Books & Ebooks
DCU Library has several collections of print books across both sites.
Registered DCU students and staff can use Click & Collect to request an item and collect it from the library of your choice.
All books and Ebooks are listed on the Library's Catalogue.
O'Reilly Library - Books
Main/ Short loan Collection
- Most books in these collections can be borrowed for 3 weeks.
- Books in the Short loan Collection are for essential reading and are usually on your reading list
- Multiple books can be borrowed from each collection. For more information on loans, see our Borrowing & Account page.
Request Collection
- The Request Collection is a large collection of supplementary material. Items from this collection can be borrowed through the Click & Collect service.
Cregan Library - Books
Main/ Reserve Collection
- Most books in these collections can be borrowed for 3 weeks.
- Most books in the Reserve Collection are copies of frequently borrowed books.
- Multiple books can be borrowed from each collection. For more information on loans, see our Borrowing & Account page.
Junior Collection
- The Junior Collection spans pre-school age to adult books and is relevant to the primary curriculum. It includes Irish interest and Irish language titles and picture books.
- Shelf-mark label on the spine of the book contains the prefix ‘J.’
Teaching Collection
- The Teaching Collection comprises current textbooks, class readers, how-to-teach books and non-book resources. Its primary aim is to support students as they undertake School Placement.
- Shelf-mark label on the spine of the book contains the prefix ‘TC.’
Live Wise Collection
- This collection aims to enhance and promote well-being and resilience and supports individuals in finding new approaches to life's challenges.
Request Collection
- The Request Collection is a large collection of supplementary material. Items from this collection can be borrowed through the Click & Collect service.
E-books
E-books
The library provides user access to over 240,000 Ebooks through direct purchase or annual subscription models.
This video outlines how to search and access an Ebook from the Catalogue:
The vast majority of these Ebooks can be found on the Library's Catalogue. When refining your search results first choose Books and then Online on the left hand side of the screen.
When accessing, students and staff will be prompted to enter their DCU username and password.
Aside from the catalogue, users can search for DCU Ebook content directly from the relevant platforms. The main Ebook platforms available are:
- Ebook Central
(owned & subscribed ebooks) - EBSCO
(owned ebooks) - Springer
(owned & subscribed ebooks) - Cambridge
- O'Reilly
(all subscribed content) users must create an account
Although the majority of book titles are available for individuals to purchase as Ebooks, this is not the case for institutions like libraries. Due to licence restrictions, popular texts are not always available for the library to purchase in electronic format. When available, there can often be limits on the number of users who can access the Ebook at any given time. These licence restrictions and the availability of an Ebook are dictated by the publisher.
Ebooks can be read on PC, Laptop and a variety of other devices. To read online, a user need only have Adobe Reader installed on their machine/ device. To read off line and to download, a user needs to have Adobe digital editions installed. For mobile devices such as iPads, iPhones and Android devices, the software needed to read an Ebook on most platforms is the free Bluefire Reader app. Downloaded e-books can also be transferred to any portable e-book reader that supports Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). There is a list of compatible devices on the ADE website.
https://www.adobe.com/ie/solutions/Ebook/digital-editions.html
The number of pages available to print and to download is dictated by the Ebook licence. Download options usually range from 7 to 21 days, while there is no download option for limited user licence Ebooks. Once they have downloaded the Ebook to their device, users do not need an internet connection to read the downloaded Ebook. When the loan period expires on a downloaded title, the user's access is automatically turned off until they renew the title. Printing and copying are allowed with downloaded titles.
Ebook licences are dictated by the publisher.
The available licence type differs for each Ebook but these are the typical licences the library will encounter.
1 User - Only one patron can access the Ebook at any given time. The book becomes available after the user 'logs out' or after 15 minutes of inactivity
3 User - Three patrons can access the Ebook at same time. The book is available after the user 'logs out' or after 15 minutes of inactivity
Non-linear/ Concurrent lending - Patrons can access a book concurrently for a specified number of times a year. The loan instance is determined by the publisher and can typically range from 100, 200, 325 to 365 loan instances a year.
In essence, an Ebook with 200 loan instances can be accessed a maximum of 200 times a year.
Unlimited - unlimited usage and unlimited users
DCU Library strive to purchase/ subscribe to the most in-demand titles available for its students.