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Electronic Books

Electronic books (eBooks) may be viewed in their entirety on a computer screen. You can access Cardiff University's eBooks over the Internet both on and off campus.

  How can I access eBooks available at Cardiff University?

The library has either purchased or subscribed to hundreds of eBook titles which can be accessed via LibrarySearch or by searching the eBooks provider's databases. 

 

LibrarySearch

All eBooks available at Cardiff University are recorded on and accessible via LibrarySearch. Just search for the title you need in the Library Collections tab. Click on Full Text Online on the left to narrow your search results to eBooks and other online sources. Alternatively, you can limit your search to eBooks only by selecting this collection from the drop down menu next to the search box. 

If the title is available electronically the result will say Online access. To open the book, click on View Online and then Open source in a new window. Alternatively, click on the title of the book.  

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eBook providers available at Cardiff University

Choose the publisher or host provider of the book you want from the links below. Unless specified links can be used both on and off campus. To access some of these resources you will need your Cardiff University Login.

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eBooks freely available on the web

As well the subscription eBook providers above there are a number of websites that provide access to freely available eBooks.

  • Books from the Past / Llyfrau o'r Gorfennol - an on-line collection of books of Welsh national cultural interest in both English and Welsh which have long been out of print.
  • Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) - The DOAB is a service aims to increase the discoverability of Open Access books. Academic publishers are invited to provide the necessary information of their Open Access books to DOAB. The directory is open to all publishers who publish academic, peer reviewed books in Open Access, provided that these publications are in Open Access and meet academic standards.
  • Google Books - millions of eBooks available to view in 'Full View' (full text of book available) and 'Limited Preview' (only a limited number of pages from the book are available to view). Those books with limited preview are still in copyright, and their pages displayed with the permission of publishers and authors.
  • Gutenberg-e - a collaboration between Columbia University Press and the American Historical Association, committed to promoting the electronic publication of scholarly writing in the Humanities.
  • Internet Archive - millions of eBooks available to view in full text. The ‘Texts’ collection of the Internet Archive includes millions of digitized books from various libraries around the world as well as many special collections. As well as eBooks Internet Archive offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitised materials, including websites, music, moving images, and books.
  • National Academies Press - The National Academies Press (NAP) of the United States publishes books in a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and health. The NAP website has thousands of books that you can be downloaded free in PDF format. See the website's frequently asked questions guide to find out how books can be downloaded for free by the chapter or the entire book.
  • OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) is a collaborative initiative to develop and implement an open access publication model for academic books in the Humanities and Social Sciences, which aims to improve the visibility and usability of high quality academic research by aggregating peer reviewed open access publications from across Europe.
  • Project Euclid - Developed by the Cornell University Library Project Euclid is jointly managed by Cornell and the Duke University Press and provides free access to journals, conference proceedings and monographs in the field of theoretical and applied mathematics and statistics.
  • Project Gutenberg – over 100,000 free eBooks available to download and read. Project Gutenberg aims to digitise and archive books by freely providing them in standard electronic formats. The collection is made up of books whose copyrights have expired or whose authors have permitted free redistribution.

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Help

 

Accessing eBooks

eBooks can be accessed from the networked computers on campus. They can also be accessed from home or other off campus locations using your Cardiff University login.

The majority of eBooks will not require a username and password when using a networked computer on campus. However some services require the use of your Cardiff University login both on and off campus.

eBooks: A Guide (PDF) provides information on how to find and use eBooks at Cardiff University.

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Copyright and restrictions

Under UK copyright law it is generally accepted that you may print out one whole chapter or 5% of a whole work, whichever is the greater. eBook providers closely monitor and restrict the amount of printing from their titles.

Unlike printed books, the library does not own most of the electronic books it subscribes to. Instead, a licence agreement is made with each provider, specifying the terms and conditions of use. The terms of the licence generally limit the usage for research and scholarly study, and you are not permitted to distribute the content to someone else by email.

Violations of the licence agreements are taken very seriously by both publishers and the library. Infringements could result in access being terminated, or even legal proceedings being brought against offenders.

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Software

eBooks are accessed via the Internet, and you will need an internet browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox to do this. You may also need Adobe Acrobat Reader, to enable you to view pdf files (the format in which some full-text titles are displayed).

Acrobat Reader software is already installed if you are viewing electronic books from the University network. If you need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader on your home computer, the software can be downloaded free from Adobe.

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What can I do if the book I want isn't available electronically?

Check LibrarySearch to see if the library has a printed copy. If not, you may be able to obtain a copy through the Interlibrary loan (ILL) service.

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