Find ebooks
All students and staff can access our ebooks, just follow the instructions below. You have access to over 250,000 ebooks through the Library.
Find ebooks in Library search or Books & media
- Use a keyword or title search
- Limit to ebooks using “Item type”
- Open the ebook via “Click here to view this book”
You now have three options for reading your ebook:
- Download a chapter pdf to keep as long as you like and read offline (download more chapters after 24 hours). This is the Library's recommended option where it is available.
- Borrow the book for a set time (usually 1-7 days) to read offline by choosing “Download book” and using Adobe Digital Editions software
- Read online in your browser
Download a chapter PDF
- Open the book
- Browse to the chapter you want to read first
- Click the download icon beside the chapter or the icon that says “download pdf”.
- Save the chapter to read offline on your device or transfer it to another device for reading. You can read downloaded chapters on any device that supports PDF file types – this includes most tablets, phones and other mobile devices.
- If you want another chapter from the same ebook, repeat these steps after 24 hours, once your download allowance has refreshed.
Benefits
- Chapter PDFs are searchable, include a citation and do not expire.
- Chapter downloads refresh daily, allowing you to download another chapter from the same book every 24 hours.
- You only need an internet connection when you download.
- You do not need to install extra software.
- This method shares the ebook more fairly among students. Sometimes the publishers have limits on the number of people who can download or read an ebook online at any one time. If you use the option to download a chapter, more people can access the book at the same time.
Download the whole ebook
- Open the book
- Choose download book
- When prompted, download and install Adobe Digital Editions if you don’t already have it
- The book will be downloaded to ADE on your computer. After the set loan period (usually 1-7 days), the book download will expire.
You can read downloaded chapter PDFs (see Reading ebooks offline for instructions) on any device that supports PDF file types – which includes most tablets, phones and other mobile devices.
Once you’ve downloaded the chapter PDF you can then transfer the PDF between devices in whatever way your device supports file sharing such as email, save to the cloud or AirDrop.
How long can I borrow an ebook for?
- If you download by chapter, you can keep the chapters for as long as you like.
- If you download the whole book to Adobe Digital Editions, you can borrow the book for 1-7 days.
The book I want says "Reached user limit" and I cannot open the book. What does this mean, and what should I do?
- This means 1-3 students have chosen to download the whole book or they are reading the book online and thus blocking the book for other students.
- You should try again later to view the book.
- Contact your Liaison Librarian if you still cannot access the book.
What does the Library do to help us access ebooks that often "Reach user limit"? These books are really important for my studies and I am frustrated that they are not available.
- We keep an eye on ebooks that "reach user limit" and order more copies if this happens often. But we do ask that students follow the guidelines to download by chapter (where this option is available) to prevent this as much as possible.
What can I do if I search for a book I want in Library Search and it is not available as an ebook?
- You can place a request for digitised chapters or portions of books with our inter-library loan service.
- Go to the Interloans webpage and then login to the Interloan service using your AUT login and password.
- For more help, email the Interloans team at interloans@aut.ac.nz.
What about accessibility? How can I use my screen reader to read an ebook?
- For ProQuest ebooks (our largest provider) laptops and desktop computers will support screen readers.
- Turn on accessibility mode in ProQuest