About the UOC's ebooks. The Library launches a site to tell you all about them
Subject: Multidisciplinary
The new site answers students' most frequently asked questions about ebooks
What is the ideal ebook for education? The team at the UOC Library has identified eight key requirements.
Do you think that all ebooks are the same? We debunk some of the most common myths in this podcast
International Day of Libraries, a special occasion to promote reading and acknowledge the importance of libraries and the people who work in them, takes place on 24 October every year. We are marking the date this year by focusing on digital reading, with the launch of the website "About the UOC's ebooks". It contains information for the university community, telling them where to find and how to make the most of more than 300,000 ebooks that are available to them.
What does the new site contain?
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Students' most frequently asked questions about ebooks. For example, what the acronym DRM means, the most highly recommended reading device, and what formats you can download a title in (if this is possible).
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Where to find the ebooks: apart from the books available as learning resources in the classrooms, there are many others that can be found in the Library.
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Characteristics of the books and user manuals: information sheets with the basic details of the books from each publisher, as well as user manuals with step-by-step instructions on how to access the books.
Do you think that all ebooks are the same?
In 2020, the year of the Covid lockdown, thousands of people sought refuge in digital reading, and this trend has continued apace all over the world since then according to a recent report by Statista.
Sara Zerini and Mariana Sanz are two of the people at the UOC Library who are responsible for purchases and subscriptions to new ebooks at the UOC. They work directly with dozens of publishers, and they debunk some false beliefs in this podcast: "There isn't one single type of ebook, but instead many different types," they explain.
The ideal ebook: eight key principles
Over the years, the Library's digital collection team has identified readers' main needs when reading an ebook. The result is eight essential requirements, which provide the basis for the team's work aimed at satisfying users and providing the best possible reading experience.
We're working to ensure ebooks…
- Read by different people at the same time (unlimited multi-user access).
- Downloaded in PDF format without DRM (digital rights management) restrictions.
- Purchased with an institutional licence so that the Library can offer it to the entire UOC community.
- Stored on a computer, mobile or tablet, and opened and read at any time.
- Read by everyone, thanks to text-to-speech readers and/or other accessibility options.
- Read with different operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux).
- Read on different devices (computer, tablet, smartphone).
- Purchased individually, with no need to purchase a full set of books (title-by-title purchasing),
Content available 24/7/365
The Library team is committed to offering more and more ebooks in digital format to make reading easier for the UOC university community – a community that connects to the Library around the clock and around the world.
If you have any questions about the UOC's ebooks, get in touch with The Library Replies service.