Books and Ebooks

Cardiff Met libraries hold over 140,000 print books across our two main campus collections. Staff and students can borrow up to 30 books at a time and they renew automatically, unless reserved by someone else. You can find more information about borrowing books in our guide to Using our Libraries.

We also have separate collections of specific types of material:

• Clinical Practice: The Clinical Practice Collection at Llandaff has a range of items covering applied health sciences. Items include therapy manuals, voice & communication and speech development resource packs specifically for Speech & Language Therapy.
• School Experience: The School Experience Collection at Cyncoed contains books, resources and CDs for children aged between 3-16. It is primarily for students studying on initial teacher education courses but is open to all Cardiff Met staff and students.
• Welsh Language Collection: We have a Welsh Collection space at Cyncoed where Welsh Language books can be found. The collection contains materials related to Wales in general, but also materials related to teaching in Wales.

Cardiff Met provides access to a growing collection of 375,000 ebooks from a variety of publishers and platforms. You can search and access them using MetSearch or browse ebook collections on the Databases A-Z.

Ebook platforms offer a range of features when reading online, including options to add bookmarks, notes and highlights. They also include a range of accessibility features, such as the ability to change the background and font colours and change the text typeface and size. It is possible to download ebooks onto your device to read offline. You can download chapters and save as PDFs or download the entire book for a limited time using Adobe Digital Editions software.

Guidance on how to search, access and download books is available in our dedicated guide to Searching for Books and Ebooks.

The library subscribes to several ebook collections and databases, including:

BibliU - Full text eTextbooks    BibliU user guide

Ebook Central - Our biggest ebook database. Includes full text ebooks from a range of publishers and access to the Academic Complete collection    ProQuest user guide

EBSCO eBook Collection - Full text ebooks from EBSCO    EBSCO user guide

Law Trove - A collection of law ebooks from Oxford University Press    Law Trove user guide

O'Reilly - Ebooks in areas of computing, mathematics, business, and engineering    O'Reilly user guide

VLeBooks - Full text access to ebooks across all subject areas    VLeBooks user guide

Ebooks are made available to purchase on various license options. These include:

• Single user – one person can view the book at any one time. It is not always possible to download the full book in this instance to ensure it remains available for other users.
• Multi user – for example 3, 5 or 10 concurrent users.
• Unlimited access – any number of people can view the book at one time.
• Non-linear – credit system that allows multiple people to access the book until the credits run out.

If an ebook can't be accessed because the license limits have been reached, check the MetSearch results page in case we have links to other providers. Even though you may not be able to access it straight away, some providers offer a reservation/queuing system which will notify you when the ebook is available.

The library tries to make as much content as possible available digitally, but this is not always possible as not all texts are available for us to purchase as ebooks. Some of the reasons for this include:

• The publisher has only made their text available in print
• The ebook is only available for individuals to purchase, not institutions
• The cost of the ebook is prohibitively expensive when compared to the price of a print copy
• The text is only available to purchase as a subscription to a whole collection of ebooks

Many of our ebooks are subject to Digital Rights Management (DRM), a technology used by publishers to control how much of the book you can copy, print or download. You can often see how much of a text can be downloaded in the book details:

Some ebooks platforms, such as Cambridge Core, are DRM-free and impose no technical restrictions on the use of their content. However, it is still the user’s responsibility to ensure they comply with copyright law and the licensing terms of the platform.

It is possible to download whole ebooks and chapters for offline access. Many ebooks offer a range of accessibility options, which can benefit all readers, regardless of whether you have a visual impairment or any special accessibility requirements. For more information, see our guides to downloading ebooks and their accessibility features:

Downloading ebooks

Ebook accessibility

How do I find an ebook?

You can search for library ebooks on MetSearch. Search for the title, author or keyword and narrow the results down to ‘Books’ and ‘Online Access’ using the ‘Tweak my results’ filters on the right-hand side of the screen. More information on searching for books and ebooks can be found in our Using MetSearch guide.

What if I can’t find the ebook I’m looking for on MetSearch?

If you can’t find the title you’re looking for as an ebook on MetSearch, ensure you are signed in and check your search settings to make sure you don’t have any filters enabled that might prevent an ebook from displaying. In many instances, a print copy of the title will be available as an alternative if we don’t have the ebook.

If you are sure the library doesn’t hold a particular book, you can make a purchase request or request it as an interlibrary loan.

What does it mean when it says all copies are currently in use?

Access to some ebooks is restricted to a limited number of simultaneous users. If you see this message, that limit has been reached. You will need to wait until one of the users finishes with the ebook before you can access it. Some platforms offer a waitlist or reservation system, where you will be notified when the book becomes available. The library often receives a notification if a user has been unable to access an ebook so that we can make purchasing decisions and buy extra copies in response to this.

What is the difference between ‘Read Online’ and ‘Download’?

When you select Read Online you open the ebook in your web browser. Reading online does not require additional software but you do need to be connected to the internet to read the book.

When you Download an ebook you are downloading it to a personal computer or mobile device and it can be read offline. Additional software such as Adobe Digital Editions is often required to download entire ebooks. See our guide to downloading ebooks for more information.

Why can I only download one chapter or a limited number of pages?

This is because of Digital Rights Management (DRM), a technology used by publishers to control how much of the book you can copy, print or download. The permitted amount of downloading varies between publishers and titles, with restrictions usually applied to a specific percentage of the book.

What is the difference between EPUB and PDF format?

EPUB (Electronic Publication) and PDF (Portable Document Format) are both ebook formats, but they differ in their design and functionality. EPUB text is reflowable, meaning it adjusts to the screen size and font size. EPUB is generally a more accessible format, as it functions better with screen readers and allows for customisation.

PDF text is fixed, so it doesn't automatically adjust to the screen size and you may need to zoom or adjust the page size to view the text properly. PDF pages tend to retain the look and feel of a printed book, so the page numbers are fixed and will display on the page. This makes it the preferred option when you need the page numbers for referencing purposes.

An ebook I want to read has a closed padlock next to it. Does that mean I can’t access it?

If you are trying to access a book on a publisher platform and you see a closed padlock next to a title, this usually means that we do not have access to the book on that particular platform. However, it may be that we do have access to it elsewhere – try searching for the book on MetSearch to see if it is available anywhere else. If not, you can place a purchase or interlibrary loan request.

Why does the library have a book in print but not as an ebook?

Where possible, the library purchases as many books as we can electronically. However, this is not always possible, for a variety of reasons:

• Some titles are not published as ebooks, especially older texts.
• Some publishers provide ebooks for individuals to purchase but do not allow for institutional purchase by libraries.
• Some ebooks are very expensive compared to cost of the print and the purchase cannot be justified.

Can I access ebooks if I’m not a current Cardiff Met student or staff member?

Some of our ebooks are available for external members to read in the library using our Walk-In access scheme.

Guidance on how to deal with common access issues when using ebooks is available in our E-resources troubleshooting guide.

For more help with searching for and using ebooks, contact your Academic Librarian.

The library also offers training throughout the year to help with all aspects of research and using the library's resources. You can sign up for these via MetHub.