E-books
The University Library buys e-books from several different suppliers. Loan periods and printing regulations may vary from one e-book to another, depending on the supplier. However, all our e-books are available for online reading and many can be downloaded to your own computer, tablet or smartphone for limited periods of time. Here you can read about some of the suppliers’ regulations on for example printing and downloading.
e-book central
Access
For home use, logging in with your Lnu account is required. Most e-books can be used by an unlimited number of users while some only can be read by one or three users at a time.
Downloading
Most titles are available for download, this information is noted at the respective titles. Downloading books requires an e-book central account. You can borrow the book up to 3 days (limited access titles) or 1 year (unlimited access titles). In order to read a downloaded book you need the program Adobe Digital Editions for computers or Aldiko or Bluefire reader for smartphones or tablets.
Printing
When reading online you may print or copy a certain number of pages. You can see the number of pages allowed by the respective titles.
Further information
You may take notes and add bookmarks to your document. You can even save the document on your bookshelf. In order to use these functions you need an e-book central account.
For further instructions go to e-book central's own support center.
EBSCO e-book collection
Link to EBSCO e-book Collection
Access
For home use, logging in with your Lnu account is required. Most e-books can only be read online by one or three persons at a time. If the book is occupied by another patron you can make a reservation and will gain access to the book when it becomes available.
Downloading
A limited number of books are available for download. This information is noted at the respective titles. Downloading books requires an EBSCO account. You can borrow the book up to 3 days. In order to read a downloaded book you need the program Adobe Digital Editions for computers or Aldiko or Bluefire reader for smartphones or tablets.
Printing
Usually you are allowed to download or print a maximum of 60 pages from a given e-book. However, some publishers do not allow that much printing. In order to print the required pages you have to begin by saving them in PDF by choosing "Save pages" in the "Tools" menu.
Further information
By using "Tools" you will have access to citation tools, making notes, the option of saving in your own folder, etc. In order to be able to save in your own folder or save notes you have to create an EBSCO account. To create an account click "Sign in" and then choose "Create a new account".
For further instructions, go to EBSCO’s own support center.
Free e-book collections
E-book reading software
Troubleshooting
Accounts
In order to download an e-book you will need an account with the e-book supplier in addition to your library account. EBSCO and ebrary accounts are free.
Downloaded e-books from EBSCO and ebrary
Downloaded e-books are encrypted with the ADEPT technique (Adobe Digital Experience Protection Technology). In order to read the books you need a program that can decrypt the file; Adobe Digital Editions is the most common, but other programs such as Bluefire Reader are also an option.
The device must be authorized before you can read a downloaded book. Adobe Digital Editions may be authorized for an individual computer but if you want to be able to read the e-book on several different devices or using different software, you have to create an Adobe ID and use that to authorize your device. Creating an Adobe ID (an account) is free.
First a small metadata file with the file extension ascm will be downloaded. This file must be opened in the reader software which will then download the actual e-book as an ePUB or PDF file.
If the reader software does not succeed in downloading the e-book, an error message might appear, such as “Error getting License. License Server Communication Problem: E_ADEPT_XML_Syntax”. This is most likely a temporary communication error, but if the problem remains you can try the following steps:
- Deauthorize. In Adobe Digital Editions this is done by choosing the Library View and then pressing Ctrl+Shift+D
- Uninstall and download the reader software again.
- Re-authorize. In Adobe Digital Editions this is done by choosing the Library View and then choosing Authorization from the Help menu.
- Before trying to download the same book again: remove all ascm files from your computer. Empty cache and cookies from the web browser you are using to download the e-books.