Ebook FAQ for VCU Libraries

Licensing Overview

• User Licenses:  Unlimited simultaneous access
• Perpetual Access: Depends on the collection.
  • Perpetual LWW Health Libraries: Ebooks in the LWW Health Libraries listed below are part of our permanent collection. New editions are not automatically added and must be purchased.
    • Anesthesiology
    • Neurology
    • Surgery
  • Books@Ovid (Perpetual)
    • Ebooks that are part of the Books@Ovid collection are not actually part of the LWW Health Libraries, but they are unlimited ebooks that have been purchased for inclusion in our perpetual collection. 
• Subscription LWW Health Library: Ebooks in the LWW Health Library listed below are part of an annual subscription, and so new editions and titles are automatically added. Access to these ebooks would be lost if we were unable to continue our subscription.
  • Premium Basic Sciences

List of all Ebook Titles in This Collection

A title list archive of LWW Health Library Perpetual Access Collections shows what's available for purchase to our perpetual collection. A list of titles that are updated from year-to-year (i.e., bridge collections) are available on the Ovid website as well. You can also view a list of titles that we own on each platform directly (i.e., anesthesiology, neurology, surgery). 

A list of titles available through the Premium Basic Sciences collection is available on the vendor's website or by viewing the collection directly.

• How often are titles added?
  • Perpetual LWW Health Library collections (i.e., anesthesiology, neurology, surgery): New editions and titles are added to our perpetual collections when funds are available to purchase them. The annual updates are available in April, although funds for purchasing those titles may not become available for several months after that (if we can afford them at all).
  • Subscription LWW Health Library collection (i.e., premium basic sciences): New editions and titles are added as they become available.
  • Books@Ovid: Titles are individually selected and added to this platform by the Health Sciences Collections Librarian once or twice a year.
• How often are titles removed?
  • Perpetual LWW Health Libraries (i.e., anesthesiology, neurology, surgery): Titles are not removed from this collection.
  • Subscription LWW Health Library (i.e., premium basic sciences): A previous older edition stays on the platform for more popular titles, but will eventually be removed.
  • Books@Ovid: Titles are not removed from this collection.

Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)

2018 VPAT

YES, with some reservations. Because all of our LWW Health Libraries collections offer ebook access to an unlimited number of users, they can be used for required course materials. Please note, however, that although it doesn't happen often, titles can be removed from the Premium Basic Sciences subscription. If you are an instructor and an ebook you were using on the Premium Basic Sciences has disappeared, contact AskHSL@vcu.edu to see if the vendor is able to grant temporary access.

More information on this topic is available at our Library Resources as Course Materials research guide.

Entire Ebook Download: Not available.

Chapter Downloads: Not directly available, although you can print chapters to PDF from your browser. Instructions on how to print to PDF from various browsers are available online (e.g., here is one set of instructions.)

The best ebook link to provide library users is the Primo (library website) permalink. Finding a permalink that includes "alma" (rather than "cdi") in the last part of the URL is your best bet, since those records are more likely to be stable.

If you require a direct link to the ebook, however, you can follow either of the instructions below to provide library users with links that should work on and off campus. Please be aware that if the publisher changes their ebook URLs that the links you generate below may stop working.

On campus
If you are creating this link on campus, use the following instructions to generate a URL that will allow your on- and off-campus users to access this ebook.

• Links to LWW Health Library ebooks from Primo should be automatically proxied. Copy the URL directly from your browser's address bar for your book or book chapter. It should include "VCU" in the URL somewhere.
  • Sample URL: https://meded-lwwhealthlibrary-com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/book.aspx?bookid=2993 

Off campus
If you are creating this link off campus, use the following instructions to generate a URL that will allow your on- and off-campus users to access this ebook.

• Copy the URL directly from your browser's address bar for your book or book chapter. It should include "VCU" in the URL somewhere.
  • Sample URL: https://meded-lwwhealthlibrary-com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/book.aspx?bookid=2993

• Page numbers that correspond with the print versions of each ebook are available only for chapter ranges through the Table of Contents on newer ebooks.