E-books


Important: On-campus use of subscription e-resources with or without NXInetkey

Although the Library's subscription e-resources are still available free of charge on campus, opening the NXInetkey will download these web pages faster. Due to many add-ons such as advertisements and Google Analytics, which come as a given with web pages nowadays and of which the Library has no control, the page will download slower with the NXInetkey closed. Do note that on campus, even with the NXInetkey open, no charges will be raised for the subscription e-resource's base URL, only for the add-ons to the web page.
 
 

Search the Library’s e-books here

Consult the e-reference page​ for online dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Additionally, below is a selection of e-book collections, some of which are available free of charge.  
 
Also available via your mobile -

 
 
A collection of approximately 4 000 electronic books, freely available, mostly on the subject of the management sciences.  

African Writers Series  

Key works from the Heinemann African Writers Series which comprises seminal works from the canon of African literature of the twentieth century, covering such authors as Steve Biko, Ama Ata Aidoo, Nadine Gordimer, and Buchi Emecheta. Novels, short stories, drama, poetry and author biographies are included.

Baen free library   

Baen Books is making available for free a number of its titles in electronic format. Anyone may read these titles online or, alternatively, the books can be downloaded in one of several formats.    

This pre-eminent internet publisher of literature, reference and verse provides unlimited access to books and information on the web, free of charge.

California Digital Library   

Scholarly materials, databases of journal article abstracts and citations, electronic journals, publishing tools, and reference databases.

Cambridge Books Online

A large collection of books in all subject areas, published by Cambridge University Press.  

Credo Reference

A collection of more than 500 multidisciplinary dictionaries and encyclopaedias from 57 publishers.  Enhanced technology tools add value by allowing the user to integrate content from different reference sources and to generate comparative reports across topics and countries.

Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)

A collection of more that 750 e-books that have been published as open access.

Ebrary  

A large collection of academic e-books on a wide variety of subjects including reference works from leading academic publishers.  Ebrary's Info tools is a cross-referencing tool that allows selected text within a book to be linked to external online resources such as dictionaries, maps and search engines.

260+ e-reference works and e-books on a variety of subjects.

Find the book that you want. If the book is no longer copyrighted, or if Google has the publisher's permission, previewsf the book, and in some cases the entire text, will be available. If the book is in the public domain, downloading of a pdf copy is free of charge.   

Human Sciences Research Council Publications   

These are electronic versions of peer-reviewed South African social science research reports and publications emanating from the Human Science Research Council (HSRC).  

IET Books

A collection of approximately 300 electronic books on engineering, published by The Institution of Engineering and Technology between 1979 and 2012. The focus is on electrical and electronic engineering.

Informa Healthcare E-books 

Electronic books on medicine, healthcare and related subject areas.

Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Eurocodes Collection

ICE's Eurocode collection. Eurocodes is a set of pan-European model-building codes, developed by the European Committee for Standardisation. The Eurocodes form a common European set of structural design codes for civil engineering work.
 

Intech Open   

A collection of more than 420 freely accessible electronic books in science and related subjects.  

International Development Resource Centre  

A collection of more than 200 books, freely available, on global and regional issues related to sustainable and equitable development.

Intersentia E-books

A collection of 155 e-books on human rights. 

Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins E-books

A collection of electronic books in medicine, housed on Stellenbosch University's existing OVID platform.

Maak sin van verwysings

The Harvard, APA and Vancouver methods and the footnote system. Published by the Stellenbosch University Language Centre.

The Harvard, APA and Vancouver methods and the footnote system. Published by the Stellenbosch University Language Centre.

Many Books  

Browse through the most popular titles, recommendations, or recent reviews from visitors. More than 29 000 e-books are accessible free of charge. 

Million Books Project   

An early collection of books from the Indian scanning centres of the Universal Library Project, sometimes called the Million Books Project.   

MyiLibrary  

A collection of academic e-books on a variety of subjects.   

A collection of more than 3 000 freely accessible electronic books on a wide range of topics in science, biology, computer science, engineering, health, space science, animal nutrition, etc.

OECD iLibrary

OECD's Online Library for books, papers and statistics and the gateway to OECD's analysis and data.

OpenBook Publishers

A few dozen books on social sciences and humanities published by OpenBook Publishers. Complete digital versions of all their books are made freely available on their website. You can find the link on each book's main page. These versions can be read on any computer or mobile device that is connected to the Internet.

OVID E-books see Lippincott, Williams & Wilkens E-books

Palgrave Business and Management E-books

A collection of about 80 electronic books published by Palgrave.

Palgrave Language & Linguistics E-books

A collection of about 25 electronic books published by Palgrave.

Palgrave Media & Culture E-books

A collection of about 80 electronic books published by Palgrave.

PLAAS

Publications of the Institute of Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, a leading research and teaching centre with an international reputation for high quality applied research and critical scholarship. 

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg offers over 36 000 free e-books to download to your PC, Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Android or other portable device. Choose between ePub, Kindle, HTML and simple text formats.

Referex (Engineering Village platform)

Referex Engineering comprises professionally focused e-books in all the main engineering disciplines, bringing together key sources of engineering reference material. Full-text electronic access is available to 367 mechanical engineering titles published between 2000 and 2006, 36 electronics and electrical titles published in 2007 and 17 civil and environmental engineering titles published in 2007.

Sage E-books

A collection of  more than 150 handbooks and reference works, published by Sage.

SALDRU

Publications of SALDRU, a research-based social responsiveness initiative housed in the School of Economics, University of Cape Town.
More than 3000 electronic books and reference works, published by Elsevier, housed on SU’s existing Science Direct platform.

South African National ETD (e-theses & dissertations) Portal  

All theses and dissertations produced in South Africa are accessible at this site run by the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) in collaboration with the Committee of Higher Education Librarians of South Africa (CHELSA).

Springer E-Books

A collection of e-books on Biomedical and life sciences, published in 2009, as well as a few Springer reference works, housed on Stellenbosch University's existing SpringerLink platform.

Wiley-Blackwell E-books 

Electronic books in the subject areas of science, engineering, medicine and education, housed on Stellenbosch University's Wiley-Blackwell platform.

World Bank E-books

More than 2,500 e-books and research reports published by the World Bank on a wide variety of economic and development topics.