Librarian FAQs

Who can access the e-books?

Answer: FE organisation’s registered learners and staff in the UK; who have subscribed to e-books for FE on Jisc Collections as part of their Jisc membership.

Can more than one learner access the same e-book?

Answer: Yes, there is no limit on how many registered learners can access a single title at any given time.

I am in a HE organisation with FE registered learners, can they access the e-books?

Answer: Learners who are registered at a Further Education organisation may access the e-books and staffs and library staff responsible for these registered learners may also access the e-books. Therefore, if an HE organisation is providing an FE course on behalf of an FE organisation, the registered FE learners and staff of those learners, are allowed to access the e-books with their username and password as provided by the FE organisation.

Please note that this is only for HE organisations that are running the course on behalf of the FE organisation and where the learners are registered learners of the Further Education organisation. If this is the case, the HE organisation should contact the Further Education organisation, ask them to subscribe and then provide the registered learners and relevant staffs with a username and password.

Organisations that wish to provide access to registered learners and staffs registered at an FE organisation would need to restrict access to these users.

If in doubt please contact FE and skills team content.feandskills@jisc.ac.uk

Where can I download the MARC records?

Answer: The MARC records for the e-book titles will be made freely available through a ProQuest LibCentral website. Once you have submitted the completed sub-license form from ProQuest an account will be created for you. The website will provides a single download process for the MARC 21 records of all the e-books licensed as part of e-books for FE project. Jisc Collections recommends that all libraries incorporate all the MARC records into their catalogues and provides direct links from the catalogue, reading lists and VLE’s as it has been shown in several studies that this is essential in raising awareness of the availability of the e-books and encouraging use by registered learners.

We haven’t got Federated Access Management, how can I access the e-books?

Answer: The there are 2 modes of authentication that are viable to access e-books for FE: UK Access Management Federation (Shibboleth, Open Athens, Liberate), or campus-only access via IP range.

Organisations wishing to subscribe are strongly advised to join the UK Access Management Federation and implement compliant technologies to provide off campus access, single sign to resources, to identify and define separate groups of users and to assist in the administration of e-resources.

For more information on the benefits and application, please see https://www.jisc.ac.uk/uk-federation

If you require any information on how to join the UK Access Management Federation or implement compliant technologies e.g Shibboleth or Open Athens please visit http://www.ukfederation.org.uk/, https://www.shibboleth.net/ and https://www.openathens.net/

Benefits

The use of federated access management and the software available to support its implementation provides significant benefits to several user-groups:

  • For the user: single sign-on using an organisational ID and password, and assurance that personal data will not be disclosed to third parties.
  • For the librarian: freedom from the burden of username/password administration and new tools for managing licences and service subscriptions.
  • For the IT manager: more control of the access management process through enhancements to enterprise directories, although this will require additional organisational effort in the short term.
  • For the organisation: a single service to meet the requirements of e-learning, e-research and library-managed resources.

What are the system requirements?

Answer: E-books for FE is supported on the following web browsers with their latest versions: Internet Explorer Firefox, Safari, Chrome.
Before you begin, check your browser for the following:

  • JavaScript is enabled
  • Cookies are enabled
  • Pop-ups are allowed for https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Can we apply IP Restrictions?

Answer: There are several types of IP settings available in LibCentral on the System Settings page to tailor access across campus(es). There are 3 key IP access options of anonymous access IPs, access IPs and download IPs, for more details see the ProQuest guide.

Are there any promotional materials?

Answer: We have a range of promotional materials and digital assets available on the Promotional Materials page of this web site.

Can I embed the e-book search into our LRC website?

Answer: Yes, ProQuest have made an Ebook Central Search Widget to help libraries funnel access to the e-books for FE search results.