Saturday, September 28, 2013

VitalSource Bookshelf for Electronic Versions of Many Books

I wanted to preview the electronic version of Informatics and Nursing.  Lippincott provides an eBook that uses VitalSource Bookshelf.  The software can be downloaded from http://support.vitalsource.com/kb/vbs-ht/download-the-latest-version-of-vitalsource-bookshelf

VitalSource Bookshelf is also the platform used by Elsevier for electronic books.  You have to first download the software to your desktop computer (it works on Macs and Windows computers).  After the software is installed, you create a username and password, to log.  Accounts is a menu selection in VitalSource Bookshelf.  Select it and enter the code for the eBook.  You can instruct the software to sync the eBook(s) with other devices

After software and eBook are installed on the Mac or Windows computer, you can install the software on your mobile devices.  I installed it on my iPhone and iPad.  When I signed in to the VitalSource Bookshelf site, I could see the Informatics and Nursing textbook with badge indicating that it was ready to be downloaded. The download took only a few minutes.  The eBook version of our textbook includes page numbers, which allows users to cite it in scholarly works.

The mobile version got terrible reviews from the Apple app store, but I did not experience any problems.

Because there are different platforms for eBooks, the features may vary.  For example, the eBook versions from Barnes and Noble and Amazon differ. eBooks from Amazon are read with the Kindle app.  eBooks from Barnes and Noble are read with the Nook app.

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