eBook Platforms

ebrary

Platform Name

ebrary

Address

318 Cambridge Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94306
USA

URL

http://www.ebrary.com

Contact Email

chris@ebrary.co.uk

Contact Tel

+44 (0)1457 870290

Titles

Libraries and other organizations are welcome to access ebrary's Title Preview (in BETA) at http://site.ebrary.com/lib/librarytitles . Open titles and explore the first few pages, and try our technology such as InfoTools, highlighting, notes, and bookshelves.

Summary

ebrary helps libraries, corporations, publishers, and consumers get the most out of their digital content. The company offers a growing selection of more than 170,000 digital books, handbooks, reports, maps, journals and other valuable content from over 350 of the world’s leading publishers under flexible subscription, purchase, and usage-based models. Additionally, ebrary offers content services (SaaS and licensed) for customers to cost-effectively distribute their own PDF content online on ebrary’s servers or their own.

All ebrary products and services can be integrated and delivered via a single easy-to-use interface that includes powerful tools for finding, discovering, and managing information. With ebrary InfoTools, every word in the ebrary system is a network to other online resources of the customers’ choice, extending their value while increasing end-user knowledge and efficiencies.

Content

Business Models

ebrary aggregates e-books and other content from the world's leading publishers, then licenses the content to libraries and other organizations under both subscription and perpetual access models. We are currently conducting a pilot program for a patron-driven acquisition model.

At the same time, ebrary licenses its technology to publishers, libraries, and other organizations that need to distribute, archive or sell their own e-content online, using a business model that meets their individual needs.

Licensing Models

ebrary offers both subscription and perpetual access (purchased) licensing models for its content.

ebrary's subscription databases are available under a simultaneous, multi-user access model and are priced based on FTE.

ebrary's purchased titles can be licensed for any number of users. Purchased titles are priced based on list, with unlimited multi-user access titles 150% of list price.

We are currently conducting a pilot program for a patron-driven acquisition model.

Libraries and other organizations may also license ebrary's technology to distribute and archive their own content, using payment and business models that meet their individual requirements.

Access Control

Authentication

• Username/Password
• IP Address
• Classic Athens
• SAML Compliant (e.g. Shibboleth)
• Referring URL
• EZ Proxy
• Member of UK Access Management Federation

Concurrency Limit

For subscription databases, ebrary offers simultaneous, multi-user access. Any number of end-users may access titles at the same time.

For purchased content, ebrary offers libraries the ability to buy access for any number of users.

Single-user access does not require check-in or check-out. If an end-user tries to access a title that is already in use, they are placed into a queue and automatically notified when the title becomes available.

Restrictions

Authentication portals are required to integrate the ebrary APIs for single sign-on user authentication.

Access may be restricted by geographic location based on the user IP address.

Notes

EZproxy includes integrated ebrary single sign-on with direct user authentication to an ebrary bookshelf.

ebrary also integrates with Blackboard using an ebrary Building Block to provide single sign-on with direct user authentication to an ebrary bookshelf. Please note users must access ebrary through Blackboard to use bookshelf features.

Shibboleth Native authentication is supported using EZproxy.

Search

Features

• Advanced Search
• Boolean AND
• Boolean NOT
• Boolean OR
• Exact Phrase
• Keywords
• Search by Author
• Search by Title
• Search by Full Text
• Search by ISBN
• Search by Date
• Search by Metadata
• Search by Library of Congress Subject Tree
• Search by Dewey Decimal
• Search by BIC Subject Codes
• Search via MARC
• Simple Search
• Search History
• Saved Searches
• Search Only Subscribed Content
• Search All Titles

Indexing

• Library of Congress
• Dewey Decimal
• BIC Subject Codes

Cross Database Search

ebrary InfoTools supports cross-database searching from any ebrary document to any web-based search resource available to the user. Several third-party federated search products, including Webfeat, MuseGlobal, and Serial Solutions, fully integrate ebrary search results.

Web Search

Web searching is provided by ebrary InfoTools.

From within an ebrary document, end-users may search across online resources from other vendors in the library as well as information on the world wide web.

Saved Searches

Searches are automatically saved for the current user session. Additionally, end-users are able to save a web link to searches from their browser's URL bar.

Search Tips

Search tips are provided when end-users initiate a search. Additional search tips are provided via ebrary's online help desk as well as the training and support section of the ebrary website.

Search Other Content

With InfoTools, end users can search across other online resources in the libraries containing e-journals and other content types.

Search Results

Functionality

• Deduplication
• OpenURL linking

Ordering

End-users may sort their searches by relevancy, publication date, title, or contributor.

Presentation

When a search is conducted, bibliographical data appears along with an image of the book cover. End-users also have the option of previewing the table of contents, with chapters ranked by occurrences of the search term.

Selecting Results

End-users may export their search results to Excel and add to their personal bookshelves. Additionally, end-users may email folders in their personal bookshelf to themselves or peers, with hyperlinks for all highlights and annotations.

Exporting

• Refwork
• Endnote
• Email

eBook Navigation

Presentation

The ebrary interface displays the e-book in full-text with the option of showing or hiding the table of contents. The interface also features powerful tools for navigating, highlighting, annotating, and more.

Links

• Figure links
• Table links
• Graphic links
• Numbered reference links
• Additional resources (e.g. end matter, glossaries)

Restrictions

• Copy
• Print
• Paste
• DRM used

Other Functionality

Linking

• Title Linking
• Chapter Linking
• Page Linking
• Citation Linking
• Full Text Linking
• MARC linking
• Linking to OPAC
• Linking to VLE/MLE
• Open URL/Persistent URL

Help Information

ebrary offers an extensive online help desk, which is available through the ebrary interface. For an example, see http://site.ebrary.com/lib/anysite/help.action .

ebrary also offer online training and support tools at http://www.ebrary.com/corp/training.jsp .

Training

ebrary offers weekly in-person training webinars and site training on a case-by-case basis.

ebrary also offer online training and support tools at http://www.ebrary.com/corp/training.jsp .

Local on-site training is also available.

Interface Customisation

Customers may include their logo and customize the banner of the ebrary interface. The user's browser-default stylesheet (CSS) is respected.

Alerting

ebrary sends out periodic content updates via email. Content updates are also included in Off the Shelves, ebrary's newsletter for the library community, which is available at http://site.ebrary.com/lib/newsletter .

Software Updates

ebrary continually updates and improves its software, with major UI changes once or twice a year.

Usage Stats

• COUNTER Compliant Vendor
• COUNTER Book Reports 1-6
• Available Online
• Available by Email

Metadata

• MARC
• Integration with Catalogues for MARC records

Technical Integration

ebrary offers APIs that allow deep integration with other systems.

VLE Integration

ebrary integrates with Blackboard using an ebrary Building Block to provide single sign-on with direct user authentication to an ebrary bookshelf. Please note users must access ebrary through Blackboard to use bookshelf features.

Social Bookmarking

Information not provided

Language Support

ebrary's Java-based Unity Reader offers the ability to display, print, and copy/paste text from documents in any language.

Additionally, the ebrary interface has been localized in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Swedish, and simplified Chinese, with more languages in the works.

Other

Information not provided

Accessibility

W3C Compliance

ebrary will shortly be highly compliant with the majority of W3C "AA" recommendations and commits to becoming WCAG 2.0 compliant.

Browser Compatibility

ebrary works on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Plugins Required

No Reader is required with QuickView, which allows instant document utilization in a browser. For greater functionality to enhance the research experience, we offer our Unity and Plug-in Readers.

ebrary QuickView does not require any software downloads or installations. The Unity Reader automatically launches and updates on machines loaded with Java 1.6. The Plug-in Reader is a one-time download that takes seconds to install and does not require a restart of the end-user's computer.

Availability & Uptime

24/7 Uptime

ebrary's target uptime is 99.9%, excluding scheduled maintenance.

Downtime (as specified in service level agreements)

ebrary has a monthly two-hour maintenance window scheduled for minimum impact across all time zones. Customers receive 48-hour notice of other service-affecting site updates.

Mirror Sites

The ebrary site is located in a secure data center with fully redundant power and Internet connectivity. ebrary maintains a standby mirror site.