In this tutorial, a librarian demonstrates how to navigate the online bookstore and the course readings system, KeyLinks, at Frontier. Students will be shown how to check the bookstore for required textbooks, and how to tell if a course has an e-textbook available from the library.
We often have students ask whether they can listen to e-textbooks and library ebooks like they would an audiobook. Some vendors offer text-to-speech options, though it's not quite the same as listening to a book through Audible or another audiobook service. For vendors that do not currently have a text-to-speech option, we have included a few vendor-neutral suggestions.
If you have additional questions using text-to-speech to listen to ebooks, please contact the library.
EBSCOhost ebooks use ReadSpeaker software. Once you have opened the ebook in EBSCO's viewer, click on the speaker icon to use the text-to-speech feature. You can adjust volume, speed, and text scrolling/highlighting.
Ebooks on the LWW Health Library platform also use ReadSpeaker software. There is a Listen button at the top of each section within a chapter.
Use the menu button (on the left with three horizontal bars) to access settings, special features, and help.
For vendors that do not have a built-in text-to-speech feature, you may download a PDF and use Adobe Reader's "Read Out Loud" feature. See the Saving & Printing eBooks box below for instructions on downloading PDFs of ebook content. Please remember that most ebooks will have a limit as to how many pages you can save as a PDF per day.
To use the "Read Out Loud" feature in Adobe, open the PDF in Adobe Reader (download here).
To change the Read Out Loud volume, voice, pitch, or speed, go to the "Edit" menu, then "Preferences" and select "Reading" from the list.
Library staff have had success using a tool called Natural Reader for text-to-speech. It has a browser extension, desktop app, and mobile app, and can read a variety of file types. Natural Reader has a free personal version or a subscription option. For more information, please visit the Natural Reader website.
Most e-Textbooks cannot be downloaded in full (like you can with an eBook from Amazon, for example). However, most platforms allow you to print or save a limited number of pages at a time. Please see below for what's allowed and instructions for each platform.
