The UL has purchased the University of Chicago Press’s 2024 ebooks collection: this builds on previous purchases of their annual collections (including the 2023 collection last year). The collection is hosted on the De Gruyter platform, and will mean DRM-free, unlimited access to c. 220 new titles from this very popular academic publisher. Records for the ebooks which are currently available should display in iDiscover shortly, and more will be added as further titles are published throughout the year
The ebooks team has recently received queries about ebooks on Springer Link, so we have created a blog post with details about known issues and some advice.
We will update this blog post to reflect any changes or new information. This blog post will also be linked in the Springer entry under Platform Hints and Tips on the ebooks@Cambridge LibGuide.
We are aware that it is not always clear what ebooks should be available to Cambridge users on Springer Link, and we are also aware that a recurrent error message appears when users try to log in on the platform, so we hope that this blog post will help. We have also sent feedback to Springer, who are planning to use clearer branding in a future version of the platform.
Springer have also added a message to the top of their search results with a link to the old search, which shows more clearly which content is available and not available. (Content that is not available to Cambridge users is marked in the old search results with a gold padlock.)
You can click on the section headings below to jump to a specific section of the blog post:
We know that many of our users browse the Springer Link platform in search of content. Cambridge has access to a large number of ebooks on the platform through ebook collections, as well as a small selection of individually purchased Springer and Palgrave Macmillan titles.
Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to purchase access to all ebook titles hosted on Springer Link. We recommend searching for available ebook titles in iDiscover using the Cambridge Libraries Collections search, as we add records for all of our subscribed and purchased titles. You may also find that a Springer or Palgrave Macmillan title is available on a different ebook platform, such as EBSCOhost, Ebook Central or VLeBooks.
If you require access to any titles not already available in our collections, please do make a recommendation through our Online recommendation form, and the request will go to the relevant acquisitions team for consideration.
If you just need a chapter (and a title is not available in our collections in print or as an ebook), then it may also be possible to request access to the chapter through the Request a Digital Copy service via iDiscover. More information can be found on the Request a Digital Copy LibGuide. Alternatively, Inter-Library Loans might be able to help.
Checking if Cambridge has access to a book on Springer Link
As mentioned, the best way to check if we have access to an ebook is by searching in iDiscover, especially as we might have access to a title through a different ebook provider.
However, you can also check access on Springer Link if you happen to find an interesting book when browsing the website.
A book that is accessible to Cambridge users will display a Download book PDF or a Download book EPUB link at the top of the right sidebar.
You will also see the text “Access provided by University of Cambridge” at the top of the Table of Contents.
A book that is not accessible to Cambridge users will display an “Access via your institution” link at the top of the right sidebar, even if you are already logged in.
Above the Table of Contents, you will also see the following text: “This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.”
Again, this text displays if you are not logged in, or if you are logged in but Cambridge does not have access.
The wording is a bit confusing, as it does seem to suggest that you are not logged in, even though you might be. The next section explains how to check if you are already logged in.
Checking if you are logged in on the Springer Link platform
You can check if you are logged in to the Springer Link platform at the foot of the webpage.
You should see a list of items, starting with “JISC Journal Usage Statistics Portal”. The list will include the text “University of Cambridge (2000188110)”.
If you are not logged in, it will simply show your IP address and say, “Not affiliated”.
Logging in to the Springer Link platform
There are a few different ways that Cambridge users can be authenticated on the platform:
You should automatically be recognised as a Cambridge user if you are on campus and using the Cambridge network (eduroam for Cambridge students and staff).
iDiscover records for ebook titles will automatically direct you via your Raven login if you are off campus.
The Springer Link link on the A-Z Databases or Ebooks LibGuide A-Z is also configured to send users via their Raven login when they are accessing e-resources remotely.
You can log in on the platform with your Raven credentials by clicking “Access via your institution” and searching for “University of Cambridge” under “Find your institution”.
Application Error when logging in on Springer Link
You might see an Application Error message when logging in on the platform through “Access via your institution“:
This error can occur if your web browser has remembered a previous login in the form of a cookie stored on your browser. The cookie may skip parts of the login process, which can make logging in quicker, but for security reasons Springer block these kinds of logins after a period of time, resulting in this Application Error.
Please ignore the instructions in the error message advising you to simply try again without clearing your cache, as you may end up going round in circles.
Please do get in touch if you have any ebook questions. Write to us at ebooks@lib.cam.ac.uk.
The UL has recently purchased a number of 2024 ebook collections from Brill, and our access has now been switched on. We first started doing this back in 2014, replacing our many print standing orders by buying most of Brill’s annual subject collections. Over the course of the next year we will gradually gain permanent, DRM-free access to nearly 1,000 titles as they are released, in the following collections:
Records will be added to iDiscover every month, so there will sometimes be a short delay between a book being published and it displaying in the catalogue–it’s always worth checking the Brill platform if there’s a brand new title which you can’t find in iDiscover. If you have any questions, please do get in touch with the English Collections team (engcc@lib.cam.ac.uk).
The University of Cambridge has signed up to join JSTOR’s new Path to Open ebook scheme. This is a major Open Access initiative from JSTOR, which involves publishing 1,000 ebooks from over thirty different academic publishers between now and the end of 2026. For a period of three years after publication, each title will only be available as an ebook to those institutions who are participating in Path to Open; after the end of this embargo period, they will go on to be made Open Access, and will be freely available to readers worldwide.
There will be 100 titles published in the scheme in 2023 (you can find a title list here), with 300 per year in each of the three following years. So far, nearly 60 books are available, and records for these should display in iDiscover soon. We have committed to the scheme until the end of 2024 in the first instance, with our participation being funded from a number of different UL budgets, including Collections and Academic Liaison and the Office of Scholarly Communications.
Some of the newly available ebooks can be seen below (click here to skip to the list of iDiscover links). If you have any questions about this scheme, please do get in touch with the English Collections team.
For the past couple of years, the UL’s Collections and Academic Liaison English-language budget has purchased Stanford University Press’s annual frontlist collection, hosted on the De Gruyter platform. We have now purchased their 2024 collection, meaning that we will have permanent, DRM-free (i.e. unlimited) access to titles published by Stanford during the course of the next year; we will also continue to have access to their 2000-2013 backlist (a collection of c. 1500 titles). Records for new titles will be added as they are published, with titles for the backlist collection already available in iDiscover.
Stanford describes itself thus: “Founded in 1892, Stanford University Press publishes 130 books a year across the humanities, social sciences, law, and business. Our books inform scholarly debate, generate global and cross-cultural discussion, and bring timely, peer-reviewed scholarship to the wider reading public … SUP is a publisher of ideas that matter, books that endure.” A selection of some of the recently published titles in the 2023 collection can be seen below (click here to skip to a list of iDiscover links). Please do get in touch with the English Collections team (engcc@lib.cam.ac.uk) if you have any questions.
Between the beginning of August and the end of October, 245 titles were triggered for purchase across the UL’s two demand-driven acquisition (DDA) schemes. Cambridge readers are as eclectic as ever in their interests: thanks to their activity, we now own ebooks about (amongst others) pathological lying, Schubert’s instrumental music, and contemporary American climate fiction. There remain nearly 8,500 unowned titles available across Ebook Central and JSTOR, with more being added each week.
A selection of recently published titles which we have acquired in perpetuity through the DDAs can be seen below (click here to skip to the list of iDiscover links). As ever, if you have any questions, please do get in touch with the English Collections team.
The UL’s Collections and Academic Liaison English-language budget has purchased Duke University Press’s 2024 ebooks collection. As in previous years, this means that we will have permanent, DRM-free access to c.120 frontlist titles published in the next year, and we will continue to have access to nearly 3,000 backlist titles for the duration of 2024.
Duke University Press describes itself thus: Duke University Press supports scholars in doing what they are passionate about: learning, teaching, and effecting positive change in the world. This bold, progressive spirit drives both what and how we publish. A selection of recently published Duke titles can be seen below (click here to skip to a list of iDiscover links). If you have any questions about Duke ebooks, please do get in touch with the English Collections team (engcc@lib.cam.ac.uk).
The ebooks@cambridge team is pleased to announce the launch of a new evidence-based (EBA) scheme which has allowed us to open up unlimited DRM-free access to around 1,850 extra titles on the Bloomsbury Collections platform. All titles published (and to be published) 2021-2023 in the following subject collections are included;
Africa, Asia and Latin American Studies; Art & Visual Culture; Biblical Studies; Classical Studies & Archaeology; Design; Education; Fashion; Film & Media Studies; History; Linguistics; Literary Studies; Middle East; Music & Sound Studies; Philosophy; Politics & International Relations; Religious Studies; and Theology.
These titles will be searchable in iDiscover until the end of July 2024, when a selection of around 55 of the most popular books, chosen in consultation with your faculty and College librarians, will be permanently purchased.
This is a fantastic new ebooks scheme which opens up a greater breadth of Bloomsbury ebooks for students in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences than ever before. This EBA scheme adds to previously purchased selective subject, archive and special collections as well as individually purchased titles, for all of which title records are searchable in iDiscover.
If you have any questions, please do get in touch with the ebooks team at ebooks@lib.cam.ac.uk
Africa, Asia and Latin America StudiesPolitics & International RelationsDesignBiblical StudiesArt & Visual CultureEducationArchitectureLiterary StudiesClassical Studies & ArchaeologyFilm & Media StudiesMiddle EastMusic & Sound StudiesPhilosophyReligious StudiesTheologyLinguisticsLiterary StudiesHistory
We’re delighted to say that Cambridge has acquired permanent access to the CABI Digital Library 2020-22 ebook collections!
CABI (or the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International) is a not-for-profit organisation whose mission (in their own words) “is to improve people’s lives worldwide by providing information and applying expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment”.
Their aim is to develop knowledge and solutions for the problems facing us today (climate change, hunger, poverty) and to share knowledge, skills and tools with the people who need it most. You can read more about the organisation on the “About CABI” webpage.
The CABI Digital library was launched in 2022 to house their publications on agriculture, the environment and the applied life sciences. The 2020-22 collections contain 130 DRM-free ebooks covering topics such as Agriculture, Forestry & Food, Plant Sciences, Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Environmental & Natural Sciences, Tourism, Hospitality & Leisure and more.
The collections will be useful to disciplines within the Biological Sciences and the Humanities and Social Sciences; they will be a particular boon to Plant Sciences and the new Crop Science MPhil course starting in 2023-24.
The UL’s evidence-based (EBA) scheme with De Gruyter has been renewed for another calendar year, taking it through to the end of 2024. Funded jointly by the UL’s Collection and Academic Liaison (from the English and German budgets), it will give Cambridge readers unlimited, DRM-free access to approximately 120,500 titles. As well as the various De Gruyter imprints, there are nearly thirty partner presses who participate in the EBA, including Edinburgh University Press, Gorgias Press, and Princeton University Press, among others. Records for titles are loaded monthly by the ebooks@cambridge team.
The EBA has now been running since 2016. With each renewal, we pay a deposit, and at the end of the period of the agreement, we are given the usage statistics and can select titles up to the value of the deposit, which we will then own in perpetuity, regardless of whether or not we continue with the EBA. Each year, we are generally able to purchase between 700 and 800 titles for permanent access.
This selection process normally takes place at the start of the year, so we will be selecting titles based on 2023 usage in January or February of 2024. If there are any titles you would like to recommend for permanent access, please do get in touch with the English Collections team (engcc@lib.cam.ac.uk).
ebooks@cambridge 