Ebook Central allows you to read ebooks online directly on the platform without the need to download them first.
In the majority of cases you will do this via the proprietary Ebook Central Reader which offers a streamlined reading experience and a multitude of options to work with the text ranging from simple bookmarks to highlighting passages of text in different colours to adding annotations, creating citations and more while automatically keeping it all safe in your personal Ebook Central bookshelf, ready to pick up where you left off.
More on how to use the Ebook Central Reader directly below.
In some cases, however, the original file is only available in the EPUB format. Previously, you could only read these titles by downloading them but with the new Ebook Central EPUB Reader these can now be read online, too, which makes using them far easier, faster and more efficient. The EPUB Reader is less rich on features and more streamlined than the original Ebook Central Reader but new functionality will be added continuously.
For more details on the EPUB Reader please scroll down to the bottom of the page.
The Ebook Central Reader was developed with extensive input from researchers, with intuitive navigation to help you quickly find popular features. The default view includes an expandable Table of Contents, a robust Search Within feature, relevancy ranked search terms by chapter, and a navigation tool bar in the content pane:
1. Book Details
View your print and copy allowances.
2. Annotations Icon
View your highlights, notes and bookmarks.
3. Search Within Book
Type your search term into the search box, making sure to put phrases in quotes. Search results are displayed with frequency bars next to each chapter. Select the chapter name to see the results per page and contextual snippets of text.
4. Book Download
Downloading a book is an easy 3-step process to computers, tablets, and phones.
5. Chapter Download
Download a chapter to PDF. Text is searchable and selectable, and a citation is included. Pages included in your Chapter Download are counted as part of your overall print allowances.
6. Copy
Copy the whole page by selecting the copy icon in the navigation toolbar. To copy text within a page, select your text and use the copy icon in the pop-up menu.
7. Print
Create a PDF of a page, or a range of pages that can be printed or saved, and which includes a citation of the book. Printed pages are counted as part of your overall print allowances.
8. Add to Bookshelf
Save this book to your online bookshelf. If you have already added the title, the icon will be disabled.
9. Share Link
Copy a URL to this page in the book, which you may share with others at your institution.
10. Cite
Create a citation from your choice of styles: APA, Chicago/Turabian - Notes-Bibliography, Chicago/Turabian - Author-Date, Harvard, MLA, or Vancouver. If you have a preferred citation style, you may set that preference in Settings.
11. Search Terms by Chapter and Page
Expand the Table of Contents to see search terms by chapter and page and click in the contextual snippet of text to navigate to that page.
12. Zoom Options
Zoom in (+), zoom out (-), fit to width, or fit to page.
13. Go To Page
To navigate to a specific page in the book, click on top of the page number and enter your desired page.
14. Previous/Next
Move backward or forward through a book one page at a time.
15. Settings
Reset your password, change your default citation style, and more.
Clicking on the little 'x' in the left columns top right corner will collapse this column and provide you with a larger display of the page:
If an ebook is only available in the EPUB format then clicking on any "Read Online" icon will open the book in the EPUB Reader (books that are available in other formats as well as in EPUB will always be opened in the Ebook Central Reader).
The EPUB Reader is currently focused purely on reading and navigating a book and provides you with the following options:
