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University of Oklahoma faculty, students, and staff have access to a wide range of e-books through the University Libraries' website.
If you find that the library doesn't have a book which you require for your own research you can use interlibrary loan.
If you think a book would be a useful addition to the Library collections, please let us know
1. Can I return a checked out ProQuest or EBSCO e-book early?
ProQuest e-books expire automatically at the end of a loan, and cannot be returned early. Deleting the e-book file from Adobe Digital Editions deletes the e-book file from your device, but does not end the loan.
EBSCO e-books can be returned early. To return an e-book before it is due:
Downloaded E-Books
Downloaded e-books can be checked in before the end of the check out period using Adobe Digital Editions. E-books can only be checked in using the desktop version of Adobe Digital Editions. They cannot be checked in when using Adobe Digital Editions on a mobile device.
Open Adobe Digital Editions on your computer.
On the Library View screen of Adobe Digital Editions, hold your pointer over the e-book you would like to check in and click the arrow in the top left corner.
Click Return Borrowed Item.
Click the Return button to confirm you would like to return the e-book.
The e-book is checked in and removed from your Library View screen and is available to other patrons.
E-Books Viewed Online
E-books that are being viewed online can be “closed” and made available to other users by clicking the Result List, New Search, Back, or Exit links in the eBook Viewer.
2. Are library e-books available to multiple users at a time?
Some vendors sell their e-books with an unlimited user model while others sell their e-books with a single user, limited user, or linear model. To learn which e-book vendors use which model, visit the Download, Printing, and Copying Permissions by E-Book Collection section of this libguide.
3. Can I download an entire e-book?
It depends. Some e-book vendors, such as Springer and Oxford, allow full e-book PDF download, while others limit downloads to chapter PDFs or to a certain number of pages. To learn which e-book vendors allow what type of downloads, visit the Download, Printing, and Copying Permissions by E-Book Collection section of this libguide.
4. How do I know what restrictions are on an e-book in terms of copying and printing?
Each e-book vendor has their own restrictions on how much can be copied or printed from an e-book. To learn how much each e-book vendor allows, visit the Download, Printing, and Copying Permissions by E-Book Collection section of this libguide.
5. Why can I no longer access a title?
Some titles may have been part of a trial or part of a collection to which we no longer have access to. Sometimes e-books are pulled from a vendor's website because they have lost the rights to the title. For others, the user limit may have been reached. If you are having trouble accessing an e-book, you can reach out via email and someone will assist you.
6. What does nonlinear/concurrent mean?
Under the Non-Linear & Concurrent Access models, titles are not restricted to linear distribution (one patron at a time) but rather they can be lent to any number of users concurrently. There are a set number of lending days per title per year, typically up to 325 days. Lending days reset annually. The number of days used for each loan is subtracted from the total number of annual loan days available for the title. For example, if four users each trigger a five day loan for the same title, 20 days are deducted from the title’s 325 loan days. The combined number of loan days cannot exceed the annual loan days in a year.
If you know the title of the book you're looking for, you can use Discover to search for that title through the libraries' homepage or on the Home section of this guide. Some titles may show up as "Multiple Versions Found" if we have print and electronic versions. If you only want to see e-books for a given topic, limit your search to Full Text Online.
Example:
1. Search for the book title, 'Emery and Rimoin's Principles and Practice of Medical Genetics'.
2. If multiple versions are found, look for the version that says "Online Access" and then click on the book title or the "Online Access" hyperlink.
3. Click the full text available link under "View It," and you will be directed to the e-book provider's platform. You may be prompted to enter your username (your4x4) and password to access the e-book platform.
4. E-books come in several file types, but some of the most common are PDF, EPUB, and Amazon Kindle (.azw3, .azw, .kf8) files. In this case, you can download PDFs of the book.
The American Council of Learned Societies Humanities Ebook Collection is a collection of over 5,700 scholarly books, from over 125 publishers. This collection is curated by scholars for scholars; members of ACLS learned societies nominate books for inclusion.
File Types Available:
A growing collection of Cambridge science, social science, and humanities e-books. Most are from the 2000s to present.
File Types Available:
EBSCO’s collection of e-books cover books from a variety of academic disciplines including business and economics, computers, technology and engineering, humanities, life and physical science, and social and behavioral sciences. EBSCO E-BOOK Libguide
File Types Available:
E-books from a variety of academic disciplines including literature, business and economics, history, humanities and social sciences, language, mathematics, religious studies, political science, and fine arts. Representative titles include Contemporary Theatre, Film & Television; American Men & Women of Science; Business Plans Handbook; Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics & Philosophy; Acronyms, Initialisms & Abbreviations; Contemporary Authors; Writers Directory; Cities of the United States.
File Types Available:
Provides centralized access to e-books from Oxford University Press in biology, philosophy, public health, law, religion, political science, social work, economics, finance, psychology, and sociology.
File Types Available:
ProQuest E-Book Central covers books from a variety of academic disciplines including business and economics, computers, technology and engineering, humanities, life and physical science, and social and behavioral sciences. ProQuest E-Book Central Libguide
File Types Available:
Taylor & Francis offer access to humanities, social sciences, behavioral sciences, and STEM content from renowned imprints such as Routledge, Psychology Press, and Focal Press.
File Types Available:
Titles in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
File Types Available:
ACS e-books consist of the ACS Symposium Series and the Advances in Chemistry series.
File types available:
The AMS provides access to Contemporary Mathematics, Proceedings of Symposia in Applied Mathematics, Proceedings of Symposia in Pure Mathematics, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society, and more.
File Types Available:
CHEMnetBASE is a collection of nine cutting edge interactive chemistry databases and major reference works.
File Types Available:
Covers areas of biology, biomedicine, health, earth & planetary, environmental sciences, pharmaceutical and physical sciences, engineering, chemistry, finance, math, and psychology.
File Types Available:
ICE books include multi-author reference works, state-of-the-art reports, technical books, conference proceedings, and contract documents.
File Types Available:
IEEE spans numerous content areas, including bioengineering, power and energy, and communication technologies, among other growing areas of research.
File Types Available:
Provides access to ebooks on electrical engineering, radar equipment, signal processing, electromagnetics, control and power systems, and more.
File Types Available:
Provides reference books, data sets, and information in the fields of chemistry, the life sciences, materials science, and engineering.
File Types Available:
RSC titles in chemistry, biochemistry, chemical biology, materials science, and related fields. Books may be searched by keyword or browsed by title, series, subject, book collection, or copyright year.) Individual chapters may be downloaded as PDF files.
File Types Available:
Springer e-books cover subjects in the sciences and social sciences, most from 2007 to date, with earlier coverage for some series.
Includes access to Synthesis Digital Library of Engineering and Computer Science, an information service for the research, development, and educational community in engineering and computer science. Includes self-contained electronic documents/lectures, which are organized into a hierarchical structure of disciplines and series. Each is authored by a prominent contributor to the field.
File Types Available:
ACLS e-books are:
Cambridge e-books are:
De Gruyter e-books are:
EBSCO E-Books
User Limit: There are four levels of access: unlimited concurrent user access, single user at a time, three users at a time, and non-linear. The access level is marked under public note in the full book catalog record page. The access limit can also be identified under Availability below the book title on the e-book landing page on the EBSCO platform. Below are some examples:
* Concurrent Access Model: Under this model, titles are not restricted to linear distribution (one patron at a time) but rather they can be lent to any number of users concurrently. There are a set number of lending days per title per year, typically up to 325 days. Lending days reset annually. The number of days used for each loan is subtracted from the total number of annual loan days available for the title. For example, if four users each trigger a five day loan for the same title, 20 days are deducted from the title’s 325 loan days. The combined number of loan days cannot exceed the annual loan days in a year.
Copying/Downloading/Printing: Depending on publisher-specified limits, up to 100 pages of an EBSCO e-book can be printed, saved, or emailed as a PDF file (per user) from within the e-book viewer. Publisher permissions (including printing, copying, saving, and emailing pages) will be listed on each e-book page on the EBSCO platform.
Printing/Copying
Downloading
Returning Downloaded/Checked Out E-Books: E-books purchased under a limited user model will be unavailable for viewing or download if in use. A “Sorry, this e-book is in use” message is displayed until the item is free.
E-books Viewed Online
E-books that are being viewed online can be “closed” and made available to other users, by clicking the Result List, New Search, Back, or Exit links in the e-book viewer.
If an E-book is left “open” in a browser window but is no longer being used, then the e-book becomes available to other users after the last user’s EBSCOhost session expires after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Downloaded E-books
Downloaded e-books can be checked in before the end of the check out period using Adobe Digital Editions. E-books can only be checked in using the desktop version of Adobe Digital Editions. They cannot be checked in when using Adobe Digital Editions on a mobile device.
Open Adobe Digital Editions on your computer.
On the Library View screen of Adobe Digital Editions, hold your pointer over the e-book you would like to check in and click the arrow in the top left corner.
Click Return Borrowed Item.
Click the Return button to confirm you would like to return the e-book.
The e-book is checked in and removed from your Library View screen and is available to other patrons
For more help, please view the EBSCO e-book guide.
Gale e-books are:
JSTOR e-books are:
MIT e-books are:
Open Library is free and open to anyone. It provides access to books that are both copyright protected and in the public domain. Some features do require an Open Library account. To create an account click the "sign up" link at the top right hand corner of the home page.
Reading and Checking Out E-Books
Oxford e-books are:
Project Muse e-books are:
ProQuest E-Books
User Limit: There are four levels of access: unlimited concurrent user access, single user at a time, three users at a time, and non-linear. The access level is marked under public note in the full book catalog record page. For items that we have not yet purchased (DDA titles), there is no access level listed on the full book record page. A book's user limit can also be identified under Availability below the book title on the e-book landing page on the ProQuest E-Book Central platform. Below are examples:
* Non-Linear Access Model: Under this model, titles are not restricted to linear distribution (one patron at a time) but rather they can be lent to any number of users concurrently. There are a set number of lending days per title per year, typically up to 325 days. Lending days reset annually. The number of days used for each loan is subtracted from the total number of annual loan days available for the title. For example, if four users each trigger a five day loan for the same title, 20 days are deducted from the title’s 325 loan days. The combined number of loan days cannot exceed the annual loan days in a year.
Copy/Downloading/Printing: User account is required. Limits are shown on each e-book's landing page on the ProQuest platform. These limits reset after 24 hours. Some publishers have set different copy/print/download limits than the defaults listed here and some books do not allow users to copy, print, or download at all. For a user signed in to an ProQuest E-Book Central account, the default limits within ProQuest E-Book Central are:
Copying
Downloading/Printing
Checking Out/Downloading Entire E-Books: The number of days an e-book can be checked out varies and depends on the book and the user limit on the book. Some publishers do not allow full e-book downloads.
Returning E-Books: Downloaded and loaned e-books expire automatically at the end of a loan, and cannot be returned early. Deleting the e-book file from Adobe Digital Editions deletes the e-book file from your device, but does not end the loan.
Downloaded and loaned e-books appear in your E-book Central Bookshelf, in the “Downloads and Loans” folder, for the duration of the loan or download period. The exact date and time the loan expires will be displayed in orange.
A session will timeout automatically if left idle for 15 minutes.
For more help, please view the ProQuest E-Book Central Quick Guide.
Sage e-books are:
Science Direct/Elsevier e-books are:
SPIE e-books are:
Springer e-books are:
Taylor & Francis e-books are:
Wiley e-books are:
OU Libraries purchases some e-books through a Demand Driven Acquisitions (DDA) plan. We purchase DDA e-books from ProQuest and JSTOR. As books that match our DDA approval plan become available in e-book form, records are added to our catalog. When patrons find these books in the catalog, they click on the link and are taken seamlessly to the e-book.
The key benefit of this program is that we are not charged for books until they are actually used, thus enabling us to make more books available than if we had to purchase them all up front whether or not they are used.
ProQuest DDAs: Each title is allowed three short term loans. Short term loans are created by one of the trigger events listed below. We are charged a percentage of the book price for each short term loan and on the fourth STL we automatically purchase the e-book. All ProQuest e-books are single user e-books once fully purchased on the fourth use (ProQuest e-books purchased by other means may have different user limits).
Trigger events for ProQuest DDAs:
JSTOR DDAs: Each title is allowed six free uses. Uses are created by one of the trigger events listed below. On the seventh use we automatically purchase the e-book. All JSTOR e-books are unlimited user once perpetually purchased.
Trigger events for JSTOR DDAs:
Evidence Based Acquisition (EBA) allows the library to make data driven purchase decisions, building collections that are based on user need and preference. EBA allows unlimited access to large multi-disciplinary e-book collections at a low cost per title over a period of time (typically a year) with an upfront access cost. At the end of the program period the library can select and perpetually purchase titles from the collection based on usage data. The upfront access cost paid at the beginning of the program is applied toward the acquired titles.
EBA Programs We Participate In
User Limit: All e-books in our EBA programs are unlimited simultaneous user.
Title List Stability
CAMBRIDGE
DE GRUYTER
JSTOR
OXFORD
ScienceDirect/Elsevier
SPRINGER
Taylor & Francis
WILEY
