The Library has purchased over 137,000 electronic books (ebooks) available for students and staff to read (and in some cases to download) online via different publisher platforms. Over 13,650 titles are available in the Ebook Central platform and over 2,000 in VleBooks. Additional titles have been purchased in EBSCO, Cambridge Core, and SAGE Knowledge platforms. The main formats used are ePub, PDF and HTML for viewing and ACSM digital rights management format for downloading. 

While an increasing number of titles are available in electronic format, this does not apply to all printed books. Be aware that many ebook titles are available solely for purchase by individuals as they are sold directly to the student market via VitalSource, BibliU and Kortext. In these instances, the licensing restrictions imposed by the publishers mean that such titles are not available for libraries to purchase for their collections.

You can also use your Aspire Card to purchase ebooks in partnership with John Smiths's. In these instances, the licensing restrictions imposed by the publishers mean that such titles are not available for libraries to purchase for their collections.

You can view or download the quick guide to ebooks (PDF).

You can search for our ebooks in LibrarySearch in the portal and via the separate eresource platforms. Use Publication Finder in LibrarySearch to search for ebooks by title or ISBN.

Ebooks are also accessible via the University portal from the Online databases and academic journals link in the My Learning/Learning Support page.