Answered By: Dave
Last Updated: Sep 29, 2021     Views: 298

On your iPhone, using Safari as your browser (unfortunately there is a downloading error in Chrome), go to the University Libraries' main page at https://www.apu.edu/library/ and scroll down until under the Search Everything box you see the word catalog; click on it. Type in the title or topic for an eBook. Change "View Entire Collection" to "Ebooks" and click Submit. Choose your eBook. In the record click on View electronic book (APU users only), you may need to be authenticated, type in your APU username and password. 

The University Libraries get eBooks from mostly two sources EBSCOHost and ProQuest Ebook Central (formally ebrary). These instructions are for the later, ProQuest Ebook Central. 

 

A. Follow these instructions if you are downloading a ProQuest Ebook Central ebook on the the ebook reader Adobe Digital Editions for the first time. If not, go to B below. 

In your iPhone, scroll down and click on "Download Book." Next you'll be asked "What device are you using." Choose iOS (iPad, iPhone, iPod) and make sure the radio button is clicked next to "I'm using my own computer" and click Continue. For Android users, here's where you can click Android (Phone, tabled). 

On the next screen that reads "You will need Adobe Digital Editions," if you do not have an Adobe ID, click "Adobe ID" and register for a free account. If you're not sure if you have an Adobe ID, still click Adobe ID where eventually you'll see a page that says "Welcome to your account [your first name]. If you don't see that message, you'll see a place to create an account. After that Go back to the previous screen and click "Get Adobe Digital Editions." 

Download Adobe Digital Editions. If you're doing this for the first time, when you open the app, you'll see one "book" called "Getting Started with Adobe Digital Editions." Click on it and read the short instruction to familiarize yourself with the app. 

    Adobe Digital Editions showing two books in the Library 

 

Next, if you haven't already, you'll need to Authorize your account in Adobe Digital Editions. To authorize your account, in the upper left corner click on the three horizontal bars. In the left column that appears, click on Settings. On the next screen, click the blue word "Authorize" in the upper left corner. Fill in your Adobe ID and Password and click Authorize. A box pops up that says "The device has been activate." Finally click OK.

The next screen will say "Download Your Book." You're asked to choose between PDF versus EPUB. Read The Pros and Cons for E-Publishing: EPUB vs. PDF to help you decide. Then click "Download."

You'll see a small box asking "Do you want to download [a seven digit number].ACSM"? click the word Download again. After the download, click the arrow in the upper right corner. You will see: 1) a page icon, 2) the file with the seven digit number and the extension .ACSM, 3) the number of KB of the file (at this point very small), and 3) a magnifying glass on the right of the file. Click on the magnifying glass

If you see this message: "Restore "Files"? You followed a link that requires the app "Files", which is no longer on your iPhone. You can restore it from the App Store." -- then you will need to click on 'Show in App Store' and restore the app called "Files." Then go back to the book record and click on "Download Book" once again. Now you should see the eBook's file in "Files." Again, click the magnifying glass on the right.

You'll now be be asked -- where do you want to put the file? Along the bottom of your phone's screen, you should see some familiar apps used to communicate with - like AirDrop, Messages, Mail, etc. Just scroll to the right of these apps until you get to the Digital Editions icon with the words "Copy to Digital Editions" and click on it. 

Finally, you'll see a screen indicating the download is taking place! 

When done you'll see your book's front cover displayed -- which is the first page of the entire book. Or go to the Adobe Digital Editions app and click on the eBook and begin reading, annotating, and marking it up. 

 

B. Downloading a ProQuest Ebook Central ebook on the the ebook reader Adobe Digital Editions beyond the first time

On your smartphone or Mac, it is assumed you have gone to the library's catalog, found your ebook and confirmed it is a ProQuest Ebook Central title, and clicked on "Download."

While still in ProQuest Ebook Central, in the upper right corner, click on the blue arrow pointing down. You'll see one or more [seven digit number].ACSM files. Click the magnifying glass to the right of the one you want to download into Digital Editions. The book's ACSM file fills the whole screen (is bigger). In the upper right corner click the icon that looks like a box with an arrow pointing up. On the next screen, near the bottom left, above the word "Copy," scroll to the right through the icons until you see the Digital Editions icon with the words "Copy to Digital Editions." Click this icon. You are now taken to Digital Editions. On the bottom of your screen you'll see the download in process. When done, your book's front cover will be displayed -- which is the first page of the entire book. To return to Digital Editions' "Library," click once on the screen causing the Digital Editions header and footer to show. Click the three bars in the upper left corner and click Library.

Feel free to contact me for any additional question. 

Dave Harmeyer

dharmeyer@apu.edu

Office Phone: 626-815-6000, ext. 3255