E-books reading

Options for reading e-books

There are many e-books available at CU from different producers and on different platforms. You can find them in UKAŽ. The ways of reading e-books can sometimes be different on one platform. You will most often encounter the following options:

• On-line reading in the internet browser
• Off-line downloading of part/chapter/in some cases whole book (in different formats, mostly *.pdf)
• Off-line downloading in the app of the producer (for example, Bookport, Publi, EBSCOhost)
• Off-line loan (for 14 days, secure format DRM) - only for ProQuest platform
  • DRM (Digital Right Management) - system for copyright protection of electronic documents. DRM protects the e-book from illegal distribution, either in the form of social DRM (watermark indicating who purchased the e-book and is possibly responsible for its illegal distribution) or so-called hard DRM, which also has limitations of a technical nature (e.g. ProQuest Ebook Central download links)

EBSCOhost platform
What are the options for reading e-books on the EBSCO platform and how to work with them can be found at this link. The manual is available in the Czech language.

ProQuest platform
A guide to reading e-books on the ProQuest platform can be found on this page. The page is only available in English. More information about this platform and ebooks on it in general can be found here.

1U and 3U mode

The e-book is currently being used.' What does this mean for me?
Some titles are made available to only one (1U) or three concurrent accessors (3U); availability information can be found either in the note in UKAŽ or in the selected e-book on the platform. Therefore, you may have to open the e-book later (the release date and time is listed directly next to the book on the platform). Sometimes the e-book is available again within a few minutes, other times you have to wait for two weeks (offline loan on ProQuest platform).

DDA

While browsing e-books on UKAŽ, you may have come across the abbreviation DDA, this method of purchasing e-books was ended on 29.5.2026. The book appeared to be available, but after 5 minutes of reading, you were prompted to request it from the library. This was a Demand Driven Acquisition service, when a book is made available for a short reading so that you can get acquainted with it.

Ebook not available

In some cases, you don't need to access the e-book. Here are some reasons why this is the case and what you can do about it.

• Only for/Pouze pro - some e-books are only available for some faculties or parts of Charles University. In the central search engine, there will be a note with this information next to the link. You can try contacting the faculty in question to see if you can access the e-book, for example, via a computer in their study room.
• Charles University does not have an e-book available at all - you can find out what to do in this case on the page How can I get a document that is not available in the Charles University collection?