ProQuest’s FAQs

ProQuest has many great frequently asked questions and their answers on the Ebook Central Platform when you select the help button in the top right.

General

What can I do in Ebook Central?

Ebook Central was selected by your library to provide authoritative ebooks in a range of subjects from the world’s top publishers.
Use Ebook Central to quickly and easily find relevant ebooks and chapters; read online; search within the ebook; and highlight, take notes and bookmark pages in your online copy, stored on your bookshelf for you. You can also share your research with others, download ebooks and chapters to your laptop or mobile device, and more.

Can I change the language of the interface?

Yes. From the top navigation bar, select Settings, then Language. Choose your desired language and save your changes. You’ll see the interface in your chosen language until you clear cookies.

Where can I get tips and other information on using Ebook Central?

There are many ways for you to get the most of your research on Ebook Central:

Watch how-to videos
View the LibGuide
Sign up for training

If you have a question that’s not answered here, please visit the Support Center, search for a topic, and select Ebook Central from the product menu. You may also contact ebooksupport@proquest.com.

Sign In

I’m taken to my institution’s Sign In page, but I’m having trouble signing in. What can I do?

Your institution manages your account for Ebook Central and other electronic resources. If you don’t see instructions on how to get help, please contact your librarian.

I’m taken to Ebook Central’s Sign In page, but I don’t have a username and password. What can I do?

It’s easy to sign up for Ebook Central. On the Sign In page, look for the button to Create Account or Request an Account.
If you do not see a button, your library may not have turned on this feature. Please contact your librarian or email ebooksupport@proquest.com.

My username and password for Ebook Central don’t work. What can I do?

Click on “Forgot your username or password?

” Choose whether to recover your username or reset your password, and we’ll send the information to the email address registered to your account.
If you no longer have access to that email address, please contact ebooksupport@proquest.com.

What are the requirements for password on Ebook Central?

Your password must be at least 8 letters, numbers, or special characters.

Search

I see a book that is “Available on request.” What does that mean?

Some libraries make certain books “Available upon request.” You may read such books for up to 5 minutes before you need to request further access from your library, at no cost to you. To request a book, simply click on the title or Detail Page icon, and complete the short request form. Your library will contact you with their decision.

In Chapter Results, why are chapters with fewer results sometimes ranked higher than chapters with more results?

Chapter Results are sorted by relevancy, and the number of results in the chapter is just one of many factors we consider. For example, two chapters may have the same number of results, but one chapter may have more pages than the other. We account for that and other factors when providing you with the most relevant search results.

How do I search by Editor?

Go to Advanced Search and use the Author field. We’ll limit your results by author, editor, and other contributors.

I want to search for a Pub Year Range but exclude a year within the range. Can I do that?

Yes. Go to Advanced Search, enter the start and end year of your range, and execute the search. In the search results, look in the side filters for Year Published. Deselect any years that you want to exclude from your search.

How can I find books that aren’t limited to 1 user at a time?

Go to Advanced Search. Near the end of the page, you’ll find a field for “Number of Copies.” Select “More Than 1” or “Unlimited.”

I ran a search earlier that I want to go back to. Do I have to enter it again?

If you want to find a search that you ran earlier in your session, select Search from the top navigation bar, then select “Saved Searches” on the page.
If you run the same search frequently (e.g. for a long-term research project), you have the option to save your search for later use, across multiple sessions.
1. Conduct your desired search.
2. In search results, select “Save this Search” under your query.
3. Follow the instructions to run your search online, or have new results emailed to you at the frequency of your choice.
You can see all of your saved searches on the “Saved Searches” page.

How do I search within the book for multi-word phrases?

In the search box labeled “Search within book” in the left-hand side panel, just put the phrase in quotes, such as “Fortune 500 companies”. This will return exact phrase matches. If you do not use quotes, you will get matches on any of the 3 words (for example, hits on “Fortune”, “500” or “companies”).

For my search results within the book, can I see how many results there are per page?

Yes.
For a quick view of the distribution of the searched term in the book, you’ll see a list of chapters, similar to the table of contents. To the right of each chapter title, is a visual indication of the frequency of the search term in the chapter (more color, more hits).
To drill down, click the triangle to the left of the chapter heading; now you’ll see every page that includes the searched term within the chapter, along with the number of hits.

Download

Why can’t I open the book I downloaded to my laptop/desktop?

First, make sure that you completed the installation of Adobe Digital Editions on your laptop or desktop. Adobe Digital Editions is required for offline reading, and is different than Adobe Reader. Perhaps you have downloaded the Adobe Digital Editions installer file but didn’t complete the installation process?

Look and see if it is now fully installed and showing as an application on your computer. After you have confirmed this, double-click on the book file (ending in .acsm) and depending on your settings, it will either launch Adobe Digital Editions or ask you what program you would like to open it with (select Adobe Digital Editions).
The first time you open a book (which has an .acsm extension) with ADE, you will be asked to “Authorize Your Computer”. The ebook vendor showing by default is “Adobe ID”; do not modify this default.
Note that you only need to enter an Adobe ID and password if you want to transfer the book to another device. If you want to authorize your computer without an Adobe ID, check the box at the bottom left corner of the screen: “I want to Authorize my computer without an ID”.
If you can’t find the book, you can go back to Step 3 Download and download it again.

Why can’t I open the book I downloaded to my iOS (iPhone or iPad) or Android device?

First, make sure that you completed the installation of the Bluefire reader on your iOS or Android device. Bluefire is required for offline reading.
Also, make sure you have authorized it with an Adobe ID, which is required to open thes book in Bluefire. It’s easy to create an Adobe ID. If you have not done so you can go back to Step 2 Install of our download process. Follow the link “A free Adobe ID is also required.”

I can’t find the book I downloaded, how is it named?

Look for a file with the extension “.acsm”. All book file names are 7 digits and end in “.acsm”. Double-clicking on the “.acsm” file prompts you to open or save the file; you should choose to open it, using either Adobe Digital Editions (if on laptop or desktop) or Bluefire (if on iOS or Android). See above Q&A if you are not prompted with one or the other of these reader options.

What’s the difference between downloading a chapter and downloading a book?

In Ebook Central, you can download just what you need – typically, you’re enabled to download individual pages and chapters as well as the entire book. In some cases of limited availability on a book, you institution may limit the full book download.
When you download pages or chapters, you get a PDF file that doesn’t expire. You can search the text, and copy passages for use in your research, along with a citation in the format of your choice. The number of pages you can download shares the same allowance as what you can print to PDF.
To download the entire book, you’ll need Adobe Digital Editions on laptop/desktop, or Bluefire Reader on tablets and phones. Your library determines the download periods available to you, which may vary depending on the number of copies held by the library.

What’s the difference between downloading a book as PDF or EPUB?

For many books in Ebook Central, you can choose your download format – PDF or EPUB. Books in PDF retain the look and feel of the print book. EPUB allows you to resize the text of the book, which may be helpful on a tablet, phone, or other smaller device.

Why is the book I wanted to download not available?

Aren’t electronic books always available?

Actually, just like print books, your institution decides how many copies to purchase. They may subscribe or purchase some titles with unlimited availability (one copy — many simultaneous readers) while for other titles the availability is limited to a single use (one copy — one reader). In some cases the book may only be available from the publisher as a single copy.
We make it transparent to you: check the “Availability” section, on the Detail Page, or in the Book Details side panel (book icon in the side panel). You can see how many copies are available and if it is for Online reading or Download, or both.

Read Online

How do I search within the book for multi-word phrases?

For my search results within the book, can I see how many results there are per page?

Can I take notes on specific text?

In addition to taking a note on the book page, which you can do from the Reader toolbar, you may take notes on specific text within the page. Simply select your desired text, and in the pop-up menu, choose the Note icon on the right.Once you’ve entered and saved your note, you’ll see a yellow Note icon next to your text, which is also highlighted in yellow.

I use the same citation format for all my research. Do I have to select it for each citation?

If you have a preferred citation format, you can save it to your account and it’ll be pre-selected for you going forward.
Just follow these steps:
1. Sign In (if you haven’t already) from the top navigation bar.
2. Go to Settings > Profile and select your default citation format.

I’m on a smaller device and want more viewing space for the page. What can I do?

You have several options:

Close the left-hand side panel—there is an X in the upper right corner of the panel that dismisses it (to bring it back, just click on one of the 4 side panel icons).
Whether the side panel is opened or dismissed, you can choose the Zoom controls in the upper toolbar. To get the most space for your text when the side panel is dismissed, choose the Zoom option “Fit to width” (to the right of the Zoom In option).

Why can’t I just use “control C” to copy words on the page?

Publishers impose restrictions on how much of their books can be copied and printed. To comply with publisher digital rights management, we present the book pages as PDF images, rather than text.
You can still copy some text, and you have two ways to do it:
1. Simply select words on a page, and a contextual menu will pop up with five icons (copy, 3 highlighter colors, take notes); select the Copy icon on the left.
2. You also can choose the Copy function from the upper toolbar. This copies the entire page, by default.
In both cases we automatically append the citation to the copied text (nice touch, eh?).

I don’t seem to be able to highlight text when reading the book online on my tablet. Is that normal?

When you’re viewing a book online on a tablet (as opposed to a desktop or a laptop) the ability to select text (and thus highlight text) is not available. While there is no text selection, you still have abilities to Copy text (entire page) and Annotate (page level notes) via the Toolbar menu.

I am not seeing the book page on my Android tablet. What happened?

If you are using an Android tablet, it is possible that you are running on a custom browser. Simply switch to either Chrome or Firefox, and the ebrary Reader will be fully functional again.

I use a screen reader. what do I need to do in order for it to read all the book content?

You can use accessibility mode, in which pages of books are presented as text rather than images, and other functions such as searching for a book or within the book are optimized for screen reader use.
If you use a screen reader – such as JAWS, NVDA or VoiceOver – instructions to turn on accessibility mode are available for reading when you enter the page. If you do not use a screen reader but need accessibility mode, please contact your librarian to request it from ebooksupport@proquest.com.

Bookshelf

How can I copy or move my book to another folder?

To copy a book into another folder, click on More (…), then Copy To… and select your desired folder.
To move a book, first copy it into your desired folder. Then delete it from your original folder.

When I share a link or email a folder, what do recipients see when they click on the links?

Upon clicking a link to a book or folder, the recipient is taken to the book or folder on your library’s Ebook Central site. They may be asked to Sign In, depending on your library’s settings, before they can view the book or folder.

When I export my notes, why do I see fewer items than I do in the Reader?

The exported file includes your notes and bookmarks. It does not include your highlights.

Why can’t I delete my folder?

You can delete any folder that you create yourself. You can’t delete any folders that come with your Ebook Central account, which would be Downloads & Loans, Recently Viewed, Annotated Books, and Research.