E-books are electronic versions of print texts. You can read them on various devices, including your laptop or University computers. The Library has purchased access rights to thousands of e-books which you can access and read on- or off-campus.
So when all the print copies of the book you wanted are out on loan... or you've reached your limit on the number of books you can borrow at any one time from the Library... or it's cold and raining and you don't want to leave your room - it's worth checking to see if there's an e-copy.
E-books are available to you 24/7 from any device which is connected to the internet, so can be used anytime and anywhere.
Although all our e-books can be accessed from any device with an internet connection, most e-book platforms have not been optimised for viewing on mobile phones and tablets as they do not automatically re-format the size of the text to fit your device. For the best viewing experience we would therefore recommend accessing our e-books from a PC or laptop computer.
For very popular e-books you may see a message telling you that the e-book is already in use. If this happens don’t panic – the e-book will become available for you to read. Some platforms only allow an e-book to be viewed by one or sometimes three people at a time. Take a quick break and try accessing the e-book again after a few minutes.
Many e-books available to university libraries contain Digital Rights Management (DRM) software. This software, which is used by some e-book suppliers, can limit what you can do with an e-book, i.e. download, print or copy.
While the University Library purchases e-books without Digital Rights Management wherever possible, some of our e-books do have restrictions on how they can be used. You can find more information on how to use our e-books by browsing the tabs in this E-books guide.
If you’d like more help on how to find and use e-books effectively you can contact your librarian:
If you’re experiencing technical difficulties accessing e-books, please get in touch with us using this form: