Access

Scholars Portal Books > Access

Accessing Scholars Portal Books Content

Screenshot of UOIT catalogue record with a link to the book on Scholars Portal Books.
Example from Ontario Tech
Catalogue record from Guelph with links to access the book on Scholars Portal Books
Example from Guelph

Most of the time you’ll be linking to books on Scholars Portal Books through your library catalogue, which means you’ll only look at content your school has access to (rather than browsing everything available).

This means that if you’re not on-campus you should have already gone through your school’s off-campus access login when you land on a book, and you can go straight into reading. If you’re off-campus and not logged in, you’ll see a list of subscribing schools and login links:

Off-campus login page

Make sure to check off “Books you can read because your library owns them” when doing a search.

Single-User Books

Some books are limited to one user at a time. If you try to access the book while someone else is reading it, you’ll get a message asking you to check back later.

This book is locked message.

If you don’t scroll or interact with the book for 15 minutes, it will be made available to other users.

Book message: It doesn't look like you're reading this book right now.

You also have the option of “borrowing” these books for three days and reading them offline in Adobe Digital Editions or similar e-reading software.

Single user message including the Read this Book with Adobe Digital Editions button

In order to borrow a book, you must have Adobe Digital Editions or a similar e-reading software on your device.

Follow these instructions:

Downloading Adobe Digital Editions

  1. Navigate to http://bit.ly/SPAdobe
  2. Select Download Adobe Digital Editions 3.0 (choose Windows or Mac)
  3. Open the downloaded .exe (Windows) or .dmg (Mac) file
  4. Open the Adobe Digital Editions 3.0 Installer
  5. Proceed through the installation steps
  6. Once Adobe Digital Editions opens, you will be prompted to authorize your computer by connecting it to an Adobe ID. If you don’t have an Adobe ID, you can create one now (it’s free).
    Adobe Digital Editions Window requesting authorization.
  7. Sign in using the eBook vendor ‘Adobe ID’ (this should be the default) and your Adobe credentials. You will receive a confirmation message, and be ready to borrow!
    Adobe Digital Editions window confirming that computer has been authorized.

Checking out a Borrowable eBook on Scholars Portal Books

If you land on a borrowable ebook, you will see a button in the left sidebar labelled “Read this book offline in Adobe Digital Editions.” Click this button to open the Adobe Digital Editions menu.

Download and install Adobe Digital Editions and create an Adobe ID (see instructions above). Once you’ve done this, download your book by selecting the large red button labelled “Download the Adobe Digital Editions File.”

View of the Adobe Digital Editions menu

A file ending in the extension .acsm will download. This file should automatically open in Adobe Digital Editions, but if it doesn’t, right click and choose ‘Open with…’

Downloaded file called URLLink.acsm

Your book will open in Adobe Digital Editions. After 72 hours, it will be returned automatically. To return it early (so someone else can use it), right click on the book’s cover in your Adobe Digital Editions library and choose ‘Return borrowed item’.