University of Sussex Library provides access to over 100,000 Ebooks.

Ebooks have seen a huge increase in popularity, with the University of Sussex Library now providing access to approximately 100,000 titles for staff and students to explore. In the second of this week’s posts to mark Mobile Technologies Week Julian Robinson (Learning and Teaching Support Librarian at Sussex) makes the case for using Ebooks to support teaching and learning and provides guidance on how to access the Library’s extensive collection.

Ebooks offer some really useful features over print. For example, you can access them instantly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, both on and off-campus. There’s extra functionality too, such as full text searching; great when you’re wanting to quickly read around your subject and identify a few paragraphs or chapters to read in more depth.

Many are interactive and can be altered to best suit your need, e.g. text can be increased in size, and the text and background colours can be changed to your preference. Ebooks can also be read by screen readers and other text-to-speech applications. They can help your pocket too, as it’s impossible for you to return an Ebook late – so no fines!

There are benefits for the Library too as purchasing Ebooks helps the Library to free up space, not to mention doing a little bit for the environment because of the zero costs associated with shipping and packing.

How do I access Ebooks?

You can access our Ebooks via a Library Search (limit your search to ‘Ebooks’ before you search if you want to see only Ebooks).

Library search for Ebooks

When you find a book on Library Search, click on the View Online button to gain access.

• Once logged in, you may have to click on a link to open the full text: e.g. Read Online, View this book or something similar.
• The number of people that can view an Ebook at the same time can vary, depending on the licence the library has purchased. Occasionally you will be advised that the book is in use and that you should try again later.
• When the book opens, there will usually be a contents section on the left of the screen and the full text of the book will be displayed on the right.
  

  Viewing an Ebook

You can read all our Ebooks without downloading them to your device. However, if you want to read the books offline, for most Library Ebooks you will need software such as Adobe Digital Editions or the Bluefire Reader. If you haven’t already installed this, the provider will provide a link to do so.

Is there any support with using Ebooks?

Yes, a great place to start is the Library’s Ebooks guide where you will find lots of useful information and FAQs.  For the latest

Notes

creative commons licensed (BY-SA) flickr photo by clasesdeperiodismo: