Database of the Month: Gale EBooks

Gale EBooks is an excellent assist for online education, especially for those working remotely. Instructors can embed content on a website or in a Blackboard site. Gale EBooks needs no special downloads or apps, making it a friendly resource for various types of device and student skill levels. There is no limit to the number of people who can view the item at one time, and users can access the book without a checkout. 

The best description for how to use Gale EBooks for learning online is found in the library’s guide for online library resources in teaching.

Strong content

Gale EBooks supports Bentley’s business curriculum by offering valuable books such as “Encyclopedia of Global Brands“, which reveals how more than 200 products originated and were first marketed, and Market Research Reporter: Trends Over Time”, useful for market segment research. Gale EBooks is great for choosing expository writing topics or researching history; Gale EBooks supports transgender research and gender related studies. Users can also find ample material to research film or business ethics topics.   

Get started with Gale EBooks

Say a student is interested in researching race and college athletes. Because Gale EBooks is a large collection of digital reference books, let’s search Race and NCAA and use 2-3 keywords at once to produce a succinct result set. A simple search for the word “race” alone yields 6,000+ titles on subjects ranging from ethnicity, race in video games, race and identity, nonwhite racial status, immigration, workplace diversity, all interesting, but much more than needed.

result set for "race and NCAA" search in Gale EBooks
result set for race and NCAA search

A quick review of the student’s results for the Race and NCAA search showcases the depth and breadth of Gale EBooks. Entries are authoritative, reliable, and on-topic, and they are explained with helpful images and uncomplicated vocabulary.

We discover, among many others, an appealing entry called “Race and Sport, North America” by author James R. Coates Jr., published in Sports Around the World: History, Culture, and Practice (Vol. 3: Latin America and North America. ). 

book entry for "Race and Sport, North America"
inside an entry in Gale EBooks

Logical controls

Looking inside that entry, there are logical controls users will recognize from other e-book platforms. Let’s walk through some of the features more closely to appreciate their convenience:

  1. Listen: Gale EBook platforms provide accessible audio for many entries to advance users who prefer to absorb information by hearing. To activate the listen feature, the cursor must be within the article.
  2. Save to cloud: Google Drive and OneDrive both connect seamlessly.
  3. Email
  4. Download
  5. Print:  This helps answer the question “Can I download/print/email/save an eBook or eBook chapter?” with a “Yes!”
  6. “Further reading”: this feature in Gale EBooks enhances the learning experience and offers options to support debate, check facts, sound the depths of an issue, analyze history, and more.
  7. Cite: Citations are quick and user can select between MLA, APA, Chicago style.
create a citation
copy/paste the citation for your works cited list

Connect to the database

Begin your next search by using the link for Gale EBooks on the library’s Databases A-Z page. Gale EBooks requires current Bentley credentials (email address and password) for off-campus use.


Database of the Month provides a very brief introduction to useful library databases, highlighting key features you should know about. If you would like more information about this resource (or any of the library’s databases), please contact us for research assistance. If you would like a demonstration of these resources for a class, please schedule a research instruction class using the instruction request form.

Celebrating Black History Month

Bentley Library is proud to celebrate Black History Month!  This month, we are highlighting books, audiobooks, and films that honor Black Voices and Black Stories. Whether ebooks or print books, streaming films or DVDs, or digital audiobooks or CDs we have the resources to help inspire and educate you.

Visit our online Black History Month book and film display to browse, borrow, or place a hold on items. Simply click on a cover and you will be brought right to the material. Place a hold on physical items for pick up in the library or enjoy our digital content from the comfort of your home!

Online Display: Best Books of 2020

We’re celebrating the best of 2020 – best books, that is! This year’s display features more than 190 titles that appeared on 17 year-end best books lists.* Visit the Best Books of 2020 display website to browse by category (fiction or nonfiction) and format (print or electronic). From the display website you can view a book’s current availability and/or place holds.

Curious to know about the “best of the best”? There were 20 books that appeared on five or more lists:

  1. A Burning by Megha Majumdar
  2. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
  3. City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
  4. Deacon King Kong by James McBride
  5. Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X  by Les Payne & Tamara Payne
  6. Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town by Barbara Demick
  7. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
  8. Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
  9. Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar
  10. Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V. E. Schwab
  11. Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine
  12. Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
  13. Memorial Drive by Natasha D. Trethewey
  14. Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
  15. Missionaries by Phil Klay
  16. Real Life by Brandon Taylor
  17. The Searcher by Tana French
  18. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
  19. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
  20. Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Borrowing Books & Audiobooks from the Library

Those of you on-campus and enrolled in the University’s COVID screening program are welcome to visit the library to borrow books from the print book and CD audiobook lists. Either stop by to browse, or place a hold request in the catalog and we’ll notify you when the items are ready to be picked up. For a contactless experience you can retrieve your items from the “open holds cart” in the lobby and check them out to yourself using the self-check.

Accessing E-Books & Digital Audiobooks Online

Everyone in the Bentley community is able to access the titles on the e-book and digital audiobook lists from anywhere in the world with a current Bentley email address and password.

We hope you find something good to read from 2020 while we all await brighter days in 2021! Please contact us if you have any questions or need help using the e-book and digital audiobook collections.


*sources consulted: AudioFile, Bloomberg, Booklist, The Christian Science Monitor (fiction, nonfiction), The Economist, Entertainment Weekly, The Financial Times, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, The New York Times, The New Yorker, NPR, Publishers Weekly, strategy+business, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.