Reading and downloading ebooks
There are a number of ways that you can read an ebook depending on the access limits and copyrights that are placed on it.
The main ways that you can interact with an ebook are:
- Full Book Download - Allows you to download the whole book onto your device to read offline.
- Download a Chapter - Some ebooks will allow you to download a chapter of the book as a PDF.
- Read Online - Reading the book via the browser.
All ebooks will be different depending on the database, publisher, and platform that they come in. Here you will find some things to look for when it comes to accessing books as well as some links to guides and help pages from various platforms.
For individual database guides see Digital Resource Platforms for links to the databases respective libguide or user guide.
Full Book Download
There are a few types of restrictions when it comes to full book downloads:
- DRM Free - This will give you a PDF copy of the whole book to be kept in perpetuity. You can also transfer this file between devices freely.
- eBook loan - This will download a restricted copy of the ebook that will expire after a certain number of days.
Here we will go through how to download a book and identify what type of access you have.
Look for the Full Download or Download Book option on the main record page:
If this option is not available or greyed out then this means the option has been disabled.
Click on the Download button and save the file. If you can't find a download option open the book and see if there's a download option in the navigation menu
You may be required to sign up for an account or log in to the platform to download the book.
Your download may come either as a DRM free file or a restricted file depending on if it is a DRM free download or Digital Loan. These usually are not identified until after you have clicked on or downloaded the book.
DRM free ebooks
These books you will have no restriction to how long you can keep it for or will need a special program and account to read it on. A good indication that a book is DRM free is if the file you receive comes in a .pdf file that can be opened in any standard PDF reader (with a few exceptions).
DRM controlled ebooks
These books will require special programs that will control how long you can have the book and are there to make sure it is you using it. The most common type that these books will come in is the Adobe Digital Editions file. They come as an Adobe Content Server Message file type or with an .acsm file extension.
DRM controls can be put on other file types too. These will require the download of add ons to your PDF readers.
It is recommended to read the message and limitations that come up when downloading a book.
For books that come with DRM or digital loans you will be given the option of selecting the number of days that you can keep the book:
Choose from the options. Depending on the book you may have the options of 1, 7, or 21 days. Some books may only be available for one day loans.
Chapter Download
Some books will allow you to print or download a chapter or a number of pages to take offline. Copyright restrictions is usually 10% or one chapter of a book to be photocopied or printed per book.
Depending on the book you may be able to download the chapter from the contents / resource page or you may need to go into the book to select what you would like to download.
For some databases they will provide a download link from the contents page. Look for the download icon or print icon next to the chapters in the contents menu:
If the book has page download limits and the chapter has more pages than is in the printing allowance you may find that the download button is greyed out. See if you can extend the subsections and download the section needed:
If this option is not available you may need to go into the chapter to download a certain page range.
For some titles you may not be able to download a whole chapter. If you find this is the case or if you wish to only download some pages you may need to go into the book to download or print the pages.
Open up the book in Read Online mode and find the navigation menu. This will usually be at the top of the screen.
Look for the Print icon:
Read Online
When accessing an ebook most platforms will have their own ebook reader application that you can use in the browser. To access a book in read online mode just select the "read online" option or click on any of the chapter links available.
If you are able to download chapters it is preferable to do so instead of reading online. Reading online does occupy a copy of the book so if you see that the book has a limited number of copies it is best to download a chapter for yourself. This should free up the copy so that someone else may be able to access it after you have finished downloading what you need.
If the book only allows you to download the whole book through a Digital Loan then we would recommend using the read online function if possible.