eBooks
eBooks (electronic books) are electronic versions of the printed books that you might find on the shelf in the Library and present a number of benefits and advantages:
- they can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on or off-campus
- they free up valuable library space
- they provide additional functionality such as hyperlinking, keyword searching, annotation, and may be interactive
Our eBooks are supplied by a variety of providers and major publishers. The Library is actively building its collection of eBooks and as with printed books we are happy to receive recommendations for purchase, though please be aware that not all printed books are available in an electronic format.
Finding eBooks
A growing number of eBooks purchased by the Library may be searched for and accessed using the Library Catalogue. New eBook titles are added to the Catalogue on a regular basis. Search for eBooks in the same way as you would for a printed book, using title and author information.
Please note: you can restrict your Catalogue search to eBooks by changing the 'Material type' category to 'eBooks'.
Having found a record for an eBook in the Catalogue you will notice a 'View electronic version' hyperlink toward the right-hand side of the screen (eBooks have no location or classmark and have separate catalogue records from printed items). The hyperlink will take you directly to the eBook and if you are asked to login, use your University username & password.
The Library is actively adding records to the Catalogue for its subscription based collections of eBooks, the latest of which comprise our Cambridge Companions Online collection. Further eBook records that we hope to add to the Catalogue in future will include our Handbooks in Economics, and Oxford Scholarship Online collections. MetaLib: your resource gateway currently provides access to these collections, as well as all other academic eBook collections that the Library subscribes to, and several others that are freely available.
The link above takes you to a list of eBook resources with brief details. Click on the info icon to display the full details. Alternatively, eBook resources in MetaLib (cross-search) lists the same resources, but with a cross-search option.
Using eBooks
Some eBooks are full text versions of textbooks, and others are more like reference books such as dictionaries. The Library collection contains both types.
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Reading online
To be able to read eBooks online, including all illustrations and special characters, you may need special software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Note: many eBooks are encoded in Portable Document Format, or PDF. In order to view a PDF you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader 
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Downloading
Publishers and copyright owners will determine how much of any particular eBook can be downloaded and this will vary from one to another. Some eBooks will only display page by page, therefore you will not be able to download and save several pages in one go, again this practice varies depending on the supplier of the eBook.
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Printing and copying, and copyright
Normally you will be able to print or copy pages from eBooks in our collection though please be aware that eBooks are protected by copyright law, in the same way as printed publications. Their use is also usually subject to the terms of a licence agreed between the Library and the publisher. Please visit the Copyright and electronic resources page for further information.
The number of pages you will be able to print or copy may be limited by the publisher using DRM (Digital Rights Management) and once these limits are reached, the publisher will not allow you to print or copy any further text. Printing or copying from certain eBooks in our collection, in particular those found on the dawsonera web site, is permitted on the online reader only, though bear in mind that you may only be able to print one page at a time. Before copying or printing please refer to the information given on the suppliers' website. Publishers may withdraw access to an eBook if evidence of copyright abuse is detected.
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eBooks, eBook readers, and mobile devices
eBooks can be accessed and used on desktop computers and also on a wide variety of mobile devices, e.g., laptops, mobile phones, tablet PCs and dedicated e-book readers such as the Amazon Kindle. The ability to use eBooks on mobile devices, and to what extent, will depend largely on the device and its compatability with particular digital file formats and third party software applications (apps).
Off-campus access
If you want to access eBooks away from the campus please visit the access to electronic library resources page for advice and further information.
Known problems, help and contacts
If you have encountered any difficulty with a particular eBook, to read about general access problems, or for advice and support with electronic resources please see our help and contacts for eResources page.