Read and download e-books
An e-book is an electronic book that can be read on your computer, mobile phone or tablet.
Get access to e-books
You can find e-books by searching the title, author or subject in Supersearch.
If you are a student or an employee you can access e-books when logged in to the university's network or by logging in with your GU account. If you belong to the general public you have access to some e-books if you are using a Library computer.
How to read and download e-books
You can read e-books on your computer, mobile phone or on a tablet. To open and read an e-book it is usually sufficient to open it directly in a web browser. Some e-books require that you have a PDF reader, or that you download the free software Adobe Digital Editions, before you can read them.
Loan periods
There are different models for how long you can borrow an e-book:
- Borrow the e-book for 24 hours and renew when necessary. This applies when downloading the book to your own computer and for reading it online.
- You don't have to borrow the e-book, instead you open it directly in a web browser and read in online. One person at a time can read the book. After 15 minutes of inactivity, the book becomes available for the next person. A queue system for this exists.
- You don't have to borrow the e-book, instead you open it directly in a web browser and read in online. The book can be read by several people simultaneously.
Which loan model that applies in each particular case is stated when you have found the e-book.
Advice when using e-books
When using a e-book it is a good idea to set up a user account. The user accounts are always free of charge. The account allows you to:
- highlight text
- make notes in the e-book and save the notes for later use in a word processor. When renewing the book you can activate your notes again.
- collect the e-books in your own book shelf Many e-books have a reading function.
Turn on speech synthesis to listen to all or part of the text.
Terms for printing and downloading
The Library has e-books from many publishers and providers. The terms for printing, downloading and number of simultaneous users might vary considerably.
Usually you are allowed to print or download single chapters for private use and pass on to people within the University of Gothenburg. Usually you are prohibited from printing an entire e-book or selling or making content available through other web sites or web services.
Since the terms of use of e-books vary, you may need to find out what applies to different publishers and providers.
If we don't have the e-book you need
If the University Library doesn't have the book you need you can suggest that we purchase it. We will notify you if we can purchase the e-book, and in that case when you can get access to it.
Contact us about e-books
Contact us if you need any help with e-books.