LibGuides: E-Books: Using E-books

Understanding our E-book Collection

The University of Exeter Library operates an 'e first' purchasing policy. This means that we try to buy all new library content in an electronic format wherever possible. We adopted this policy because Library staff believe that digital content is more readily accessible than print, provides the best value for money, helps the library run more efficiently, and provides an altogether better experience for library users. Let's take a look at how to get the most out of our vast e-book collection:

Main library e-book providers

These provide books across a wide range of publishers, many of whom do not offer their e-books in any other way. They are mostly subject to Digital Rights Management (DRM), which is a way of ensuring copyright printing and copying limits are adhered to. However, they also have more advanced reading functionality such as the ability to highlight and annotate text.

E-books provided directly by publishers

Some publishers also sell their e-books direct to libraries. These e-books are usually DRM-free, i.e. the publisher does not impose any copyright limits and you are able to print/save/copy as much as you like. They can also be downloaded as PDFs and read in a standard PDF reader. However, this also means that they lack the advanced features of our main providers' online readers.

Main library e-book providers		E-books provided directly by publishers
Traditional platforms	New E-textbook platforms	Publisher DRM-free PDFs	Other DRM-free PDFs
Ebook Central	Access Engineering	Bloomsbury Collections	ACLS Humanities E-Book
EBSCOhost	ClinicalKey Student	Cambridge University Press	JSTOR
VLeBooks	Kortext	Taylor & Francis	Project MUSE

You can find a more comprehensive list of our e-book providers on our A-Z Databases List

Main providers' access models

E-books supplied by our main providers are made available under various access models depending on what the publisher allows:

Credits: Some e-books are made available with an annual credit limit. If the number of credits is used up, the library will need to buy another copy. These books are generally available for download.
Concurrent Users: Some e-books are restricted to a particular number of users at one time - usually 1-3. If the maximum number of people are reading the e-book at the same time, you may not be able to access it, and you should try again later. These are not available for download.
Unlimited users: Some books are available under an unlimited user licence, which means that any number of people can view the content simultaneously without restrictions on downloads.
Rent before you buy model: This means that large numbers of e-books are discoverable via our library catalogue but are only purchased when they are actually read. See the next tab for more information.

VLeBooks' rental model

We are using a rental first system for some of our VLeBooks. This means that the first few people that use the e-book do so on a rental basis, at a fraction of the full purchase cost.

1. A quick Preview is possible for all books in this scheme – without triggering a rental or purchase – as shown below:

2. After a quick preview has been made, users will be asked to Request Access. You'll need to make a few click drop down selections to trigger access, for example:

3. Then you'll get an Alert and email confirmation to let you know the item has been rented for you for one week.

Don't worry, you can still access the book after your one week rental is up, it’ll just trigger another rental or purchase. Following several rentals the book will be fully purchased at next use.

4. Once a rental or purchase has been made, you’ll then get full access to the book as shown below.

Downloading E-books

You are able to read nearly all e-books online via a browser, on your desktop or laptop, and on iPad/iPhone and Android mobile devices, but some e-books can also be downloaded for offline use. Although downloading varies from e-book to e-book, generally:

All of e-books are available as chapter downloads in PDFs that you can keep forever
Most of our publisher-provided e-books are available as whole-book downloads that you can keep forever
Some of our main library provider e-books are available as whole-book downloads for a limited period of 24 hours. Where available, providers may ask you to read the e-book online first, to ensure you really need the e-book before you download it.

Adobe Digital Editions

Some books are available to download onto your own PC, laptop or mobile device to read offline. These may be available for a limited period, e.g. 24 hours, so the book is not made unavailable to other users for too long. When the loan expires, you will be unable to open the e-book and will need to download it again if you wish to continue to use it offline.

N.B. If you are using a shared PC, it is best to view the book online rather than download it.

Adobe Digital Editions is required to read downloaded e-books on a PC or laptop. This can be downloaded freely from the Adobe website, and versions are provided for installation on Windows PCs and Apple Macs. When you open Adobe Digital Editions for the first time, you will be prompted to authorise your computer using a free Adobe ID that is unique to you. Step-by-step instructions on how to authorise your devices are available on the Adobe website.

Mobile and Tablet Devices

All Library e-books can be read on smartphones and tablet devices within a standard web browser. If you wish to download an e-book onto a mobile or tablet or read them on an interface optimised for your device, we recommend that you use the Adobe Digital Editions app. This app is free to download:

Apple Devices

All our e-books can be read on all Apple devices. However, in order to read any e-book from the VLeBooks platform online, users of Apple devices or the Safari browser must ensure that their browser pop-up blocker is turned off. This is turned on by default.

If you use Safari on an iPhone or iPad, you can disable pop-ups in order to use VLeBooks in the following way:

Open the Settings app
Scroll down to Safari in the left-hand column and tap it
Scroll down the main pane under the General heading until you find Block Pop-ups
Toggle off Block Pop-ups

Kindles and Other E-Readers

Most of our Library e-books are not compatible with Kindles or any other e-readers. This is because the e-book file formats that libraries are usually able to purchase do not work on these devices and it is not possible for users to convert them to formats that are compatible.

Where you are permitted to download chapter from an e-book or where an e-book is available without DRM, you may be able to download and transfer this across to your Kindle or e-reader. However, where chapter downloads are not permitted or downloads are only available as secured files, these cannot be transferred to any Kindle or e-reader.

Printing and copying

Image of printer

E-books are subject to copyright law, so publishers determine how much of a book can be downloaded, printed or copied. This can vary depending on the e-book supplier, but just as it would be illegal to photocopy a whole print book, so you cannot print off a whole e-book.

Commonly, printing and copying restrictions are set to a maximum of 10% or one chapter, whichever is greater. When reading online, you will be told how many pages you are allowed to print and you will be asked to enter a desired page range when you do attempt to print.

Read aloud

More and more students are looking for read aloud and narration functionality from our e-books. Of our main e-book providers, only Kortext and VLeBooks currently offer this (built into their app and online reader respectively). We will work with all our e-book providers to make read aloud functionality more widely available.

If you download a PDF chapter or e-book, you'll be able to use Adobe Reader's Read Out Loud tool. When an e-book isn't available to download, you can also use your computer's Narrator App to read the e-book text aloud to you, as well as some online e-books and webpages. Find out more on our Enhancing E-books page.

Highlighting and annotating

Of our main e-book providers, Kortext, VLeBooks and Ebook Central all allow you to highlight the full text, create notes and annotations, and even bookmark your favourite pages in their online readers; only EBSCOhost lacks this functionality. Taylor & Francis are currently the only publisher that allows you to highlight, annotate, or bookmark the full text of their e-books online.

Be aware that this only applies to the online reader. Usually your highlights and notes won't sync between online and downloaded versions (Kortext being the only exception) and, depending on your software or app, you may not be able to highlight or annotate a downloaded e-book at all. If you use these features regularly, it may be better to use avoid downloading e-books wherever possible.

Our e-book providers in depth

Below we'll take a look at some of our biggest e-book providers and explain in detail what features are available on each platform:

Ebook Central

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	No	Access to the majority of titles is provided on a credit model. Some titles may only be accessed by for one user, three users, or unlimited users depending on the specific e-book
Read Online?	Yes	PDF displayed within the online reader. Does not sync between online and offline
Full Text Download?	No	Whole Book – Unavailable in most cases. 24-hour downloads as secure PDFs or EPUBs Chapters – Limited chapter downloads as unsecured PDFs
App Required?	Yes	Adobe Digital Editions or similar required to read downloaded PDFs or EPUBs
Highlighting? Note Making?	Yes	Online – Available within the online reader, and saved between study sessions Offline – Available within Adobe Digital Editions. Does not sync between online and offline
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	No	Only the current page can be copied at a time, and the number of pages available to be copied is limited to 10% of the text
Unlimited Printing?	No	Online and within Adobe Digital Editions, users are permitted to print 10% of the text or one chapter at their discretion. EPUBs cannot be printed within Adobe Digital Editions
Anything Else?		Has citation functionality built into the online reader

EBSCOhost

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	No	Access to the majority of titles is provided on a credit model. Some titles may only be accessed by for one user, three users, or unlimited users depending on the specific e-book
Read Online?	Yes	EPUB file displayed within the online reader. Does not sync between online and offline. The full-text search is somewhat traditional, meaning phrase searches require "quotation marks"
Full Text Download?	No	Whole Book – Available in most cases. 24-hour downloads as secure PDFs or EPUBs Chapters – Limited chapter downloads as unsecured PDFs
App Required?	Yes	Adobe Digital Editions or similar required to read downloaded whole-book PDFs or EPUBs An EBSCO Mobile App is available but is not required to view or download EBSCO content
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Available within Adobe Digital Editions. Users can create notes online that are attached to the whole book or page being viewed, but cannot do so by selecting or highlighting full text
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text. Multiple pages may also be copied by saving or emailing them as a PDF attachment, usually limited to 10% of the total pages
Unlimited Printing?	No	Online and within Adobe Digital Editions, users are permitted to print 10% of the text (individual pages or a range) or one chapter at their discretion. EPUBs cannot be printed
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt dictionary functionality. Page ranges may be emailed or saved to Google Drive as PDFs. Users must create a personal EBSCO account to download the whole e-book

Kortext

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes	Unlimited access, although most titles must be reactivated each academic year. If a title has been requested for a module on which you are registered, you retain access in perpetuity
Read Online?	Yes	Your progress through the e-book is saved between study sessions and synced between devices
Full Text Download?	Yes	Downloads of the whole e-book available as either secured PDFs or EPUB files via the Kortext App (see below)
App Required?	Yes	E-books can only be downloaded and read within the Kortext App. If downloaded to multiple devices, your progress and any notes or highlights made will sync between devices
Highlighting? Note Making?	Yes	Available online and offline. Saved between study sessions and synced between devices. Kortext App is optimised for freehand notes and highlights using an iPad and Apple Pencil
Read Aloud? Narration?	Yes	Text can be converted to speech using the inbuilt Read Aloud function (only available via the Kortext App). The narration speed and voice can both be adjusted by users
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	No	Within the online reader, users are permitted to print up to 10% of the total pages in five- to ten-page ranges at any one time. Unavailable within the Kortext App
Anything Else?		Has a built-in Read Aloud function both online and within the Kortext App, as well as other unique functionality. See our Kortext LibGuide page for further details and instructions

VLeBooks

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	No	Access to the majority of titles is provided on a credit model. Some titles may only be accessed by for one user, three users, or unlimited users depending on the specific e-book
Read Online?	Yes	PDF displayed within the online reader. Does not sync between online and offline. Note that Apple device users must disable their browser pop-up blocker to read e-books online
Full Text Download?	No	Whole Book – Unavailable in most cases. Some 24-hour downloads only as secured PDFs Chapters – Limited chapter and page range downloads by printing pages to a PDF
App Required?	Yes	Adobe Digital Editions or similar required to read downloaded PDFs
Highlighting? Note Making?	Yes	Online – Available within the online reader, and saved between study sessions Offline – Available within Adobe Digital Editions. Does not sync between online and offline
Read Aloud? Narration?	Yes	Text can be converted to speech using the online reader's inbuilt text-to-speech tool. The narration speed (but not the voice) can be adjusted by users
Unlimited Copying?	No	Multiple pages may be copied by selecting the desired text, but the number of pages available to be copied is limited to 10% of the text
Unlimited Printing?	No	Online and within Adobe Digital Editions, users are permitted to print 10% of the text as individual pages or a page range at their discretion. EPUBs cannot be printed
Anything Else?		Has Read Aloud and dictionary functionality built into the online reader. A citation for the whole book may be downloaded in RIS format alone from the e-book title's landing page

ACLS Humanities E-Books

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	PDF displayed within the online reader. Does not sync between online and offline
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs. Whole-book downloads unavailable
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded chapters
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Chapters may be shared via social media from within the online reader

Bloomsbury Collections

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Usually available as a web page. In these cases, there is no online reader or special user interface. Occasionally some titles are available online as an embedded PDF instead
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs. Whole-book downloads unavailable
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded e-books
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded whole-book and chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation functionality online. Whole books and chapters may be shared via social media or saved online, but users must first create a personal My Collections profile to save

Brill Online

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Available online as an embedded PDF. Otherwise, no online reader or special user interface
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited whole-book and chapter downloads as PDFs
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded e-books
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded whole-book and chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation functionality online. Whole books and chapters may be shared via social media or saved online, but users must first create a personal Brill account to save content

Cambridge Core

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Available only as a web page. No online reader or special user interface
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited whole-book and chapter downloads as PDFs
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded e-books
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded whole-book and chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation functionality online. Whole books and chapters may be shared via social media or saved online, but users must create a personal Cambridge Core account to save

ClinicalKey Student

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes	Unlimited access, although most titles must be reactivated each academic year. If a title has been requested for a module on which you are registered, you retain access in perpetuity
Read Online?	Yes	All titles initially available as a simple web page. However all titles may also be viewed in the VitalSource online reader by clicking Add to bookshelf and then Launch bookshelf
Full Text Download?	Yes	Downloads of the whole e-book available as either secured PDFs or EPUB files via the ClinicalKey Student App (see below)
App Required?	Yes	E-books can only be downloaded and read within the ClinicalKey App. If downloaded to multiple devices, your progress and any notes or highlights made will sync between devices
Highlighting? Note Making?	Yes	Available online and offline. Saved between study sessions and synced between devices
Read Aloud? Narration?	Yes	Text can be converted to speech using the inbuilt Read Aloud function, available within the online reader and the app. The narration speed and voice can both be adjusted by users
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	No	Within the online reader, users are permitted to print up to 10% of the total pages in five- to ten-page ranges at any one time. Unavailable within the ClinicalKey App
Anything Else?		Has a built-in Read Aloud function. Users can create flashcard decks from the full text. VitalSource is similar to Kortext, so see our Kortext LibGuide page for further details

De Gruyter

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Available online as an embedded PDF. Otherwise, no online reader or special user interface
Full Text Download?	Yes	Whole Book – Unlimited whole-book downloads as PDFs or EPUB files Chapters – Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs
App Required?	No	Any PDF or EPUB reader app can be used to read downloaded e-books
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF or EPUB reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded whole-book and chapter PDFs or EPUB files
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation functionality online

Elgar Online

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Available online as an embedded PDF. Otherwise, no online reader or special user interface
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs. Whole-book downloads unavailable
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded chapters
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing of downloaded chapter PDFs. Unavailable online
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation functionality online. Whole books and chapters may be shared via social media or saved online, but users must first create a personal Elgar account to save content

Emerald Insight

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Available only as a web page. No online reader or special user interface
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as as PDFs and EPUBs. Whole books may only be downloaded as a compressed ZIP file of individual chapter PDFs
App Required?	No	Any PDF or EPUB reader app can be used to read downloaded e-books or chapters
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF or EPUB reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Chapter citations may be downloaded in RIS format

Gale eBooks

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Available either as a webpage or within an online PDF viewer. Select Book View to display within the PDF viewer. Select Text View to toggle back to the original webpage view
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs. Whole-book downloads unavailable
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded chapters
Highlighting? Note Making?	Yes	Online – Available within the online reader, but not saved between study sessions Offline – Depends on your PDF reader or app. Does not sync between online and offline
Read Aloud? Narration?	Yes	The online reader has inbuilt text-to-speech. Narration speed can be set to slow, medium or fast. The narrator voice cannot be changed from the default
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation and definition functionality online. Chapters may be shared via social media, emailed, or saved online, but users must first create a personal account to save. Features read aloud and translation functionality online within Text View mode

JSTOR

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Available online as an embedded PDF. Otherwise, no online reader or special user interface
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs. Whole-book downloads unavailable
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded chapters
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing of downloaded chapter PDFs. Unavailable online
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation functionality online. Chapters may be shared via social media or saved online, but users must first create a personal JSTOR account to save content

Knovel

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	PDF displayed within the online reader. Does not sync between online and offline
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs. Whole-book downloads unavailable
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded chapters
Highlighting? Note Making?	Yes	Online – Available within the online reader, and saved between study sessions Offline – Depends on your PDF reader or app. Does not sync between online and offline
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation functionality online. Chapters may be shared via social media or saved online. Users must create a personal Knovel account to save content, add notes or highlight

Liverpool University Press

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Available mainly as a web page. No online reader or special user interface. Some titles are available within a special online reader as a whole book rather than individual chapters
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs. Whole-book downloads generally unavailable. Where a title is available in the online reader it can be downloaded as a whole book PDF
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded chapters
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation functionality online. Whole books and chapters may be shared via social media or saved online, but users must first create a personal account to save content

OVID

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Usually available as a web page. In these cases, there is no online reader or special user interface. Occasionally some titles are available in a newer version of the online reader
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs within the newer version of the online reader
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded e-books
Highlighting? Note Making?	Yes	Online – Available within the online reader, and saved between study sessions Offline – Depends on your PDF reader or app. Does not sync between online and offline
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded whole-book and chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation functionality within newer reader only. Whole books and chapters may be shared or saved. Users must first create a personal account to use advanced features

Oxford Academic

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Available only as a web page. No online reader or special user interface
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs. Whole-book downloads unavailable
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded chapters
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation functionality online. Whole books and chapters may be shared via social media or saved online, but users must first create a personal account to save content

Project MUSE

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	No	Most titles cannot be read online and must be downloaded as PDFs. Rarely, some titles can be read online as a web page and there is no online reader or special user interface
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs. Whole-book downloads usually unavailable. In rare cases, whole-book downloads available as unlimited access PDFs and EPUB files
App Required?	No	Any PDF or EPUB reader app can be used to read downloaded e-books
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF or EPUB reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	No	Usually unavailable online. When a title can be read online, unlimited copying is available simply by selecting the desired text. Unlimited copying from downloaded chapter PDFs.
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing of downloaded whole-book and chapter PDFs or EPUB files. When a title can be read online, unlimited printing is available simply by selecting the desired text
Anything Else?		Whole books and chapters may be saved to your personal MyMUSE library. No account needs to be created to do so. Content in your library is saved between study sessions

ProQuest One Literature

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Usually available as a web page. In these cases, there is no online reader or special user interface. Occasionally some titles are available online via the Ebook Central reader
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited whole-book and chapter downloads as PDFs
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded e-books
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded whole-book and chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation functionality online. Whole books and chapters may be shared via social media, emailed, or saved online, but users must first create a personal account to save

SAGE Knowledge

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Available only as a web page. No online reader or special user interface
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs. Whole-book downloads unavailable
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded chapters
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation functionality online. Chapters may also be shared via social media. Users can save chapters to lists but must create a personal SAGE account to do so

ScienceDirect

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Available only as a web page. No online reader or special user interface
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs. Whole books may only be downloaded as a compressed ZIP file of individual chapter PDFs
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded chapters
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded whole-book and chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Inbuilt citation functionality. Citations may be exported in RIS, BIB, and TXT format or saved to Mendeley or Refworks. Whole books and chapters may be shared via social media.

SpringerLink

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Available only as a web page. No online reader or special user interface
Full Text Download?	Yes	Whole Book – Unlimited whole-book downloads as PDFs or EPUB files Chapters – Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs
App Required?	No	Any PDF or EPUB reader app can be used to read downloaded e-books
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF or EPUB reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded whole-book and chapter PDFs or EPUB files
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt chapter citation functionality online. Reference files may be exported in RIS, ENW, and BIB formats, compatible with all major reference management tools

Taylor & Francis (Routledge)

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Usually available through an online reader provided via Kortext. See the Kortext tab for more information. Occasionally some titles may only be read online as an embedded PDF
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited whole-book and chapter downloads as PDFs
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded e-books
Highlighting? Note Making?	Yes	Online – Available within the Kortext-provided online reader, and saved between sessions Offline – Depends on your PDF reader. Does not sync between online and offline
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing of downloaded whole-book and chapter PDFs. Within the Kortext reader, users are only permitted to print 10% of the text in ten-page ranges at any one time
Anything Else?		Whole books and chapters may be shared via social media. A Harvard-style citation of the whole book may be copied from the title landing page. No reference files available to export

University Press Scholarship (on Oxford Academic)

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	Yes	Available only as a web page. No online reader or special user interface
Full Text Download?	Yes	Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs. Whole-book downloads unavailable
App Required?	No	Any PDF reader app can be used to read downloaded chapters
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	Yes	Unlimited copying simply by selecting the desired text
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing from chapters simply by selecting the desired text online. Unlimited printing of downloaded chapter PDFs
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt citation functionality online. Whole books and chapters may be shared via social media or saved online, but users must first create a personal account to save content

Wiley Online Library

E-book Feature	Yes/No	Description
Unlimited Access?	Yes
Read Online?	No	No content can be read online and instead must be downloaded as PDFs or EPUB files
Full Text Download?	Yes	Whole Book – Unlimited whole-book downloads as PDFs or EPUBs Chapters – Unlimited chapter downloads as PDFs
App Required?	No	Any PDF or EPUB reader app can be used to read downloaded e-books
Highlighting? Note Making?	No	Depends on your PDF or EPUB reader or app. Unavailable online
Read Aloud? Narration?	No	This functionality is not built into the online reader. Downloaded unsecured PDFs may be read aloud using Adobe Acrobat Reader's inbuilt Read Out Loud tool
Unlimited Copying?	No	Depends on your PDF reader or app. Unavailable online
Unlimited Printing?	Yes	Unlimited printing of downloaded whole-book and chapter PDFs or EPUB files. Unavailable online
Anything Else?		Has inbuilt chapter citation functionality online. Chapters may be shared via social media or saved online. Users must create a personal Wiley account to save content online