Printing ebooks

Some students may ask us:

Is it possible for me to print out ebooks from the Thammasat University Library?

As is often the case, our reply would be:

That depends.

We can explain to students that while it is possible to print out parts of ebooks, the owners of the copyright usually limit the amount that each reader is allowed to print. Each publisher and database has a different rule about this. To which the student may ask us:

How can I tell what the rules are?

The answer to that question is easy. If we go on any database and try to print a book or article, we are quickly told about any limits there may be about materials. If the student wants to know,

Is there a general number of pages that are allowed?

We can inform them:

Often the rule is that one chapter in each book or 10% of an entire publication may be printed by each user, but not more than that.

The student may need further help, and want to be informed:

Are there any exceptions to this rule?

Happily, we can explain that there are some exceptions to this printing limit. Some databases available at the TU Library offer free ebooks. These are quality research publications which have been offered for free by their publishers, with no printing limits. The JSTOR website explains:

More than 3,000 Open Access ebooks are now available at no cost to libraries or users. These titles reflect JSTOR’s high standards for quality content and are freely available for anyone in the world to use. Users won’t need to register or log in, and there are no DRM restrictions or limits on chapter PDF downloads or printing. The ebooks are also preserved in Portico, ensuring that they will be available to researchers in perpetuity. Librarians can receive free MARC records and activate the titles in discovery services.

Among the leading publishers participating in this free ebook publication program are Academic Studies Press, Amsterdam University Press, Art Institute of Chicago, Brill, Brookings Institution Press, Cornell University Press, Edinburgh University Press, Fordham University Press, Liverpool University Press, Manchester University Press, Northwestern University Press, NYU Press, Ohio State University Press, Pennsylvania State University Press, Policy Press at the University of Bristol, Princeton University Press, Purdue University Press, Rutgers University Press, Temple University Press, UCL Press, University of Adelaide Press, University of California Press, University of Georgia Press, University of Hawaii Press, University of Michigan Press, University of North Carolina Press, University of Ottawa Press, University of Sydney Press, University of Toronto Press, University Press of Colorado, and Yale University Press.

If the student wants to know:

How can I tell if the free ebooks are useful for my research?

The answer would be:

If they turn up from a simple search for your topic of research on JSTOR, they may be of interest for a specific thesis or academic research article.

If the student wants to see a list of free ebooks that are available on JSTOR, an Excel sheet may be downloaded on the JSTOR website. As we may see from this brief list of some titles, many different faculties and fields of study may be interested in this material:

• Breaking Japanese Diplomatic Codes David Sissons and D Special Section during the Second World War
• Contextualising the Neolithic Occupation of Southern Vietnam
• Demographic and Socioeconomic Outcomes Across the Indigenous Australian Lifecourse
• Promoting Student Investigation of Local Environmental Issues through the Southern Highlands Environmental Project
• The Beach at Sainte-Adresse from Monet Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago
• Catalogue of Turkish Manuscripts in the Library of Leiden University and Other Collections in the Netherlands
• International Submarine Cables and Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction
• Terraforming: Ecopolitical Transformations and Environmentalism in Science Fiction
• “Know the Signs” Suicide Prevention Media Campaign Is Aligned with Best Practices and Highly Regarded by Experts
• A Blueprint for Improving the Promotion and Delivery of Adult Vaccination in the United States
• A Cost-Benefit Framework for Analyzing the Economic and Fiscal Impacts of State-Level Immigration Policies
• A Program Manager’s Guide for Program Improvement in Ongoing Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Programs
• An Assessment of the Ability of the U.S. Department of Defense and the Services to Measure and Track Language and Culture Training and Capabilities Among General Purpose Forces
• What Supports Do Teachers Need to Help Students Meet Common Core State Standards for Mathematics?
• The U.S. Army in Asia, 2030–2040

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).