Proquest eBook Central Support: Searching and Features

To locate books in ProQuest eBook Central you can either do a Basic search, an Advanced Search or you can Browse by subjects.

To do a Basic Search you can use the quick search box located on the home page. There is also a Search button on the blue navigation bar located at the top of the screen. For Advanced Searching or to Browse by Subjects click on the links located below the quick search box. 

For more information about searching read the articles below:

For information about the different ways you can find eBooks watch this video:

• If you are looking for a specific title use quotation marks e.g. "Growing up African in Australia".
• Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT can be used although they must be in capital letters to work e.g. Tourism AND Australia.
• Truncation searching is also supported using an asterisk (*). For example, searching for Austral* will return results for Australia, Australian, Australians, Australasia.

The book details page provides information about the book and how you can access the book. You can see the Availability of the book including number of copies held.

Books that are available for unlimited access can be downloaded for up to 21 days. If a limited number of copies are held, you can only download a chapter. You can also see how many pages you can print or download. 

If a book is not able to be downloaded for offline reading, it will state Not Available for Full Download. 

You can also:

•  Share the link to the book with other TAFENSW students or staff 
•  Get the citation for the book to put into your assignment. 

For more information read the article or watch the video below:

Once you have entered your search terms you will be taken to the Book and Chapter results page where you will be able to refine your search.

The search terms used are highlighted in yellow and there may be a brief description for each book. The eBook availability status is located at the bottom of each record. The status will either be Available or In Use.

Refine your search using filters from the left sidebar such as: Year Published, Subject, and Author. 

The options on the right of the screen  will allow you to:

•  download the book to your computer or mobile device for offline reading
• read the book online
• view the table of contents
• add the book to your bookshelf to read at a later date.

Select the book you would like to view by clicking on the title.

To read a book online, click on the image of the open book .

Find out how to navigate the book in the articles and the video below:

Bookshelf

The Bookshelf will keep a record of your downloads and will keep track of up to 10 recently viewed books. It will also display any books that you have created bookmarks in, have added notes to or if you have highlighted text.

For more information, see the following article and video below:

ProQuest eBook Central allows you add a variety of annotations to books that remain even after you have closed the book. Annotations include highlighting text, adding a note, and adding a bookmark.

  Highlighting Text

1. To highlight text, click on the Highlight icon located on the toolbar at the top of the screen and then using your mouse, select the text you would like to highlight. This will highlight the text in yellow.

2. If you would like to highlight using different colours, select the text that you would like to highlight. A pop up box will appear and you can select the highlighter colour. 

From this pop up box you can also copy text that can be put into other documents or you can add a note to the highlighted section.  

 Add Note

There are two ways to add a note.

1. Click on the Add Note icon located on the toolbar located at the top of the page. A text box will open and you can type your note. Click save, and a note icon will appear in the top left corner of the page.

2. Highlight the text in the eBook where you would like to add the note, and click on the note icon. A text box will open and you can type your note. Click save, and a note icon will appear to the left of the highlighted text.

To view, edit or delete your note, double click on the yellow icon.

 Adding a Bookmark

To add a bookmark to a page you can either click on the Add bookmark icon located on the toolbar at the top of the screen, or you can click on the greyed-out Bookmark + icon located at the top of each page. When the bookmark is on, the icon will change colour to blue  Click again to turn it off.

Viewing your Annotations

You can see a  list of annotations you have made in a book by clicking the star icon on the left hand side when you are reading the eBook online. Clicking on an annotation will take you to the page in the book. You can also delete your annotations here. All the ProQuest eBooks you have annotated will appear in your Bookshelf, which you can access from the top ribbon menu.

ProQuest is committed to providing all users with a fully accessible experience for research, teaching and learning.

• ProQuest style guides specify using colours that meet minimum contrast specifications. 
• Zoom in up to 300% is provided without text spilling off screen using inbuilt browser features.
• The collection is navigable with just a keyboard.
• ProQuest is tested using the following screen reader and browser combinations:
  • Desktop: Chrome + JAWS  
  • Desktop: Microsoft Edge + JAWS  
  • Desktop: Firefox + NVDA
  • Desktop: Safari + VoiceOver
  • Mobile Apple devices: Safari + VoiceOver
  • Mobile Android devices: Chrome + TalkBack
• When reading online using the PDF Reader, content can be read using a screen reader if Text Only Mode is enabled.

Read the full accessibility statement in the article below or view the video for more information.