The ebrary Reader – technical issues
Posted by: Chrissie Turkington on: October 30, 2009
Now that colleagues are starting to use ebrary, it has come to light that to use the ebrary Reader (the one that includes speech), you may need to ask your technical team to set it up for you on the network. Here are all the details you need which have been provided direct from ebrary.
- We require the latest version of Java. Please make sure Java has been updated
- Please make sure cookies are enabled and that reader.ebrary.com is not blocked on ports 80 and 443. This has been a common problem with colleges that are using proxies/firewalls
- From the diagnostics we have been receiving, it seems that many users have not allowed for write access to their home directory. The Java reader does not require admin rights for installation but it creates personalized files for users in their home directory.
- Proxies that cache ebrary data can cause session errors because each individual who accesses needs unique session data. Ebrary servers are at 216.200.62.* . I recommend making sure that no content is cached from those IPs.
- If you are still having trouble, visit http://site.ebrary.com/validate and http://www.ebrary.com/kb/users/java_diag.jsp
If you still have problems using the ebrary Reader, please do get in touch.
3 Responses to "The ebrary Reader – technical issues"
November 4, 2009 at 8:21 am
Gerry, I work for a government funded support centre which is based within a UK university. My role is to work with Further and Higher Education supporting their use of online resources and technology.
The English funding council for non-university learning (LSC) has recently procured a large eBook collection for all English Further Education Colleges which is managed by JISC Collections and delivered by ebrary. We are supporting the roll-out of this collection to the colleges with which we work (I’m based in the Northwest – there are 8 other colleagues throughout England). I am therefore at present spending quite a bit of time looking at the ebrary system and am identifying issues as more colleges start utilising it – hence the original post.
Generally I’m quite happy with ebrary; it’s easy to use, customisable, has well designed and user friendly tools such as the automatic referencing, and also comes with excellent support direct from ebrary and also the UK reseller.
My concerns so far are: the ebrary reader is slow (although the QuickView is a good alternative) and requires certain ports to be open and software installing on the network as detailed in my blog post. The QuickView is quite limited and therefore the ebrary reader is preferred (particularly the speech option) but whilst it needs these technical changes to be made across networks, it will be held back and therefore the potential for ebrary will not be fully exploited.
There are a lot of people disappointed that the ebrary system does not allow for downloading the materials onto eBook readers – there is now a swell of interest in these readers alongside an expectation that a collection of this kind should allow users to take the books away on a device of their choice. It’s a disappointment, but presumably one brought about because of the agreement ebrary has with the book publishers.
As a solution to this I tried utilising portable technologies (such as the Nintendo DSi and Sony PSP) as a form of eBook reader (alongside “games” such as the Nintendo Classic Book Collection). However I cannot get the QuickView to work on these devices. I’ve tried the Nintendo DSi, Sony PSP and Nokia N96. I would like to be advising libraries to purchase portable technologies for loan within the library, but whilst ebrary does not work on these devices, this idea is dead in the water 
Overall I am pleased with ebrary, and I suspect that most eBook aggregators will not provide perfect systems. Most of my concerns – particularly the last one – are not points that will stop ebrary being used but it’s a system with such potential that I really want to be able to help colleges exploit its full potential and also to utilise it in innovative ways. I’m happy to chat further about ebrary if it helps your research.
[...] About The ebrary Reader – technical issues [...]
October 30, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Chrissie,
I am doing research on the various ebooks aggregators’ systems/platforms and their pluses and minuses. Wondering if you work at a company or a college/university?
And also, would you have any further comments about ebrary (positive and/or could use improvement?)
Kind Regards and thanks in advance.
Gerry Caffrey