Standards compliance

A look at the standards and compatibility upheld by the e-books for FE service and platform

Full Text Linking

The platform is OpenURL compliant.

Federated Searching

There is full integration of search results with several third-party federated search products, including Webfeat, MuseGlobal, Serial Solutions and Metalib.

MARC Records

Quality-checked MARC21 cataloguing records are freely available to subscribed members from the ProQuest LibGuides portal. Once you have submitted the completed sub-license form an account will be created for you. From here you can access your usage statistics as well as gaining access to the personalised MARC records for your institution.

For historical usage data from when e-books for FE were hosted on ProQuest’s Ebrary platform, before 15th Feb 2017, use your original ebrary admin credentials following the guide. If you have forgotten your original login details please contact ProQuest at ebooksupport@proquest.com

Heritage Users: If you are a Heritage user and do not have the Heritage MARC import module, please visit http://www.heritagesupport.com/jisc-e-books for instructions on how to import the cataloguing records.

We recommend that all libraries incorporate all the MARC records into their catalogues and provide direct links from the library catalogue and Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) 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 students.

The platform meets XHTML 1.0 standard and is kept up to date with the latest version of XHTML where appropriate.

To find out how to pull MARC records see the guide.

Usage Statistics

The platform provides usage statistics reports in compliance with COUNTER Code of Practice for Books and Reference Works, Release 1.

Book Reports 2, 3 and 5 are available. Book Report 1 is not applicable as it does not provide titles as single files. Book Report 2 provides title usage data with view, print, copy access combined (each access is considered a successful section request).

COUNTER reports are available for download from the admin portal.

To find out how to pull usage report see the guide.

Authentication

Authentication is from the UK Access Management Federation, on campus access using the IP address range, and subject to Ebook Central’s Access Policy: proxy server for off campus, or referring URL.

Institutions 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. This document provides a brief description of the advantages and likely cost and resource implications.

Accessibility

Digital materials e.g. e-books delivered through a learning platform/Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) can be far more accessible to blind and visually impaired (VI) users than hard copy, unmanipulable equivalents, e.g. printed handouts. There is a range of assistive technologies such as screen readers, and the platform is compatible with these technologies including DAISY and JAWS using traditional keyboard shortcuts. In addition, the user interface has integrated text to speech functionality removing the need for any additional software.

The platform and user interface is is Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 compliant.

Access using mobile devices and portability

The e-books and Ebook Central® platform can be accessed on a range of mobile devices using EBook Central’s viewing technology.