Q. How can I read EBSCO e-books offline?

All of the EBSCO e-books have digital rights management (DRM) associated with them that requires the use of the Adobe Digital Edition DRM software. The Kindle uses proprietary software developed by Amazon and is not compatible with Adobe Digital Editions. Consequently, you cannot download EBSCO books to a Kindle.

1. For an e-book to be available for off-line use (downloadable) it must be in the PDF format. Most of the EBSCO e-books are in this format, but if something isn’t downloadable, my guess is that it’s not in a PDF format and/or it’s possible that EBSCO was unable to get those rights from the publisher.
2. To download a book, you need to login to your personal EBSCOhost account -- so if you do not have an EBSCOhost account set up, you’ll need to create it
• Click on the “Sign In” link located on the top right side of the blue horizontal bar.
• On the next screen, click on the “Create a new Account” link located on the right, just above the gray horizontal line.
• Create your personal EBSCOhost account. 
3. To download a book, you must either be using a device that works with Adobe Digital Editions (digital rights management (DRM) software) or install Adobe Digital Editions on your device (a laptop, netbook, desktop computer). EBSCO identifies some devices that work with the Adobe DRM: Barnes & Nobel NOOK; Sony Reader Daily Edition; Sony Digital Readers (PRS-300, 505, 600, and 700BC); the iPad (works with third-party applications: such as Bluefire). A long list of Adobe Digital Editions supported devices is available from Adobe (http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalpublishing/supported-devices). 
4. Adobe Digital Editions is available at no cost from Adobe (http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/). If you don’t already have an Adobe ID (an account with Adobe), you will need to create one (https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/membership/index.cfm?loc=en_us&nf=1&nl=1) and associate that Adobe ID with the downloaded Adobe Digital Editions and any Adobe DRM devices (laptops, netbooks, desktop computers, e-book readers, etc.) on which you might want to download e-books.

Download a book to a laptop or netbook (or desktop computer, for that matter):

1. After going to the EBSCO Ebook Collection, login to your EBSCOhost account.
2. Search the e-book collection and click on the “Download (Offline)” link associated with an e-book record. Note: If you haven’t signed in to your account, you will be prompted to do so at this point.
3. Select the checkout period (1-7 days; this time period is controlled by the DRM and is in accordance with publisher agreements).
4. Click the “Checkout & Download” button.
5. You should get a message indicating that the e-book was successfully downloaded. If Adobe Digital Editions is installed, you should see a window that prompts you to open it in Adobe Digital Editions. At this point, you can read and view the book at any time during the checkout period without being connected to the Internet.
6. At the end of the checkout period (1-7 days, depending on what was selected), the e-book will “disappear” from your device.

Regarding e-books from ebrary, there is an app that can be installed on iPads and iPhones, but at this time we have not enabled the option to download ebrary books because if someone downloads the ebrary e-book, it is not available to anyone else until it is “returned” to the collection.