MIT Libraries will continue to support remote MIT courses and research. MIT Libraries search tools remain available for ongoing access to e-resources, including 200,000 ejournals and 700,000 ebooks. See tips on how to connect from on and off campus.
In addition, many publishers are making e-resources available for free and are expanding existing subscriptions, which we're listing in this guide. We will continue to update this list as the situation develops.
Please contact our subject experts/librarians about resources needed to support remote learning and work at MIT.
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What's included: Cengage is offering access to students and faculty to the Cengage Unlimited collection, which includes electronic textbooks.
How to access it: See Cengage's instructions for student access to course materials during Covid-19. You have to create a Cengage user account to receive a 14-day free trial of content. At the end of each 14-day trial period, you will be prompted to start another free trial period until MIT is no longer affected by COVID-19.
What's included: Elsevier has expanded subscription access to ~250 etextbooks via the ScienceDirect platform. You can download a list of included textbooks from their book title lists page.
How to access it: No additional action is necessary for MIT users. Users accessing ScienceDirect from MIT should have access to these titles — see information on connecting to MIT resources while off campus.
What's included: RedShelf is an etextbook lending platform that many textbook publishers are using to provide free access to etextbooks during campus closures. Participating publishers include Routledge, Sage, Springer, McGraw-Hill and Macmillan. See full list of Redshelf's participating publishers.
How to access it: Create a RedShelf account using your MIT email address and then search for textbooks. Users are limited to accessing seven ebooks. Access runs through May 25, 2020.
What's included: VitalSource is a etextbook lending platform that many textbook publishers are using to provide free access to etextbooks during campus closures. Participating publishers include Pearson, Cambridge University Press, Wiley, Elsevier, McGraw-Hill, and Macmillan. See full list of VitalSource participating publishers.
How to access it: Create a VitalSource Bookshelf account using your MIT email address, then search for textbooks. Books are borrowed as free textbook rentals through May 25, 2020. See student and instructor FAQs for questions.
Some publishers listed in other categories below may also include textbooks in their free offerings. If you’re looking for a particular textbook, check multiple sources.
What's included: Books and journal articles related to the spread of communicable disease. See list of included content.
How to access it: No additional action needed. Books and journal articles are freely available to all. Books are available through June 1, 2020; journal articles available through October 1, 2020.
What's included: access to 2,700 scholarly books. A title list can be found at e-Duke Books.
How to access it: MIT users can access e-Duke Books using the MIT VPN through June 2020.
What's included: All e-books published by Harvard Business Review Press
How to access it: MIT users can access HBR’s e-book collection using the MIT VPN through May 2020.
What's included: All 1.4 million books in the Internet Archive’s lending library. Library available for search in their National Emergency Library.
How to access it: You have to create an Internet Archive account to borrow digital books.
What's included: 35,000 e-books from scholarly publishers including Princeton University Press,Yale University Press, University of Minnesota Press, Columbia University Press, NYU Press, and 40 other scholarly publishers.
How to access: MIT users can access JSTOR e-books using the MIT VPN through June 2020.
What's included: Ohio State University Press has opened all scholarly monographs and its Language Files linguistics textbook. List of included content is downloadable from the OSU Press Knowledge Bank.
How to access it: No additional action needed. Content is freely available to all.
What's included: Project Muse is a platform which many publishers are using in order to make e-book content available during campus closures. See list of participating publishers.
How to access it: No additional action needed. MIT users can access subscribed and free content at ProjectMuse. For the free content, individual publishers designate the specific content available and the duration of access.
What's included: 180K multidisciplinary e-book titles
How to access it: MIT users can access Proquest Academic Complete using the MIT VPN through June 2020.
What's included: 5,000 health sciences e-books
How to access it: No action needed. MIT users can access R2 Digital Library using the MIT VPN through May 2020.
What's included: All books in the UMP eBooks Collection
How to access it: No additional action needed. Content is freely available to all for read-only access through April 30, 2020.