Troubleshooting E-Book Access
We subscribe to many different e-book platforms, all if which are different and can be tricky to navigate. Here are some common issues with accessing e-books and some images to help you figure out what access we have.
No access, ‘too many users’, or can’t get to the PDF?
We don't always purchase all the books on a platform, and some vendors only allow one person to access an e-book at a time. If you are browsing a platform you may come across a book that we have not purchased or somebody else is already using; therefore you will not have access to it. If the book you've found is important for your research, you can recommend that we puchase it.
Can’t login?
Always make sure to go through the Western Libraries website and sign in when prompted. Trying to login through an e-book’s homepage won't work, even using the ‘institutional login’ link on the platform.
Can’t download or print?
Some e-book vendors use digital rights management (DRM) restrictions to limit how much of a book you can download, print, or copy.
Platform-specific help
We have developed a set of pages to help you interpret the language on some of the most common e-book platforms that Western Libraries uses.
