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Librarian FAQs

Institutional Access – Setting Up

Electronic textbooks at my institution are processed through me or the library directly. How should faculty express an interest in a title?

If electronic textbook provision is handled by the institutional librarian, we’d suggest instructors pass on details of the title needed to you or another member of library staff. You can then contact your regional library sales representative to discuss subscription options. If you already have an existing relationship and account with Cambridge University Press, the process should be relatively straightforward, but we can process requests direct from the instructor if the library is not involved.

Can my institution choose to take a new edition, or does it automatically update?

If a new version of a textbook is published within the term of your lease, you will have the option to upgrade to the new version either immediately or before the next academic term.

Can my institution lease/subscribe to individual titles?

Yes, your institution can lease individual or collections of titles. For further information please see our access options page or you can contact our sales department for further information.

How many users can access the textbooks at one time?

For institutional subscriptions, we don’t offer any limit on the number of concurrent users who can access a title at any one time. Once your institution has access to a textbook, this is available for your whole institution/faculty.

What if a course enrolment changes during the year, or the following year?

If it emerges, midway through a semester, that the cohort of students is much larger than expected, we will not immediately charge more or withdraw access. If in the subsequent year you decide to renew your annual lease for the textbook, we will discuss the price based on the new enrolment estimate.

What if I can’t give precise enrolment numbers when inquiring about institutional access?

We understand that enrolment numbers can be difficult to confirm with 100% accuracy, so we trust our customers to offer their best estimate. If it turns out that the cohort of students is much larger than expected we will not immediately withdraw access or apply an additional charge. We will always discuss the situation with you first and where necessary readjust the pricing for subsequent years.

Will you be adding further textbooks to the set that is available now? I think there are some missing.

There is an up-to-date title list available to download which is automatically updated as new titles are added.

What if we already have print copies of a textbook - are we entitled to a discount on the eTextbook?

If you contact your existing sales representative with details of your current print adoption, we’re happy to discuss the option of converting this to e-version, or for a discount for the eTextbook to use alongside the print version.

How flexible can you be on the start and end date of my annual lease period?

We understand that semester times differ from institution to institution, so we can turn your access on when this is required. We do ask that you can give as much notice as possible to set up your access, but with a minimum of 15 days.

Institutional Access – Using Content


How does an individual user of the HE website access content?

You can read eTextbooks online using our Cambridge Spiral eReader in read-only mode. This will give you the ability to read the eTextbook, but not access features such as annotations, bookmarking or offline reading via a mobile or desktop computer.

If you wish to use the advanced Cambridge Spiral eReader which includes additional functionality such as annotations, bookmarking and offline reading you will need to login in two stages:

Your institution will still need to have access to our textbook content in order for you to read them. You should contact your library or library services for more information.

If you are unable to access specific content, make sure that your institution is subscribed to the title and then contact our technical support team via our Technical Support Diagnostics Form.

You can learn all about the two different versions of the Cambridge Spiral ereader by viewing our Cambridge Spiral eReader experience comparison page .

Does each user need to re-authenticate on the HE website every time they want to read?

For the Stage 1 access, explained above, your institutional affiliation should be detected automatically, if facilitated by IP range authentication. If you are logging in via Shibboleth, the user can optionally retain authentication for a week, but otherwise must re-authenticate on each new browser session.

For the Stage 2 access, also explained above, your individual username/password can be stored for up to 30 days, if you select the ‘Remember me’ option.

What format are your textbooks delivered in?

Our eTextbooks are delivered by our Cambridge Spiral eReader. Once the textbook has been leased by your institutional library, all your students and instructors can access the textbook via the Higher Education website by selecting the Read Online button on the textbook page. Faculty and students can also download our Cambridge Spiral reader for IOS, Android, Mac Desktop and Windows Desktop. More information is available from our Cambridge Spiral page.

Can you download a PDF of the textbook?

No, textbooks are supplied via our Cambridge Spiral eReader which includes functionality such as bookmarking, annotations as well as being able to be read on different devices. You will also be able to download the book to read offline through one of our Cambridge Spiral applications. Please refer to the Cambridge Spiral FAQs , or our comprehensive guide to Cambridge Spiral

What do I do if my students are unsure how to access textbook or encounter a problem?

You can consult our User Guide and Videos . You can also consult the Contact & Help area which has FAQs and contact information for our technical support team who can assist you further.

Integration Options

Can we integrate eTextbooks into our learning management system?

Yes. We offer LMS integration for eTextbooks delivered through Cambridge Spiral. We have extensive technical guides  on setting up the integration within your learning management system.

The institution does not need to have subscribed to any of our textbooks in order to set up LMS integration.

Can an instructor add specific content to their syllabus?

We offer the functionality for instructors to place chapter-level deep links (or permalinks) into their syllabi or reading lists. These links appear next to each chapter in the table of contents tab on the textbook overview page. To see our deep links on on the table of contents for any given textbook, you must be registered as an instructor. Instructor status can be set on registration, or updated in a user's account settings .

Once approved as an instructor, deep links will become visible on the table of contents listings of a book. We offer two ways for you to gather the links for use.

For more information on using deep links, head to our deep link FAQ page .



Purchasing eTextbooks

Do students need to buy the textbook if my institution already has access to the textbook?

No, but students may wish to purchase their own copy for access after they leave your institution. This will also enable the student to preserve bookmarks, annotations, and other customisations they have made during their access via your institution.

Print and digital purchase options are available on the textbook page, but students who attend institutions with access already will not see prices until they select any purchase options.

Print purchase options delivered via the Higher Education website are currently only available to those based in the UK and Europe (excluding Russia and Ukraine). Users across the rest of the world will still be able to purchase print copies of textbooks, but will be redirected to our main Academic catalogue.

Can students buy online access to an eTextbook for themselves without going through the institution?

Yes. Online access to our textbooks is available via our Cambridge Spiral ereader. From the title's page select 'Add to cart' underneath the digital price on the left-hand side. If your institution has access, you can access digital prices via the 'Purchase digital edition' button.

How long do individuals have access to the eTextbook if they purchase individually?

Individually purchased access is perpetual, and further information can be found in our purchase terms and conditions .

Cambridge Spiral


How do I use the eReader and what functionality does it have?

You can learn how to use Cambridge Spiral by consulting our online guide.  There is an FAQ  dedicated to Cambridge Spiral as well to help answer common questions.

How do I access content offline or on a mobile device?

You can find out about our desktop, mobile and offline options via our application and offline information page .