E-books
In brief
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Overview
Electronic books are available via the a-z.lu catalogue. The LLC now tends to acquire mainly e-books because they offer quicker and wider accessibility and require less administrative work. Print books may be bought if a user specifically requests a print version, if there are no digital formats available, if the e-book is much more expensive, if the publisher only sells its e-books to libraries as part of (expensive) packages, or if the e-book is not sold to libraries at all (this especially applies to textbooks).
E-books are usually stored not on the local university servers but on the platforms of the publisher or e-book provider. These providers often offer a huge variety of books from different publishers. Most of the e-books offered in a-z.lu are not freely accessible so you will need to log in with your library credentials to access the full text.
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a-z.lu
Academic e-books are available through the a-z.lu catalogue. To search for e-books, simply enter a title, ISBN, author name, or keyword in the search bar of the simple search. Via the filters “Type of publication” and “Show only” on the right you can restrict the result list to “Books” and “Available online” only. Another option is offered in the “Advanced Search”: tick “Digital Library” in the top menu and set the “Material type” to “Books” in order to restrict the search to e-books only. Via both search options the result list shows for each e-book a link “Available Online”.
Available for registered users
To access e-books that are not published in open access you need to be registered with the library to make use of its licences. These licences differ and access to e-books is controlled by digital rights management (DRM) – some e-books can be printed or downloaded (in PDF and/or EPUB format) and some can only be read in a browser. If a licence only allows a certain number of concurrent uses or a certain time period to read the e-book, you will need to install an e-book reader like Adobe Digital Editions that includes user authentication via a personal ID. All this information will be provided and/or requested during the process of accessing a resource via a-z.lu. If you access content directly on a publisher platform without signing in beforehand on a-z.lu, you may be denied access even if the library has a licence.
Depending on the licence and the digital rights management (DRM) involved, you may be able to print or copy the entire document or only a certain number of pages.
Depending on the licence and the digital rights management (DRM) involved, you may be able to download the entire document or only a certain number of pages.
E-books that are protected by digital rights management (DRM) need the authentication functions of an e-book reader, for example Adobe Digital Editions.
If you cannot find an e-book you can always contact us via our “Ask a librarian” service or create an acquisition request in a-z.lu.