NetLibrary Electronic Books

Note: Off-campus access to some online sources is restricted to current UCF students, faculty, and staff via Proxy connection

About netLibrary

A netLibrary electronic book is exactly the same as the printed version of the book, except that the complete, full text of the book is available online, with additional features such as a built-in dictionary and the ability to search for words in the text. netLibrary was founded in 1998 as the world's premier provider of electronic reference, scholarly, and professional books. The UCF Libraries purchases selected electronic books from this publisher and lists these books in its online catalog for the convenience of UCF students, faculty, and staff. Only students, faculty, and staff currently affiliated with UCF can access netLibrary books from an off-campus location.

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Creating a netLibrary account

To check out netLibrary books, you must first establish a personal account and assign yourself a password. Both the required username and password are of your own choosing. You can set up your account by selecting "Create an Account" link in the login box on the right side of the netLibrary page. In creating your account, you can include letters, numbers, spaces, and standard punctuation. Usernames are not case-sensitive, but each username in the netLibrary system must be unique.

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Searching for a netLibrary book

netLibrary books may be searched by two methods:

• UCF Library Catalog
  http://cf.aleph.fcla.edu/F
  • To search for electronic books, use the "Keyword(s)" search type, then type in the search box netlibrary. This will show you all of the netLibrary books in the UCF Libraries collection. You can narrow the search by adding more words, such as netlibrary and microsoft or netlibrary and sociology.
• netLibrary Web site
  http://www.netlibrary.com
  • A search screen appears on the home page of the netLibrary Web site. When you enter the site while on the UCF campus, netLibrary will default to search for the netLibrary books which the UCF Libraries have purchased. When you search the site from off-campus, you should log in, which narrows the search to UCF netLibrary books.

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Checking out a netLibrary book

Before checking out a netLibrary book, you must create an account (see above). After conducting a search in the UCF Library Catalog for a netLibrary book, click on the link to the book to bring you to the netLibrary site. Then, simply click on the link "Check out and read online" or "Download and read offline" to the right of the book title.

The UCF Libraries' agreement with netLibrary has set the checkout period for two hours, no matter if you're using the book online or choose to download the book. If the time limit expires and you wish to check out the book again, you must "log out" from the book in order to do so.

To check in the book, click on "check in the eBook" on the toolbar at the top of the netLibrary page. The book automatically will get checked in at the end of the two hour limit.

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Browsing a netLibrary book

Browsing is a good choice if you want to look at a book for a brief time. When browsing a netLibrary book, you have exclusive use of that title for 15 minutes. Thereafter, during the remaining time of the two-hour period, you can continue look at the book unless someone else wants access to the book. At this point, you will lose access to the netLibrary book. Only checking out the book gives you exclusive use of the book for two hours.

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Making netLibrary text larger on the screen

When you open a netLibrary book, near the top of the screen is an option to "Hide Tools." If you click on that "Hide Tools" button, then the tools on the left (Dictionary, Table of Contents, etc.) disappear, allowing a larger reading area of the book pages. Additionally, you may wish to increase the font size and/or choose the full screen viewing option for your browser.

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Downloading a netLibrary book

Downloading a netLibrary book to your computer allows you to read the book online, thereby avoiding a slow Internet connection, saving online time, or tying up a telephone line. Also, the eBook Reader, which must be used for reading a downloaded book, offers the ability to annotate and to create bibliographic reference.

If you choose to download a netLibrary book, you must first download the free eBook Reader software. You will see the option to download the software when clicking on "Download and read offline" for a book. Or, you can also click on the Help button on the netLibrary toolbar, then follow the directions under "Reading eBooks Offline."

The checkout period for using the downloaded version of a netLibrary book is the same as it is for the online version -- two hours. Once the checkout time has expired and you want to check out the book again, it will not be necessary to download the book again, provided it has not been deleted from the eBook file.

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Printing a netLibrary book

You can print parts of a netLibrary book, but only one page at a time using the browser's print or copy functions. Printing the entire netLibrary book violates copyright laws. netLibrary takes precautions to protect copyright laws and if suspicious usage patterns indicative of excessive printing or copying is detected, netLibrary sends the user a copyright warning.

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Copying and pasting portions of a netLibrary book

You can copy and paste up to 5,000 characters (about the size of one page) at a time from a netLibrary book. If you've downloaded the book and are using it offline, the eBook Reader places quotation marks around each passage and includes a citation from the book. Through the eBook Reader, you also can create an MLA format bibliography.

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Ask a Librarian

If you have questions or need additional assistance, Ask a Librarian, call the Reference Department at (407) 823-2562, or e-mail the Department at askalibrarian@mail.ucf.edu.

Last Updated: January 30, 2008