Whether you prefer to read physical books or not, ebooks are handy when you're away from Cambridge, need a citation, for urgent reading, working after hours, or if you just want to read a chapter or so. All you need is your University account (formerly Raven) login to access them; if you're off campus, you may also have to follow a few extra steps before entering your login. Experiencing any problems, there is a troubleshooting list on the ebooks LibGuide.
However we know they can also be confusing, frustrating or simply not available. To find out why some books aren't available electronically, take a look at the ebooks LibGuide. There is also the added complication of the various platforms, all with their different functionality and allowances.
Many of your electronic reading lists will give you a direct link to ebooks or chapters/pages for your reading (such as via Reading Lists Online/Leganto). You can find the vast majority of them in iDiscover and they will all be free to use. There is a complete list of all the ebook platforms on the ebooks LibGuide, pay particular attention to the platform hints and tips section, which tells you the features of the most-used platforms. If you want to keep up to date with ebook collections news and updates, you can follow the ebooks@cambridge blog.
As a brief overview, here are my tips:
If, for accessibility reasons, you need an electronic copy of a book that isn't available as an ebook, do email the accessibility team at the University Library. You can find out all the information you need (and a whole lot more) on the LibGuide dedicated to ebooks. Below you will find an introductory video. (The video is only viewable if you accept cookies. A 'Manage Cookies' button is available at the bottom left corner of every page, where you can update/save your preferences)
Credit to the Ebooks team at the University Library, Cambridge
There can be issues when referencing ebooks as opposed to physical books, mainly when it comes to page numbers. Formats vary with pagination: PDFs generally replicate print, but EPub, Kindle and HTML may not include page numbers. The general guidance is to reference sections and paragraphs instead.
Ebook platforms might have functionality which allows you to generate or export a citation direct from the platform; the most common citation styles will be offered. Some of the ebook platforms can also send citations straight to reference management software such as Zotero and Mendeley.
The other key pieces of information you need when referencing ebooks are the DOI or URL and the date when you accessed the ebook (in case there are updates), the same as you would when referencing anything online such as a website or blog. Take the link from the ebook platform and not iDiscover. Look for the persistent link on the page rather than using the link in the address bar. Here is an example:
Accessed August 28, 2025. DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9...
There is more advice on how to reference ebooks on the ebooks LibGuide.
Electronic Legal Deposit (ELD) items are ebooks or ejournals that you can only access via specific terminals in specific libraries and they are heavily restricted. You can identify an electronic legal deposit title by the words in red appearing in the catalogue record: "Available on designated PCs in the UL and most Faculty and Departmental libraries." You can block electronic legal deposit books from iDiscover search results by ticking the red tick box from the filter bar on the right-hand side of the search results.
If an electronic legal deposit title you need is the only way to access the title, and the terminals are impossible to access, then fill in the online recommendation form to see if a normal ebook can be purchased, so you can access it anywhere rather than just on dedicated terminals in certain libraries.
The appropriate subject library may be able to get the title as a normal ebook, or they could get it in print as preferred. If you only need a chapter or one article from a journal, you might be able to use the scan and deliver service. You can usually print up to 5% or one chapter or article from the terminal itself in most of the libraries listed on the ELD LibGuide. However, after the British Library outage, the institution which hosts the ELD books, printing is not currently available.
Only one person can access an ELD title at any one time, so you may need to wait. Other than the 5% copyright guideline for printing, you can't copy, take photos or download electronic legal deposit items.
For more details about ELD, please go to the ELD LibGuide.
There isn't any consistency across ebook platforms in terms of functionality. Each will have different options and ways of doing things. There are details of the functionality of the most-used platforms in the platform hints and tips section on the ebooks LibGuide. The best will have accessibility functionality such as zooming in and out, changing font size and background colour, and text to speech. There are more details on ebooks and accessibility on the Ebooks LibGuide.
Search within: This is one of the key pieces of functionality and a definite advantage when it comes to ebooks. When you download an ebook, use the normal method of searching your device or software, such as Ctrl+F or Edit > Find for PDFs. But when reading online, look for the Search Within button for the in-built search function.
Annotations and highlighting: There is often limited functionality to take notes and highlight when you download ebooks, as you might with your own copy of a book. This is especially true for PDF formats. However, when reading online on a few of the ebook platforms, there is the option to annotate and highlight when you create a login.
Printing: Depending on the DRM (Digital Rights Management), printing allowances may vary. If you find a DRM-free ebook, you will have unlimited printing rights. This will vary across ebook platforms and ebook titles. It depends on the publisher, ebook model and ebook format how much printing you can do.
Copying and pasting: Some ebooks are completely locked down, not allowing copying and pasting, but most will allow up to 5% or one chapter. As with printing, if you find a DRM-free ebook, you will have unlimited copying and pasting rights, but you must adhere to copyright law. For full details, go to the copyright page of the ebooks LibGuide.
Bookmarks: Most platforms will remember where you got to within a book in the same browser session when reading online and when you've created a login. Some platforms will also have a bookmarking function.
PDFs: PDF is the most common format for downloaded ebooks. You can use Adobe Reader to open PDFs, but if it is an ePub ebook, you may need software called Adobe Digital Editions which you can download for free from your usual store, such as Google Play or Apple Store. If you are having any problems with PDF ebooks, there are answers in the Troubleshooting section of the ebooks LibGuide.
Free and Open Access: You may see a number of free or Open Access ebooks on iDiscover. However there are more collections of these ebooks that don't appear on iDiscover. For more information about the packages we have access to, go to the ebooks LibGuide.
Unless otherwise stated, this work is licenced under a CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence by Jesus College Cambridge.
