Ebooks: Navigating EBSCOhost

It is telling me I have to create a personal account to download the text, but I am worried that it will not know about my Rice affiliation. 

If you use your Rice email to sign up for an account the process is very simple and it knows about your Rice affiliation. 

NOTE: You do not automatically have a private account that uses your net id and password. If you have privacy concerns with creating an account with EBSCOhost you can read online or revoke access to your information and end your EBSCOhost account at any time.

I am having trouble accessing an ebook online.

The ebook might be temporarily unavailable due to limits on the number of people who can access this text at one time. If that is not the case, double-check your internet connection, and make sure you are signed in (check the URL for signs of EZproxy). I have noticed that sometimes if you leave a tab open without interacting with it you will be signed out and will be prompted to log in to EBSCOhost. At the time I had not yet made my personal account, so I simply closed the tab and went back to OneSearch and used the link to return.

I can't print or download any of the text.

Depending on the text and its DRM, you have either met the page limit for downloading/printing, or these features are restricted due to the licensing agreement. You can check the detailed information of the ebook or the top of the contents page in the online reader's navigation bar to see how many pages you can still save/print. 

EBSCOhost, like ProQuest, requires you to have Adobe Digital Editions (or comparable third-party software) in order to download the full text. EBSCOhost also requires you to make a personal account before you can download any full texts. If you have a Rice email account the easiest way to create a personal account is to go to create a new account and then sign up using your Rice email. EBSCOhost will recognize the email, allowing you to make an account without having to input any more information. You will have to agree to let EBSCOhost access some of your personal data in order to make a personal account (which you can revoke at any time although this will terminate your personal account). 

When downloading the full text you will be able to choose how long to borrow the text, with the duration typically ranging from 1-7 days (although different texts will have different max durations due to their licensing agreements).

From one student to another, here are my favorite and least favorite parts of using EBSCOhost. Don't let my list of cons keep you from using EBSCOhost, just know that it has its own set of limitations and learning curve.

Pros: 

• Simple, straight to the point descriptions of books, features, and restrictions.
• Gives you access to full copies of books spanning genres and topics (academic and leisure reading).
• Has online and off-line reading capabilities
• Built-in dictionary allowing you to look up the definitions of words without leaving the site.

Cons: 

• Not many features for annotating online (although to be honest I never use these features anyway)
• Must create a personal account to download any of the ebook, thus allowing EBSCOhost to data-mine.
• In order to download the whole text you have to download a third-party software, only to have the download expire in a few days.