Getting Started With Discover

Using eBooks

Unlike with Five College print books which MHC users can borrow, eBooks are more complicated. eBooks are subject to restrictive licenses that set limitations on who, and sometimes how many users, can access them. Because of these restrictions and except for a few rare cases, colleges within the Five Colleges are not able to share e-books with one another.

Getting access

How to open an eBook you've found

Any eBook you find in Discover that Mount Holyoke users have access to will include a Mount Holyoke: Link to resource button that you can click on to go directly to the eBook:

What if I see an eBook I'd like to read but it's owned by another college?

If while searching Discover you come across an eBook like this one that's owned by UMass and, as a result, does not have a Mount Holyoke: Link to resource button:

you have a few options:

Search the title in Discover to see if there's another record for an eBook copy that's owned by Mount Holyoke (not the case for the example above)
Search the title in Discover to see if there is a print copy of the book at Mount Holyoke or at any of the other Five College libraries (a print copy of the example title is available at Amherst College and a Mount Holyoke user could place a request for it)
If the title isn't available in print at any Five College library, you can try requesting it via Interlibrary Loan which allows you to request books from outside the Five Colleges and/or use the Suggest a library purchase form to request that the library purchase the book for the collection.
If all else fails, you could visit the library that owns the eBook and read it while on their campus network

Discover filter for eBooks with Mount Holyoke access

Discover has a filter that will limit your results to only eBooks that Mount Holyoke users can access. You can apply this filter before or after you run a search.

Option 1: Before you search

On the Discover Advanced search page, go to the Limit your results section and select eBooks (Mount Holyoke access):

Option 2: After you've run a search

Once you've run a search and your results are displaying on the screen, follow these steps:

Beneath the search box, find and click on 1 All filters
In the All filters menu, select eBooks (Mount Holyoke access)
Click Apply