Digital textbooks 
Loan and consultation of ebooks and handbooks

Contacts

The Library System aims to make textbooks from the most important scientific publishers available online. To achieve this goal, SBA has subscribded some platforms through which you can borrow or consult ebooks  for free to study for an exam or thesis.

  • Search for ebooks via cerCa'
  • From home you can read the ebooks via VPN or IDEM GARR

Pandoracampus

Pandoracampus is the multi-publisher and multidisciplinary e-learning platform, created by the publisher il Mulino, which allows students to borrow about 500 free of charge textbooks in the fields of social sciences, humanities and technical-scientific subjects.
Pandoracampus also offers useful tools for studying and teaching, such as exercises, tutorials and additional content.

The service is reserved to students. Professors can fill in this form to request the digital version of a specific text.

Note: the textbooks and the web pages are only available in Italian.

Are you a student?

You may borrow up to 5 ebooks at a time for a maximum of 3 months. Each book can be borrowed by a maximum of 10 users at the same time. 

  • For your first access, go to the User registration page and create a new account using the options below:

    • log in via Idem (selecting ‘'Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia” from the list of available institutions and logging in with your institutional credentials)
    • create a new Pandoracampus account using your institutional email address (@stud.unive.it).

  • Once logged in, you can browse pandoracampus.it/lending and find the book you're interested in by checking the list of available texts or using the search bar; then send a loan request by clicking on Richiedi prestito (Request a loan): you will receive a confirmation email and find the book in the I miei libri (My books) area.
  • The loan expires after 3 months, but you can return the book in advance after 60 days by clicking on "Profilo" (Profile) > "Abbonamenti attivi" (Active subscriptions)> "Cessa" (Loan end).
  • If you borrowed a book by mistake, you can revoke it within 7 days by writing at  bda@unive.it.
  • You will receive an alert a week before the expiring date of your loan. 

The use of Pandoracampus digital lending is suggested when in need of whole books or for long periods (e.g. to prepare exams or theses): as an alternative, you can borrow or consult the print copy of the book by asking at your reference library.

Are you a professor?

You can ask for a free access to a text you are intending to adopt by filling in this form.
Please check the web page pandoracampus.it/teachers for further information.

 

What to do on Pandoracampus

  • read books in html format
  • highlight the text, take notes and insert bookmarks
  • use organizational tools to study (e.g. create a calendar with your goals)
  • test your knowledge with self-check exercises (flashcards, multiple-choice tests)
  • access to additional resources and in-depth materials
  • interact with other readers, asking questions or answering to those made by others
  • listen to the text 
  • print 1 "digital page unit" (corresponding to a chapter/section) at a time and up to a maximum of 25 "digital page units" from the textbook within a 30-days period;
  • copy the contents up to 10 "page units" of the digital handbook within a 365-days period (the copy/paste function will automatically deactivate once the maximum allowed copy limit is reached)

Find out more at pandoracampus.it/studia

The publishers of Pandoracampus are il Mulino, ISEDI, UTET Università, Città Studi Edizioni, Carocci, Mondadori Università and Le Monnier Università. Over time, the collection will be increased with the addition of new textbooks.

If you need support, please visit the Pandoracampus help page.

Using the Consulta la biblioteca digitale (Check the digital library) function - accessible by logging in at pandoracampus.it/lending or directly from the Consultation area - you can

  • search using keywords or filters (by author, by title, by topic)
  • read limited text portions (approximately one page) with the following restrictions: 3 views per day, 10 views per week and 20 views per month. Ca’ Foscari has a monthly limit of 500 snippet views available for all its users. 

The consultation service does not involve any loan activation.

Pandoracampus complies with the accessibility standards set by the Fondazione LIA (Italian accessible books) and uses the integrated reading tools available on the platform for both visually impaired and dyslexic users (https://www.pandoracampus.it/accessibility).

Pandoracampus is optimized for the latest versions of the most common browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge) and is accessible also by mobile.

McGraw Hill

Collection of 32 ebooks of McGraw-Hill publisher, mainly in the economic and scientific areas, accessible on VitalSource Bookshelf platform.

You may borrow up to 5 ebooks at a time for a maximum of 7 days. Each book can be borrowed by a maximum of 10 users at the same time.

After logging in, go to Explore to see the full list of ebooks. If you want to read a text, click Borrow. You can consult the book for 7 days, but you can also return it before the loan expires.

After borrowing a book, you can:

  • highlight parts of the text
  • create notes and flash cards
  • activate the read-aloud function
  • print up to 10% of the pages of each title.

To discover all the features, see the VitalSource Bookshelf Getting Started Guide.

You can read an ebook:

  • online
  • offline after downloading the VitalSource Bookshelf app and creating a VitalSource account.

Textbooks

Check in cerCa' if the textbooks from leading scientific publishers that you need for an exam or thesis are available in digital format.
We particularly recommend the following:

Taylor&Francis textbooks

The Library System has granted access to Taylor&Francis textbooks, mainly in the fields of linguistics, humanities, and economics. Most ebooks are accessible without restrictions; a limited number includes DRM protection (Instructions for using ebooks with DRM).

Last update: 19/12/2024