Monday, March 7, 2016

Checking Out ebooks in EBSCO and ebrary

Head of Acquisitions and Collection Development

If you’ve come across ebooks in our ebrary or EBSCO Academic Choice databases, you may have noticed that, in many cases, you may download individual titles to your laptop, tablet or mobile device. Downloading an ebook is analogous to checking out a print book. You may read it on your device for a set number of days. When the loan period expires, the book is no longer accessible. The loan period commonly runs one to two weeks.


Software
Downloadable ebooks may be viewed on two readers: Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) and the Bluefire Reader app. Adobe Digital Editions is not the standard Adobe reader that you use to read pdf files. This is software designed to handle the digital rights management (DRM) that many publishers use to control access to their content. You may download ADE at http://www.adobe.com/solutions/ebook/digital-editions/download.html.


Bluefire Reader, which you need in order to download books to an iPhone, is available from the App Store. You may authorize it with the same information used for your ADE reader. The table below lists the required software by device.

Database
Device
Software
ebrary



Windows
ADE

Mac
ADE

iPad
ADE

iPhone
Bluefire Reader

Android
ADE
EBSCO



Windows
ADE

Mac
ADE

iPad
ADE

iPhone
Bluefire Reader

Android
ADE


What happens when you download an ebook?
Ebook downloads are managed with acsm files. ACSM stands for Adobe Content Server Manager, and as its name hints, an acsm file doesn’t contain ebook content; it manages your access--e.g., length of loan and access on multiple devices--to the ebook. When you download a book from ebrary or EBSCO, you actually download the acsm file, and open it with ADE or Bluefire Reader. When you do this, the ebook content follows, automatically downloading to your device.


Before you can download
In order to download ebooks from ebrary and EBSCO, you will need a user account for each database. If you don’t have a user account, you can create one on each database’s sign-in page.


How to download ebooks in ebrary
  1. Sign in to your ebrary account.
  2. Select a book. If it’s downloadable, a button will indicate this.


ebraryfulldownload.jpg


  1. When you click on the Full Download button, ebrary will verify your device and the availability of ADE, and a Download Your Book button will appear.


deviceinstalldownload.jpg


  1. When you click on Download Your Book, you will be prompted to save an acsm file.
  2. After you save the acsm file, you may open it with ADE or Bluefire Reader.


How to download ebooks in EBSCO
  1. Sign in to your My EBSCOhost account
  2. Select a book. If it’s downloadable, a link on the page will indicate this.
ebscodownload.jpg


  1. When you click the Download This eBook (Offline) link, a Download This eBook (Offline) pop-up will appear.


checkoutanddownload.jpg


  1. Select the Checkout Period
  2. When you click on Checkout & Download, you will be prompted to save an acsm file.
  3. After you save the acsm file, you may open it with ADE or Bluefire Reader.

These steps may vary according to the platform you’re working with, but the main things to remember, regardless of platform, are

  1. You must have DRM software installed, either Adobe Digital Editions or Bluefire Reader.
  2. You must have a user account for the database you’re working with.