Answered By: Timothy Grasso
Last Updated: Aug 24, 2023     Views: 20954

A. Cite books consulted online as you would a print book, with the inclusion of the title's URL or the name of its database. For other types of e-books, name the device used (e.g. Kindle). If no fixed page numbers are available, cite a section title or a chapter or other number in the notes or, if possible, track down a version with fixed page numbers. 
 
Examples below and answer above are selected from the Turabian Citation Quick Guide.
 

NOTES

1. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, trans. Constance Garnett, ed. William Allan Neilson (New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1917), 444, https://archive.org/details/crimepunishment00dostuoft.

2. Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), 88, ProQuest Ebrary.

3. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (New York: Penguin Classics, 2007), chap. 3, Kindle.

SHORTENED NOTES

4. Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, 504–5.

5. Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, 100.

6. Austen, Pride and Prejudice, chap. 14.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRIES (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007. Kindle.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. Translated by Constance Garnett, edited by William Allan Neilson. New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1917. https://archive.org/details/crimepunishment00dostuoft.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. ProQuest Ebrary.

 
If your eBook is in EPUB format, or on a mobile device/ eReader (where the amount of text per page changes with the type size), your eBook will not have fixed page numbers. If you do not have access to a version with fixed page numbers, cite your eBook by chapter number and/or section heading and include the eBook's stable URL (i.e. "permalink" or DOI), database (if there's no stable URL), or device (e.g. Kindle) in your citation as appropriate.

You can cite using page numbers as usual if you access an eBook in PDF format where the page numbers do not change.


B. Instructions for accessing stable PDF eBook (page number citations)

  • Starting at the title's catalog record click the link to view eBook.
  • This eBook is provided through EBSCO and is available in PDF and EPUB format. EPUB displays better on mobile devices but does not include page numbers. The PDF format does.
  • You can access the PDF format from the menu on the left of the EBSCO record page:
 
  • Accessing the eBook this way should be a direct digital reproduction of the print edition, including the page numbers at the top of each page and displayed at the bottom of the eBook viewer:
 
Please note: If the eBook is only available in EPUB format you won't be able to see reliable page numbers. The default solution is to cite by chapter number and/or section heading as outlined above, or to cite the page number from the print edition.
 
As with any citation advice, always follow the specific citation instructions of your professor as your first resource.

C. Additional Resources:

Chicago/Turabian explained. This great writing center resource details how Chicago and Turabian are two versions of the same citation style and distinguishes between Chicago A (footnote-bibliography style) and Chicago B (author-date/ in-text citations). 
 
Links to the official Chicago Manual of Style:
Chapter 14.159: Books requiring a specific application or device (e-books)

Chapter 14.160 Page or location numbers in electronic formats