How to Read Library Ebooks

The Seton Hall University Library has subscribed to or purchased approximately seven million ebooks as of May 2022 (Library Statistics Dashboard: E-book Usage). This Guide offers suggestions on how to access and read these ebooks. However, it's important to note that accessing and downloading ebooks from the library's website can be complicated. This is due to the fact that the ebooks are obtained from different providers, each with their own unique ebook reading interfaces. Additionally, the same vendor may set different limits for downloading different ebook titles due to copyright restrictions. For example, some ebooks have 1-3 concurrent access limit, and the student may have to check back periodically for availability. Some ebooks allow you to pick a 1, 7, or 14-day loan period and it would automatically return (your access would expire) or you could return early for other users to access. If you have any questions, please email ask@shu.libanswers.com.

To access these ebooks, a common step is to use a web browser on your desktop, laptop, Chromebook, or iPad to search the library's book catalog at Advanced Search of Seton Hall's WorldCat. Once you've found a book, you can click on "View eBook" to access and read it. You can also click on "Share" to copy the link (e.g. https://setonhall.on.worldcat.org/oclc/953387315) for future access. See the screenshot on the right.

The guide highlights unique access interfaces for major vendors such as EBSCO, ProQuest, and ScienceDirect, among others.