Books and Ebooks
Print books are great and we have a large selection, in each of our libraries, that are relevant to the courses taught on that campus, but for academic purposes ebooks are often more easily searchable, more readily available and provide you with 24-hour access to a wider variety of titles.
See the tabs below for more information.
Books
How are the books arranged ?
The books are arranged on the shelves in numerical order according to the Dewey Decimal Classification scheme, using numbers 0-999. You will find a list of classmarks for your subject on .
Books will be issued initially for two weeks then renewed automatically for you unless they have been requested by another borrower.
Look out for the 'shelf talkers' that will indicate where a book classified as Essential on a reading list is available as an ebook.
OneSearch - your route to library discovery
Using OneSearch, which can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection, you can search for everything that we keep in our libraries. There are also dedicated computers for using OneSearch, located within each of the libraries.
The most efficient way of locating a specific book is with an author/keyword (word in the title) search. Check in which campus library it is held. If it is at your campus and there is a copy available, make a note of the classmark and location and collect it from the shelf. If the book you want is on loan or held in another campus library, you can request it yourself from OneSearch and it will be sent to your home library.
Reading lists
The library aims to stock copies of all Essential reading list books in electronic and/or print format depending on availability. Remember that your reading list is a starting point. Successful students will develop searching skills to go beyond the reading list to demonstrate independent learning.
We provide electronic reading lists that link your reading list directly to the catalogue so you can easily check the availability of your books in the library. A link to your module list should be available on your Blackboard module site.
Ebooks
You can search for ebooks in two ways
Ebooks will appear in your results when you search OneSearch. They will have a "View it" link. Click on that to see the collection that holds the ebook and follow the link.
Search each ebook collection below individually, to make more advanced searches of the content.
You will need your University of Cumbria email address and password to access ebooks from off campus.
You can read ebooks on computers and devices
Many ebooks require that you have a recent version of Adobe Reader installed on your computer, which you can download.
Adobe Digital Editions software can be downloaded here and works For EPUB files, both Windows and Mac. Provides high contrast modes, text resizing, screen reader support and keyboard support.
You can read eBooks on your device in the same way you would on a laptop or PC but you will need to first install the Adobe Reader, Bluefire Reader or Kortext apps on your device in order to read downloaded eBooks successfully. These are free apps available to download from the iTunes App Store for Apple devices, and from the Google Play Store for Android devices.
For students with accessibility requirements, please also see our Assistive Technology pages.
Device accessibility options
Make your online reading experience more comfortable by learning how to activate read aloud on your device, change background or contrast colours and adjust your device's text display settings.
Android accessibility settings
iOS – iPhone –iPad accessibility settings
Mac accessibility settings
PC/Windows accessibility settings
Find out more about our ebook collections below
| Collection | Platform | Subject | Publisher Accessibility Statement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biomedical and Life Sciences | Springer | Biomedical & Life Sciences | Link |
| Dawsonera | Dawsonera | Multidisciplinary | Link |
| Early European Books | ProQuest | 400 Pre-1700 ebooks | Link |
| Ebook Central | ProQuest | Multidisciplinary | Link |
| Ebsco | Ebsco | Multidisciplinary | Link |
| Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences | ScienceDirect | Forensic science | Link |
| Encyclopedia of Life Sciences | Wiley | Life Sciences | Link |
| Environment and Sustainability | Routledge | Environment | Link |
| FORENSICnetBASE | Taylor & Francis | Forensic science | Link |
| International Children's Digital Library | ICDL | Children's books | not available |
| ScienceDirect collection | ScienceDirect | Science | Link |
| Taylor & Francis Arts | Taylor & Francis | Arts | Link |
| Taylor & Francis Research Methods | Taylor & Francis | Research methods | Link |
Diversity
Our students come to us from a diverse range of backgrounds and to reflect this we want to increase the range of books in the library which are written by people from a BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) background. You can get involved by suggesting books through the Get More Books scheme.
Suggesting books for purchase - Get More Books Scheme
If you are a student and find the library does not stock a book that is on your reading list or any other title you think would be useful to you and other students, you can use the Get More Books service. If the book is appropriate for the library and money is available, the book will be purchased. Orders can take anything from a couple of weeks to several months to be delivered depending on availability.