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UPDATE (5/20/26 @ 7:30am AZ time):
The GCU Library's updated version of LopeCat, the library’s online catalog, is live! For more details on what has changed, visit the What's New Guide .
Find Books: Searching the Library Catalog
Find Books in print or ebooks as well as streaming video and audio.
Find Books
Search the Library's book collection in the LopeCat catalog search box or browse the collections below.
Ebooks - Multidisciplinary
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Full Text
With regular updates, this collection includes 3 million entries from notable subject encyclopedias, handbooks, guides, companions, and readers covering 80 major subject disciplines and more than 6 million research concepts. In addition to full text content, Credo Reference provides access to more than 1,000 videos and animations, as well as 500,000 contextual visual aids, images, photographs, and maps.
Using Credo Reference
- Type a keyword into the search box.
- At the top of your results will be an overview or summary article, and below that, entries from various works.
Mind Maps
- You will find the Mind Map on the right.
- Use the Mind Map feature to brainstorm for ideas and new search terms. Click any term to change the map to center and focus on that term.
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How to cite entries
- Click on the citation option in the menu across the top.
- Select APAfrom the pop-up menu.
- Double-check against the Citing Sources guide as database citations are computer generated and not checked for accuracy.
For a persistent link
- Click on 'Copy Link' at the very top right of the page.
- Copy and paste the provided link into your References page.
- Ebook Central This link opens in a new windowFull Text
The Academic Complete electronic book collection from Ebook Central provides access to more than 130,000 electronic academic books in full-text. To search all electronic book resources, click on “Find Books & More” from the Library’s website.
Book Details Page
When you choose a book, Ebook Central will take you to the Book Details Page where you can find important information about the book.
- Book details such as publisher, date, subject headings and more are found on the right hand side. You can also view the availability of the book in the online library as well as a description of the book before you open it.
Read Online
- The button and the link will open the Online Reader, allowing you to read in full screen.
Download Book
- Download the book for offline access. Once the download period is up, the book will expire and automatically return to the online library.
Online Allowances
- These online allowances are per book and reset after a 24 hour period. As you copy pages, print or download pages in PDF, your online allowances will count down. Once you reach your limit, you will have to wait 24 hours before the allowances reset.
Save and Share Options
- You can also save your book to your Bookshelf, share a link to the book and get a citation for the book. The citation feature will also allow you to export to RefWorks or Endnote/Citavi.
Table of Contents
- Scroll through the relevant chapters in the Table of Contents. The pages for each chapter is listed allowing you the option to download the chapter in PDF whilst keeping track of your online allowances. Clicking Read Online will open the Online Reader to that chapter.
The Online Reader for PDF
- The default view includes an expandable Table of Contents and navigation pane on the left hand side. Close the navigation panel to expand your book to full screen for reading.
- Use the online reader icons to interact with the book.
Citations, Permalinks, and Save to Bookshelf
- Retrieve a page specific link to share a page from the book.
- Create a citation and choose from 5 styles.
- Add to Bookshelf.
Search Within Book
- Type your search term into the search box, making sure to put phrases in quotes.
- Search results are displayed with frequency bars next to each chapter.
- Select the chapter name to see the results per page and contextual snippets of text.
View Online Allowances
- On the book icon in the navigation panel, you can view your online allowances in copying or printing/chapter download.
- If you have printed, downloaded a chapter in PDF or copied any pages of the book, the allowances will automatically count down.
Copy, Print, and Download
- Copy the whole page by selecting the copy icon in the navigation toolbar.
- To copy text within a page, select your text and use the copy icon in the pop-up menu.
- This will count down your "pages to copy" allowances.
- Download a chapter to PDF. Text is searchable and selectable, and a citation is included.
- Pages included in your Chapter Download are counted as part of your overall print allowances.
- You can also view your download allowances, which will download the title into Adobe Digital Editions for offline access.
Annotations, Notes and Bookmarks
- Annotate the book by highlighting, adding notes or bookmarking a page.
- You can highlight sections of the book, add notes or bookmark pages of the book in the Online Reader itself.
- You may view and manage your annotations via the Star icon in the navigation panel.
- Books that are annotated are automatically saved into your Bookshelf.
Online Reader for EPUB
- If an ebook is only available in the EPUB format then clicking on any "Read Online" icon will open the book in the Online Reader for EPUB.
- You can still copy, print, download for offline access. Use the arrows to navigate page by page.
Table of Contents
- Access the Table of Contents via the icon on the top right.
- You may scroll through each chapter and click through to the relevant page.
Search Within
- You may search within the title with a keyword or phrase search.
- You must use quotation marks if you wish to search for a phrase.
- The search function will highlight the relevant pages where your search term is found. You may then click through to the page you want.
Font Size
- If you click on the font size icon on the top right of the screen you get the option to adjust the size of the text:
Online Reader for EPUB Navigation
- Clicking on the icon with the 3 dots will open a menu with multiple general platform navigation options.
- Here you can go back to the book's details page as well as to several other main navigation points of the platform like the search, the bookshelf, your profile, the language selection or the online help.
- Lastly, the menu also provides you the option to sign off.
Downloading Books
Unlike your textbooks, downloaded library books will expire after a loan period.
- Select "Download" from the Book Details Page or the Online Reader itself.
- To download books for offline access, you will need to download the Ebook Central app.
- If using a mobile device, the app is available in app stores.
- A book cannot be checked back into Ebook Central early, but will simply "expire" from your reader when the time is up.
- Once you have installed the app on a device you will receive a code to enter into your app on your device to authorize your account. Once a device is set up books selected to download will download to the app automatically.
Downloading Chapters
- You can download a chapter PDF from the Table of Contents on the Book Details Page.
- The PDFs are searchable, selectable, and include a citation and do not expire.
- Chapter downloads require users to sign-in to their Ebook Central account or continue as Guest.
- Benefits to signing in include increased copy, print and download allowances, access to your personal Ebook Central Bookshelf where you can save books, chapters, and create/save annotations.
- A chapter download is counted the same as print and will be taken into account by the allowances of the book.
- Each book's print/download and copy allowance is displayed on the Book Details page, and can vary depending on the publisher.
- Once you have printed/chapter downloaded a page, the allowance automatically counts down.
- The allowance will reset after 24 hours, giving you the full number of pages to copy/print/download again.
- You can also download a chapter or print pages through the Online Reader's icons.
- The Chapter Download Icon will allow you to download the current chapter. You can choose your citation style.
- The Print icon will allow you to input a page range. It will then download those pages in PDF. In order to print, you must use your PDF Reader's print functionality.
- Read print-to-PDF and chapter download titles on any device that supports .PDF file types – from Kindles and tablets to laptops and mobile devices. Users may transfer files between devices without support limitation.
Using Your Bookshelf
- Your bookshelf in ProQuest Ebook Central keeps track of your downloads, loans and saved books, and lets you share them with others.
Download & Loans
- Easy access to the books you’ve downloaded or have on loan, and a reminder of how many days are remaining.
Recently Viewed
- Up to 10 titles that you’ve recently viewed are displayed here.
Annotated Books
- Easy access to all of the books that you have bookmarked, highlighted, or added notes on. Access your highlights, notes and bookmarks at the book level quickly and efficiently.
Save to Bookshelf
- Organize your books into as many folders as you want. Your bookshelf comes with a Research folder and you can add more folders as you need them.
- Sort by Title, Contributor(s), Year Published, Publisher.
Share Link to Folder
- Share a link to your folder with others at your institution.
Email Folder
- Email folder contents to other Ebook Central users.
Export Folder
- Export folder contents in .csv format.
Cite Folder
- Create a citation from your choice of styles: APA, Chicago/Turabian - Notes-Bibliography, Chicago/Turabian - Author-Date, Harvard, MLA, or Vancouver, or import into RefWorks/Flow or EndNote/Citavi.
Export Notes, Share Link to Book, Copy To, Remove
- Export your notes and bookmarks.
- Share a link to the book.
- Copy a book to another folder; or remove the book from your bookshelf.
- Create a citation from your choice of styles: APA, Chicago/Turabian - Notes-Bibliography, Chicago/Turabian - Author-Date, Harvard, MLA, or Vancouver.
- eBook Collection This link opens in a new windowThis multidisciplinary collection includes thousands of ebooks covering a large selection of academic subjects and features ebooks from leading publishers and university presses.
Reading Ebooks in EBSCO
- Choose the title you want from the search results.
- Click "PDF Full Text" or "EPUB" under "Access options".
- The book will open in your browser.
- Use the tool bar at the top to save, share, or get a citation for the book, as well as open table of contents, search, and accessibility features.
- The table of contents will open on the right side.
Downloading From EBSCO
Unlike your textbooks, downloaded library books will expire after a loan period, and do not support notes or highlighting.
To use notes and highlighting, follow the instructions in the Reading Ebooks in EBSCO section above. The Library recommends keeping a backup of notes in a Word document.
- To download you must have a personal EBSCO account. See the instructions in the next section for setting up an account if you don't have one.
- Sign in to your EBSCO personal account.
- Click the Download button.
- If the book is available you will see download options. Choose full ebook and select how long you will borrow it for.
- Books are available to borrow for up to 24 hours.
- Some titles may say "Sorry, this title is not available for download. Please view the title online." on a popup window after you click the download link.
- These titles must be read online.
- Some titles may say "This title is in use" on a popup window after you click the download link.
- You will need to come back later to download this book, as someone else has borrowed it.
- Some titles may say "Sorry, this title is not available for download. Please view the title online." on a popup window after you click the download link.
- You will need the Thorium Reader to download books.
Creating a personal EBSCO account
- Locate the MyEBSCO link in the purple bar at the top of the EBSCO search screen.
- Click on Create and account.
- Fill out the form.
- You can use any email address that you would like.
- You do not need to use your GCU username and password.
- Click on Create account.
- Sage Reference & Academic Books This link opens in a new windowFull Text
Sage Reference & Academic Books is a multidisciplinary collection of thousands of full-text eBooks, including research monographs, classroom texts, and professional development titles, as well as encyclopedias and handbooks. This broad collection of titles supports students, scholars, and professionals with innovative academic books that examine core and emerging areas of social science research and put scholarship into practice.
Using Sage Books
You can begin a search for any topic in the main search bar, or use the advanced search. You can also browse through either the academic or reference collection by subject. First choose either "Academic Books" or "Sage Reference". Then browse available topics.
Narrow down results using the limiters on the right.
- Content type will already have books and handbooks checked. You can uncheck these to search all of Sage Knowledge, which includes videos, skill tutorials, and reference books as well.
- Expand Publication Date by clicking the plus sign and then move the slider to limit by date.
Ebooks - Subject Specific
- AccessEngineering This link opens in a new windowFull Text
AccessEngineering is an award-winning engineering reference tool that provides seamless access to the world's best-known, most-used collection of authoritative, regularly updated engineering reference information. AccessEngineering also comprises dynamic online features, such as instructional, faculty-made videos, calculators, interactive tables and charts, as well as personalization tools allowing users to organize crucial project information as they work. Resources include Perry's Handbook for Chemical Engineers and Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers, as well as newer resources, such as Mechatronics in Medicine. - Books24x7 BusinessPro Collection This link opens in a new windowFull Text
BusinessPro, a collection of electronic books from Books24x7, provides fully searchable access to thousands of business titles from leading publishers including McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons, HarperCollins, Harvard Business School Press, AMACOM, Oxford University Press as well as respected authors including Peter Drucker, Fred Reichheld, and Patrick Lencioni.
- PsycBOOKS This link opens in a new windowFull Text
A full-text database of books and chapters in the American Psychological Association's array of quality electronic databases. There are 2,059 scholarly books and 31,750 chapters. Exclusive electronic release of the APA/Oxford University Press Encyclopedia of Psychology including more than 1,500 authored entries.
- RKMA Market Research Handbook Series This link opens in a new windowFull Text
Richard K. Miller & Associates (RKMA) publishes 12 biennial business reference handbooks focused on marketing and the consumer marketplace. Each handbook includes market assessments and forecasts, sector trends, profiles of market leaders, and statistics. In addition to in-depth analysis, the handbooks include links to hundreds of websites for additional information.
Reading a Book
- Choose the title you want from the list.
- The book will open in the default PDF viewer used by your browser.
Downloading & Annotating a Book
- To download a book click the Save icon. This may vary according to your browser's default PDF viewer.
- The book downloads as a plain PDF.
- You can use your preferred PDF reader to read and annotate the book. RKMA Ebooks do not require Adobe Digital Editions.
- Sage Research Methods This link opens in a new windowFull Text
Sage Research Methods is the essential online resource for anyone doing research or learning how to do research. With more than 800 books, reference works, journal articles, and videos from Sage's world-renowned research methods list, Sage Research Methods provides information on writing a research question, conducting a literature review, choosing a research method, collecting and analyzing data, and writing up the findings. Sage Research Methods' coverage spans the full range of research methods used in science, technology, medicine, and the humanities. - Sage Research Methods Books & Reference This link opens in a new windowFull Text
Sage Research Methods Books & Reference provides access to hundreds of eBooks, handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and more. Included in this collection are the Little Green Books and the Little Blue Books which provide guidance and teaching on quantitative and qualitative research methods. The full range of titles cover everything from quick definitions to comprehensive exploration of research concepts and methods.
Using Sage Research Methods
You can begin a search for any topic in the main search bar, or use the advanced search.
Narrow down results using the limiters on the right.
- Content type is particularly useful. For Books, uncheck the other options. If you access Sage Research Methods: Books and Reference it will preselect this option for you.
- You will need to click the plus signs to see the check boxes to uncheck content types you don't want.
Browse through methods by browsing the Little Green Books (for quantitative methods) or Little Blue Books (for qualitative methods). Just click the links on the home page.
