Downloadable e-books in EBSCO Academic Collection now with 30-Day checkout period!

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Gary Daught

In an earlier post, I walked you through the steps for downloading e-books from the Library’s EBSCOhost eBook Collections to your computer for offline reading. You will recall I pointed out that if the e-book is downloadable you would see this label in the title record:

At the time I first posted these instructions, the download or “checkout” period of all our EBSCOhost e-books was limited to seven (7) days. I am pleased to report that the checkout period for the downloadable titles in our EBSCOhost Academic eBooks Collection has been extended to 30 days–the same checkout period we provide for our physical lending books. This extended period reduces some of the inconvenience of having to re-download the title after only a week–especially nice if you have also taken the steps to transfer a downloaded e-book to your mobile device of e-reader.

If the e-book you have selected for downloading is available for this 30-day checkout period, you will see this dialog box during the download process:

Please note that this extended checkout applies only to the EBSCOhost Academic eBooks Collection. The Library’s older EBSCOhost eBooks Collection (what some of you may know as our NetLibrary Collection) is still limited to a 7-day checkout. Incidentally, unlike this older collection, the Academic eBooks Collection also supports unlimited simultaneous users. You should never encounter a turn-away for any title you would like to read from this collection.

Please feel free to contact the Library if you have any questions, or if you would like assistance with the download/checkout or transfer to mobile procedure.

Transferring e-books from EBSCO to your mobile device or e-reader

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Gary Daught

In my previous post, I described the procedure for downloading EBSCOhost e-books to your computer for offline reading. In this post I will describe how you can transfer a downloaded book to a mobile device–a smartphone, tablet computer, or dedicated e-book reader.

Before proceeding, make sure that you have successfully completed all the steps described in my previous post and listed here:

You have created an Adobe ID
You have downloaded and installed the Adobe Digital Editions application software on your computer
You have created a My EBSCOhost account, and
You have downloaded an EBSCOhost e-book into Adobe Digital Editions

Adobe Digital Editions negotiates copy protection for EBSCOhost e-books on your computer or your mobile device. In order to successfully transfer an EBSCOhost e-book to a mobile device that device must either natively communicate with Adobe Digital Editions when attached to your computer, or allow the installation of an application that can communicate with Adobe Digital Editions on its behalf. Dedicated e-book readers such as the Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader, or Kobo eReader support Adobe Digital Editions natively. Unfortunately, Amazon E-Ink Kindles do not currently provide support for Adobe Digital Editions. Many smartphones and tablets, including Apple iOS devices (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad) and Android devices (including Amazon Kindle Fire tablets with some special tweaking), work with Adobe Digital Editions through a third-party application that can be installed on the device. I will describe the transfer procedure on a Barnes & Noble Nook and an Apple iPod touch. The specific procedure for your device may differ from these, but the following instructions will give you a good idea for what is involved. Please contact a librarian if you would like assistance, or if you run into any difficulty.

Transferring an EBSCOhost e-book to a Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch e-reader

Step 1: Authorize the device in Adobe Digital Editions

Launch Adobe Digital Editions on your computer then attach your e-reader device to your computer with the supplied USB cable. Adobe Digital Editions should automatically detect a compatible e-reader. You will be prompted to authorize the use of the device with Adobe Digital Editions (which may include entering your Adobe ID). In this screenshot notice “NOOK” is detected under Devices in the left column:

Step 2: Drag an e-book to your device

To install an e-book to the device simply select the desired title from the Bookshelf in the right column and drag it onto the device icon as shown here:

Step 3: Open and read the book on your device

Adobe Digital Editions will notify you when the e-book installation is complete. Eject the device from your computer. Browse and launch the e-book from the device’s book Library. Start reading!

Step 4: Remove an expired e-book from your device

As with EBSCOhost e-books originally downloaded to your computer, when the checkout period expires you will no longer be able to open the book on your device. At this point, you may choose to delete the expired file from your device’s book Library. Re-attach the device to your computer, launch Adobe Digital Editions, highlight “NOOK” under Devices in the left column, select the expired title from the Bookshelf in the right column, Control-Click the book icon and select “Remove from Library” from the drop down menu.

Transferring an EBSCOhost e-book to an Apple iOS or Google Android device

Unlike the previous procedure where a compatible dedicated e-reader (like the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch) is immediately recognizable by Adobe Digital Editions when connected to your computer, transferring EBSCOhost e-books to a smartphone or tablet requires a separate application capable of communicating with Adobe Digital Editions and serving as a book reader. You also need a transfer method that the reader application can understand.

As with downloading EBSCOhost e-books to your computer, the procedure for preparing your mobile device for transferring e-books is a bit complicated. However, you shouldn’t have too much trouble if you follow these instructions closely. The first three steps only have to be done one time. Feel free to contact a librarian if you would like assistance, or if you run into any difficulty. (Note: Amazon’s Kindle Fire is an Android-based tablet. However, installation of applications on this device is a bit more complicated than most. Special instructions are at the bottom.)

Step 1: Create a Dropbox account

You need a fairly easy and straightforward way to transfer a downloaded EBSCOhost e-book in Adobe Digital Editions on your computer to your mobile device. Dropbox is a handy cloud storage service that can be used to facilitate this transfer. Go to http://www.dropbox.com to create a free account. (The free account comes with 2 gigabytes of storage–more than enough for routine e-book file transfers.) Write down your Dropbox email address and password.

You can use the Dropbox web interface on your computer to facilitate file uploads to your account, or you can download a dedicated desktop application (for Windows or Mac). However, it is strongly recommended that you download and install the mobile version of the Dropbox application to your mobile device (choose the appropriate version here). You only have to do this step once.

Step 2: Download and install Bluefire Reader to your device

The process for transferring EBSCOhost e-books to a compatible Apple iOS or Google Android device requires that you first download and install an application that can be authorized to communicate with Adobe Digital Editions and function as a book reader. Bluefire Reader is a free application that is excellent for these purposes. You can use Bluefire Reader to open PDF and EPUB files on your mobile device. Download and install the Apple iOS or Google Android version as appropriate. You only have to do this step once.

Step 3: Launch and authorize Bluefire Reader on your device

I am using Bluefire Reader on an Apple iPod touch here. Launch Bluefire Reader on your device and select “Info” from the application menu. Tap the “Authorize” button in the Enable Adobe eBooks box. This will bring up a screen for entering your Adobe ID account information. Tap “Authorize.”

Your device is now authorized to open and read e-books downloaded to Adobe Digital Editions on your computer. You only have to do this step once.

You now have everything in place to transfer and read EBSCOhost e-books on your mobile device. Let’s transfer an e-book now!

Step 4: Upload an EBSCOhost e-book to your Dropbox account

a) Go back to your computer. I downloaded a new e-book from EBSCOhost into Adobe Digital Editions following the instructions in Step 4 from my previous post. The process went much smoother the second time around!

b) Although the e-book loads into Adobe Digital Editions, the e-book file is actually stored in another folder on you computer. On a Windows PC browse to this folder is called “My Digital Editions,” which is located in your “My Documents” folder. Notice the e-book file titled “The Autobiography of Charles Darwin” (Note: Although the file is a PDF, it will not open as normal in Adobe Reader because it is copy-protected. Adobe Digital Editions registered with your Adobe ID enables you to open this copy-protected file.):

On an Apple Mac computer, the same file is found in the “Digital Editions” folder in your user “Documents” folder:

c) Sign into your Dropbox account. For this demonstration I am using the web interface at http://www.dropbox.com. When you sign in the first time you will see three folders.

d) For this demonstration I am going to upload the e-book file into the “Public” folder in my Dropbox. Double-click the “Public” folder to open it. Click on the “Upload” button (it is the document icon with the blue arrow pointing up to the far left of the “Search Dropbox” search box). This brings up the “Upload to ‘Public'” dialog box.

e) Click the blue “Choose files” button. Browse to the “My Digital Editions” (Windows) or “Digital Editions” (Mac) folder and locate the e-book file you would like to upload as described above. Highlight the file and click “Open”. (If the upload appears stalled, click the “basic uploader” link and try again.) The file is processed and uploaded into (in this case) your “Public” folder. When the upload is complete you will receive this message:

Clear the dialog box by clicking “Done”.

f) You should now see the uploaded file in your Dropbox “Public” folder.

Since Dropbox stores your uploaded documents to the “cloud,” you can access them on any computer or device with an internet connection. This is how you will now access this e-book file and transfer it onto your mobile device.

Step 5: Launch Dropbox on your mobile device and open the EBSCOhost e-book in Bluefire Reader

a) If you haven’t already done so, download the appropriate Dropbox application version for your mobile device (e.g., Apple iOS or Google Android).

b) Launch Dropbox and sign into your account. You must have an active connection to the internet in order to access your Dropbox.

c) Notice the same folders in your mobile Dropbox as in the desktop or browser-based version on your computer. Remember that you uploaded your e-book to the “Public” folder. Tap “Public” to open this folder. There is your e-book!

d) Tap on the e-book file to download it to your device. Notice that this is a PDF file.

e) The e-book file download to your device appears to be complete. But notice that you don’t see anything other than the title on the screen. This is because the file is copy-protected and can only be opened by an application authorized to view Adobe Digital Editions copy-protected files. This is where Bluefire Reader comes into play. Tap the download button on the lower right of the screen (the icon with an arrow pointing down into a tray). This brings up a dialog that includes an “Open In…” button. Tap this button. You are now presented with one or more applications that may be able to open this file. Tap the “Open in Bluefire” button.

f) Tapping the “Open in Bluefire” button launches the the Bluefire Reader application. Notice your e-book, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin in the Library list. Tap on this title to open the book. Start reading!

Step 6: Remove an expired e-book from your device

Special Note about installing Bluefire Reader and the Dropbox mobile app on an Amazon Kindle Fire tablet

I mentioned above that Amazon’s E-Ink Kindles currently do not support e-books copy-protected using Adobe Digital Editions. Consequently, it is not possible to read e-books downloaded from EBSCOhost on your E-Ink Kindle.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets run a version of the Google Android operating system. Consequently, it is possible to install Android versions of both the Bluefire Reader application and the Dropbox mobile app on your Kindle Fire. However, getting these applications on your device requires a little extra tweaking. Follow these steps to prepare your Kindle Fire (part of these steps come courtesy of the Bluefire Reader blog):

a) Tap “Settings” on your Kindle Fire (it’s the icon that looks like a gear)
b) Tap “More”
c) Scroll down until you see “Device”
d) In the Device tab, set “Allow installation of Applications” to ON, and tap OK when you see the Warning prompt
e) Using the web browser on your Kindle Fire, go to http://www.bluefirereader.com/files/ and tap on BluefireReader.apk to download the Bluefire Reader application. Tap on this file to install the application on your Kindle Fire.
f) Using the web browser on your Kindle Fire, go to http://www.dropbox.com/android and download the Dropbox Android application. This app should be labeled Dropbox.apk. Tap on this file to install the application on your Kindle Fire.
g) Return to the instructions to continue with the e-book transfer procedure.

MCSearch & Milligan College featured in EBSCO’s “Customer Success Story” marketing

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Gary Daught

By creating a strong library research platform with the speed and simplicity of a commercial Internet search engine, Milligan College makes its library holdings even more accessible to students and faculty.

Soon after Milligan College Library’s launch of MCSearch in early September 2011, we were contacted by the public relations folks at EBSCO Publishing to do a “Customer Success” story for their promotional/marketing materials.

MCSearch is our custom implementation/branding of EBSCO’s Discovery Service platform. MCSearch is best described as a search engine that provides a user experience not unlike Google, but its search capabilities focus on library-provided information resources instead of the open Web. In our own promotion, we have branded MCSearch with the tagline “One search box–for the good stuff” to underscore the ease of use search experience applied to accessing the quality information resources provided by the Library.

We recently learned that our story has been released. Here is a direct link to the five page piece (pdf) covering the launch. Links to the story appear in two locations on EBSCO’s website: On the EBSCO Customer Success Center (see http://www.ebscohost.com/customerSuccess/ > Colleges/Universities > Customer Success Stories), and on the EDS Support Center (see http://support.ebsco.com/eds > the Customer Success Stories section on the home page. Our story is the third item.) It’s a nice read that features both the Library and Milligan College. Check it out!

E-books now better than ever: Easy access, clean interface, off-line reading (Part 1)

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Gary Daught

Back in April, Mary Jackson wrote about significant improvements coming to many of the library’s e-books as a result of EBSCO Publishing’s acquisition of NetLibrary from OCLC in early 2010. These improvements have arrived, and I think they were worth the wait.

Introducing EBSCOhost eBook Collection

The P.H. Welshimer Memorial Library has a substantial collection of over 68,000 e-book titles that migrated from NetLibrary into what is now called EBSCOhost eBook Collection. (The library has e-books from other publishers and vendors–Mary noted we have over 73,000 titles in total. But this is by far our largest collection.) Library users familiar with our EBSCOhost databases (e.g., ATLAS, CINAHL, Education Research Complete, Humanities International Complete, PsycINFO, SocINDEX, etc.) will instantly feel at home navigating this e-book collection, because it actually is another EBSCOhost database. The only difference (though no small difference) is that it searches and displays book content instead of journal article content.

It has been our observation that students tend to prefer using journal articles in research because the search tools connected with accessing articles–especially full-text articles–make this easier, more convenient, and more productive. I believe applying this same capability to books will encourage greater use of this information resource format in student research. (As an aside, students need to appreciate that books and articles are different information ‘animals.’ They serve different functions. It isn’t simply that books are long and articles are short. Rather, books lend themselves to broad and developed treatment of topics, whereas articles tend to be very narrowly focused on a particular aspect of a topic. Because of their format and mandate, articles often do not have the luxury of providing the reader with extensive background or context. Consequently, over-reliance on journal articles can actually hamper a student’s ability to properly understand the development of a topic, its history, or the range of issues at play.)

The “problem” with books isn’t that they’re in print–in fact, students appear to still appreciate and in many cases prefer the printed book format. The “problem” is that print books are not easily searchable (though tables of contents and indexes intend to help). The search tool most strongly associated with finding books is the library catalog. But the catalog doesn’t search the content of a book. The catalog only searches records that point to their associated books (or media). A book record typically includes such things as title, author(s)/editor(s), publication information, subject headings (a controlled system of describing what the book is about), and maybe a table of contents. But not the content itself. This is an inherent limitation of a library catalog (which originated to efficiently organize descriptions of physical, print books). It’s not the catalog’s fault, of course. And for what it is designed to do, a library catalog is still a pretty nifty and powerful tool.

When we enter the digital realm of electronic books where space isn’t an issue–where a catalog record, as it were, can contain not just a “shorthand” description of the book’s contents but literally the entire text of the book–it suddenly becomes possible for a book to be entirely searchable, eliminating the “problem” described above. This is the really powerful capability provided by having our e-books on a platform like EBSCOhost eBook Collection.

In Part 2, I will take you on a quick tour of our EBSCOhost eBook Collection to demonstrate searching, e-book display and navigation, expanded printing, and a new capability for off-line (including to some mobile device) reading.

Introducing MCSearch: One search box–for the good stuff

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Gary Daught

The P.H. Welshimer Memorial Library is pleased to introduce MCSearch to the Milligan College community. What is MCSearch? We think our tagline says it all: “One search box–for the good stuff.”

One search box. Students are familiar with Google and other popular web search engines. They like the ease and convenience of being able to type a few keywords into a search box and get tons of results. But how relevant, reliable, or current is this information for academic research purposes? This is a serious question. Students need to acquire skills for evaluating information accessed from the open web. (The Library provides instruction to students in information literacy skills like information resource evaluation.) However, given a choice between digging hard for the best available information resources or the convenience of a Google search, students are often satisfied with “good enough.”

What if there was a tool available that provided the ease and convenience of a Google search, but the information resources searched and results returned were those provided by the Library? Students could get to the stuff that was truly good instead of just good enough. This is exactly what MCSearch does.

The good stuff. Every year the Library spends tens of thousands of dollars to provide Milligan College students and faculty with high quality information resources to support their coursework and research. Books, media, print and electronic journals and magazines, e-books, subject-based print and electronic reference works (encyclopedias and dictionaries), and numerous subject-based and multidisciplinary databases for accessing journal articles online. We also provide an array of tools such as online library catalogs, journal finders, link resolvers, and database interfaces to help students and faculty search these resources. We make this investment because, frankly (and contrary to much conventional current day “wisdom”), you can’t get everything you need on the open web. Academic information resources are costly to produce, publish and distribute. Although there is a slowly growing open access movement in academic communication online, generally speaking, the good stuff isn’t free.

One search box, again. The “killer feature” that makes a search engine like Google so powerful and compelling is that a single query is applied simultaneously across a multitude of sites and resources on the World Wide Web. Can you imagine having to browse or search each site on the web individually to try to find information you were looking for? I’m showing my age here, but I first got online in 1994, almost 5 years before the Google search engine started attracting attention on the Web. I still remember when Yahoo! was literally just a running list of websites. But enough about that. My point is that search engines have profoundly altered the way we search for information. What if it were possible to apply some of this kind of power when searching the Library’s information resources–a single query applied simultaneously to the Library catalog and databases, rather than searching each of these sources individually? This is exactly what MCSearch does.

The emphasis is on discovery. As the Library evaluated the various print and electronic information resources it provides to students and faculty, it occurred to us that in many ways we have enough stuff. What we felt we needed was a way to make the stuff we have more discoverable. MCSearch is not about “dumbing down” the research process, or pandering to the bad study habits of lazy students. Using a search engine effectively still requires skill and discernment. But because MCSearch applies a search query across a range of Library resources and formats at once, it can bring to the surface information a student may not have otherwise discovered through conventional means. This brings a delightful element of serendipity to the research process.

Filter on the way out. Because general or broad keyword searches tend to return too many results that are not necessarily relevant, conventional catalog and database searching with limited features encourages the user to formulate precise search queries in advance to get the best results. MCSearch also allows the user to apply limiters to search queries in advance to narrow search results. However, a particularly powerful capability of MCSearch is the ability to filter results after the search is completed. MCSearch includes the ability to easily refine or “facet” results by various criteria (date, format, subject, provider, etc.). This capability removes the “problem” of too many results, while still providing the opportunity to discover valuable resources from unexpected sources.

Try it out now! We will be providing more usage assistance in subsequent posts and instruction sessions. But right now I would like to encourage you to just take some time to play around with MCSearch and get familiar with its capabilities. Feel free to contact us with any questions, and we especially welcome your feedback.

P.H. Welshimer Memorial Library & Emmanuel Christian Seminary Library

Category Archives: eBooks