Rarely are all e-books from a publisher or platform licensed. 

The HSD University Library buys licenses for individual titles or so-called packages (e.g. Springer publisher, technology package, German-language).

This means that often only individual titles are available for research. If you also require an e-book, please contact us.  

Individual licenses are intended for private individuals. As an institution, the University Library purchases so-called campus licenses for an e-book.

This means that e-books can be used by everyone on the campus network. Special license conditions with special prices are associated with this.

These prices differ from those offered in the book trade catalogs for end users. These individual licenses can only be used by a private individual.

First of all, not all titles are available as e-books. Older titles in particular are not available.

In addition, an economic solution must always be found, as some e-books cost up to ten times as much as a print copy. Here, the University Library has to weigh up which access it provides.

But we are happy to check whether we can license a particular e-book. Please contact us.​​

The publisher decides on which platform it makes its e-books available.

Some publishers only offer their e-books via Ebook Central. In this case, we are bound by the conditions of digital lending.

However, for each title we check whether there are alternative accesses and try to make these available.