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How to use eLibrary

 

The eLibrary is a website of electronic resources in public libraries. You can search for material by theme, subject heading or by using free-text search. Some of the material in eLibrary are freely available online contents while others require a library card and a PIN number. This is how you use the eLibrary

The eLibrary resources can be accessed on a desktop computer but also on a smartphone and tablet. Windows-phones and tablets as well as computers running on Linux OS are an exception and can only open some of the resources. You may have to install a separate software application for reading on mobile devices.

Material types

The eLibrary contains ebooks, audio books, videos, radio programmes, websites, digital collections from libraries and information on electronic journals in the library collections. All other materials apart from the ebooks and audiobooks are freely accessible. You can limit the search results by material type.

Topics

You can open the main topics by clicking on a material type. Different types of materials are divided into a different number of topics. Every main topic is divided into sub-themes with access to the eLibrary collections. The number of documents in each sub-theme is shown after the topic.

Choose library

The ”Choose library” function is primarily related to ebooks and will limit the search to the ebooks the selected library has licenced for the use of its customers. You can access the ebooks with a valid library card and the attached PIN number.

If you don't choose a library the ebook search result will specify which libraries have acquired the ebook in question. You get access if you have a valid library card for one of the libraries shown in the search result.

Choose language

Language choice is next to library choice. The default is all languages. You can limit the alternatives by clicking on the languages: Finnish, Swedish, English or Other languages. Remember to save the language you chose by clicking on "Save choices".

Search methods, search results and use of materials

  • Free text search
    On the top of the page there is a search box "Search the eLibrary" where you can type in your search terms. After three letters search results are automatically suggested but when you enter the full search term also the search results will be revised. You can enter several search terms at the same time. If there are several hits you can limit the search results by material type: ebooks, videos etc.
  • Topic search
    The topics menu contains the main topics, e.g. + History, memoirs. First, choose a main topic and the sub-topics are shown, e.g. Ethnology, Memoirs, personal history, General history, cultural history. The following number shows how many ebooks there are on the topic. By clicking on the topic, e.g. Ethnology, you will see a list of ebooks on the topic. When you choose one of them you'll see the descriptive information on the ebook in full.
  • Search results
    The descriptive information included in the search results shows title and author(s) of the ebook, book cover, back cover text and publisher as well as active keywords. Availability is shown last with a list of the libraries who have acquired the ebook in question. Availability is replaced by an *Open* button if the ebook is freely available.
  • Reading an ebook
    By clicking on the name of a library below the "Availability" button you will get to a login page where you enter you library card number and the attached PIN number. This will take you to the vendor's website where you can either download or stream, i.e. read or watch the file in question right away.