Finding e-books
All of the Bodleian Libraries' e-books can be found on SOLO with links to the e-books themselves found in the records.
Why use e-books?
There are a number of benefits to using e-books:
- With remote access, e-books are there when you need them; not just in library opening hours
- Full text searching helps save you time when looking for relevant sections, passages and quotes
- Multiple e-books are easy to carry around when they are stored on your laptop, tablet or e-reader
E-books can be downloaded and accessed offline. Different e-books are hosted on different platforms and have different access deadlines. The table below features the details of our most used e-books platforms.
e-Book Platforms | Download time | Broader Explanation | Download Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ebook central | 1 Day | You can have access to the e-book offline for either 24 hours or up to 14 days. It depends on the title. | PDF, epub |
| EBSCOhost | 1 Day | You can have access to the e-book offline for up to 24 hours. | PDF, epub |
| Dawsonera | 1 Day | You can have access to the e-book offline for up to 24 hours. | PDF, epub |
| Cambridge Books Online | Unlimited | You can have access to the e-book offline for as long as you want. |
Some of our e-books are available through packages directly from the publisher. The download period for those title depends on the individual publisher.
Accessing e-books
To view e-books online, usually no special software is needed. The e-book can usually be viewed in the web browser. To access downloaded e-books you will need to download Adobe Digital Editions for a PC or Mac or Bluefire Reader for most tablets. The details of how to download this software is available on the e-books Libguide.
Electronic Legal Deposit
The Bodleian Libraries have received legal deposit materials for years. We are now receiving a great deal of this material electronically. This material appears in SOLO like our normal library stock but has restrictions on how it is accessed. This means that it can only be accessed on a library PC. More information is available on the Bodleian Legal Deposit page.
