Both books and journals are the main sources of academic information. You will need to use both of these types of publication in your studies. Many books and journals are available online and/or in printed format. The information below explains how to find and access online items (books and journals) available from the Library.
We have purchased thousands of e-books which you can read on or off-campus.
So, if you're away from campus... or all the print copies of the book you want are out on loan... or you've reached your limit on the number of books you can borrow at any one time - 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.
There will be direct links to e-books in your online reading lists, or you may find them yourself by searching the Library catalogue, Enterprise.
Much more information about how to find and access our e-books is available from the guide below:
Your reading lists are available online via the Blackboard course for your module. Your lists will:
Watch this short video to find out more about using your online reading list.
Search the Enterprise catalogue for the book or topic you need and once you are viewing your results, limit them using the Online and Book filters on the left-hand side.
Your results should now only include e-books. To read the e-book, follow the 'Click here for online access' link and enter your university username and password.
Search Enterprise now using the box below:
If you are unable to view these videos on YouTube they are also available on YuJa via the links below (University login required):
Most of our e-books can also be found in Summon, the Library’s discovery service. Using Summon will give you more results, as it is often able to search for your words at chapter-level.
To only see e-books in your results list, select the Publication Type E-book from the limits on the left-hand side.
You will need to refine your search even further to get results which are most relevant to you and the topic you are searching for. Look at the Library’s guide on Summon for search tips, including how to limit your results.
Search Summon using the box below (it is already set up to limit to books):
If you are on campus you will be able to access most e-journals and e-books, and some databases, without entering a username and password because your IP address identifies you as being at the University of Reading.
For any that require a login, see the Off-campus tab.
When you use our e-resources you are agreeing to our Terms of Use. Please take a moment to look at these by following the link below:
When you are off-campus you will need to login to identify yourself as a member of the University of Reading to gain access to our protected databases, e-books and e-journals.
Your login details
You login in the same way as for Blackboard - via Microsoft. Just enter your University username followed by @student.reading.ac.uk (e.g. ab123456@student.reading.ac.uk) and your password. If this is the first time you have logged in via this method when off-campus you will be asked to complete a Multi-Factor Authentication. For more information see:
Getting to the login page...
Watch this short video on how you login to use Library resources.
Use the Summon discovery service to find journal articles on a topic. Just pop in your search words and you'll find a list of relevant articles which you can access straight away, both on- and off-campus.
View our brief video for an intro to making the most of Summon:
If you want to explore resources beyond Summon, or do more sophisticated searching on specialist resources for your subject, then take a look at relevant databases using the link below:
