Books

Electronic format should be considered the default preference for all monographs whenever possible

The University of Alberta Libraries acquires ebooks in the following ways:

  • Purchase of large, multi-title packages from a single publisher  
  • Subscriptions to large, multi-title, multi-publisher packages, usually via an aggregator platform
  • Purchase of individual ebooks, usually via our preferred supplier for English monographs (ProQuest).

Here’s a visual overview of how our different English-language monograph processes work together:

More detailed information is available through the following links:

  • Ebooks LibGuide: Currently being updated by the CSU Team, this guide provides information for common ebook scenarios, such as wanting to assign an ebook as a required course textbook.
  • Ebook packages: Holdings information for packages we are currently purchasing directly from publishers. These publishers are excluded from our approval and PDA plans
  • Guidelines for the selection of ebooks
  • Ebook cataloguing codes: These codes are used by our ebook cataloguers to track which packages individual ebooks belong to (Item Cat 2 field in Workflows)