What do terms like "limited users," "unlimited users," and "DRM" mean when describing ebooks in the Libraries' collection?

If you find an ebook in our online catalog, you may see a note that says something like, "Access is limited to one user at a time" in the book's description.

• Books with limited users allow only a certain number of users to view the ebook at the same time. Most of our limited-user ebooks allow either one or three simultaneous users. The limit will be noted in the book's catalog page and usually on the vendor's website as well.
• If a book is marked as having "unlimited users" or "unlimited access", then any number of users are allowed to access it at the same time.
  • If a book does not have a user limit noted in its catalog page, this usually means that unlimited users are allowed. The vendor page will also note unlimited access.

More about this

"DRM" stands for "Digital Rights Management," a set of technologies that are used to limit and control access to ebooks. This might limit who can open a PDF of the e-book or limit the number of pages you can print or copy from an online ebook.

Most of our ebooks from Ebsco and ProQuest have DRM with restrictions to emailing, printing, and copy/pasting of book contents. Many ProQuest ebooks offer DRM-protected PDFs that can be opened only by using Adobe Digital Editions software.