other to request a book chapter/section. Please monitor both your BLS "In" box and "Clutter" folder for messages about your ILL requests.
*NYPL's Libby app shows 2 digital circulating copies + 1 audiobook.
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