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UAL: Unit for Academic Literacy: eBooks (Electronic Books)

eBook basics & assistance

Availability of eBooks: 

The Library has some ebooks in our collection. Those books (1) are ours in perpetuity, (2) may be accessed by anyone with a valid set of login credentials, and (3) are being made available via the library network

Not all ebooks can be purchased by a library - made available via a network. Some ebooks are only for individual purchase, e.g. PDFs. That is why the Ordering section often first has to investigate whether an ebook is available in network format.

Types of access:

There are some ebooks that were purchased with only 1 user license, whilst others are available to a few users at the same time, or for multiple users at the same time. eBooks with 1 user license will mean that, while someone is using the book, it will be unavailable to other users. Generally speaking, if no active reading has been registered for the past 15 minutes, the book will be made available again for other users. It is a good idea to download the book or important parts of it so that it can be available to other users. It may be necessary to download chapters over a number of days.

Various platforms:

Ebook Central is an example of an ebook platform from which the ebooks may be read. There are various (see here), and they will probably all differ slightly, however, reading the screen calmly usually provides one with directions for use. Some other examples are: EBSCO's ebook databases, JSTOR, Internet Archive, Taylor & Francis, etc.

Availability:

If you click on a title to open the record, you will able to "Check Availability" of a particular ebook. If you see "single title" or "perpetual access", it means the ebook has been purchased buy us.

If you encounter a problem with any of the ebooks, please make contact with your information specialist. Virtual appointments may be made here. You can view a tutorial covering the basics on ebooks from the box on the right of this page. ⇒

Free ebooks

See Favourite Web-Links elsewhere in the subject guide for more links to free online resources.

eBook tutorials

E-Books purchased per subject