Question

How do I use Proquest E-book Central?

Answered By: Karen Merguerian
Last Updated: Jul 23, 2025    Views: 137

Individual e-books in this resource are listed and searchable in Scholar OneSearch, Northeastern's library catalog.

What is available in ProQuest E-book Central?

  • Content: thousands of e-books from academic and commercial publishers (view a list of participating publishers).

  • Subjects: a wide range of subjects, generally nonfiction

  • Tools: highlighting, lists, suggested citations, text-only mode for screen reader accessibility


How to read:

How to listen:

Proquest does not offer a built-in read-aloud or text-to-speech function.  Your options in ProQuest are:

Download PDF chapters or open the book in the ProQuest Ebook Central Reader App, then use your computer's text-to-speech software.

Use a browser plugin like Natural Reader to read online.

Tip: turn on text-only mode in order to get your text-to-speech app to work.  To do this, once you have found your book in ProQuest, go to "settings-->profile" and "turn on text-only mode".  A video explaining this is available on YouTube here.

 

Downloads

Download to the Amazon Kindle is only available for PDFs of individual chapters, excerpts, or open standard image-PDF format where available. 

PDF Downloads:

A limited number of pages (usually up to 60 pages) or a chapter may be downloaded as a PDF with no restrictions or digital rights management.  This limit resets every 24 hours, so you can download a chapter or similar number of pages per day for personal use, until you've accumulated the entire book. While cumbersome, this allows unlimited accumulation, in a way that is intended to prevent piracy. 

Downloading to the Ebook Central Reader App:

For an offline reading solution, most ebooks can be downloaded to the Reader App. Click on 'Download Book' and, if you haven't installed it already, follow the instructions and use the displayed code to authorize the app.

 

Borrowing:

Books are available for a borrowing period of 7-21 days, depending on agreements with the publisher or copyright holder. 

Some books are available online only and cannot be downloaded. This is always the case with titles that have a single copy.

Some books have 3-user limits. In this case, 2 users may download the book at a time, and the third copy will remain available for online use only.  It can be used by one person at a time, but it cannot be "borrowed" for multiple days at a time. This allows for maximum sharing and availability.

Some books have unlimited availability.

 

For Instructors

If you are assigning ProQuest E-books for course materials, please contact library Course Reserves for advice on formats and a suggested number of copies for your class.

 

Support

Connect to ProQuest support (link below) for in-depth assistance.


Links & Files