The terms in bold are important to understanding how desLibris works. 

desLibris is a “Platform” on which monographs from Canadian publishers and public document sources are presented in online form. Publisher copyright is protected on the platform with user authentication.

All content on the platform is presented to the public in preview form, which offers the first 10% of the book for reading, but then denies access unless an account is in place.  Previews are also shown to library users where the title is not in the library's entitlement.

Two “account types” are available: Institutional (or Group) and Individual.

Institutional accounts also provide special logins for administrators which expose various “tools” to help library or group administrators to customize/configure certain features of the platform.  

Access to all or partial segments of the content on the platform is granted in return for payment.  The accessible segments are known as “Entitlements.”

New content is added daily to the platform as it arrives from participating publishers or is harvested from public sources. Publisher submissions depend on many factors, and are not predictable. But the "Date Added" facet will reveal titles added over a choice of relative time periods, and sorting any set "descending by date added" will show most recent additions.  MARC record availability follows the appearance of a title on the platform. Generally MARC for Books is available within 2 months of the book's appearance.  MARC for Documents is automated, and is therefore available within days of a Document's appearance. 

The desLibris platform is designed to host monographs and monographs in series,  but not journals, serials or periodicals. The monographs in desLibris are further classified into three categories. Books are monographs issued by publishers who have licensed desLibris as a library distributor. Documents are issued on the websites of governments and public or non-profit agencies to inform the public. See more on Copyright for these documents. Open Access titles are monographs which have been made available by their publishers under Creative Commons terms.

There are two broad Entitlement categories, which might also be described as “License models:” These are Subscriptions and Perpetual Access.

The Subscription model, requiring periodic payment, is offered for collections or groups of monographs. Subscription licenses are usually granted for unlimited use within the institution, but they may also be subject to a concurrent user limit (by title or by account, depending on the service.)

The Perpetual Access model is available for single titles or sets of titles like Standing Orders. These are one-time purchases which entitle the library or purchaser to permanent access. Perpetual licenses are available with two main usage controls: single-user or multiple simultaneous user. Permanent access is guaranteed by the Repository feature, which allows library purchasers to download watermarked PDF for local storage.

Where entitlements are granted to copyright materials, royalties are paid to copyright owners based on revenue from sales and usage. 

Sign in with your admin email address at www.deslibris.ca/login.

Go to your account Profile (silhouette on top right) to add IP authentication, which will open the platform to all authorized users. On the Profile  you'll also find customization options and other administrative tools.

Use the Entitlements - Subscriptions tab to see service options and pricing for your account. 

More on the Library Account Profile.  

To get the most value from this page, set up IP authentication in your new library account, and then view the page from a library IP address. This will properly direct the links below to the pages custom-tailored for your library.
How to add IP addresses 

Using various means of user authentication, desLibris can support thousands of simultaneous users accredited to a single library account.  Shibboleth and WAYF authentication is also supported.

Every library account has a usage reporting site providing granular reports on user activity. Every title displays usage history.  COUNTER reporting is now available for all library accounts.

All titles are supported with MARC records which are provided through a portal customized for each account.

While the "Thumbnail" view is the default, the "Checklist" view provides a convenient way to make an exportable list for personal use, getting quotes or purchasing. 

Administrator accounts have access to menus and title views which are not available to users. 

Your site can be customized for users in several ways.  Library sites can be restricted to allow user to see only entitlements.

PDF download is available for subscribers for all Documents and Book chapters. 

The online reader offers tables of contents, search inside, and many more features for research. 

Available to personal account holders, the Bookshelf is a place to keep "Favourites"  for access on devices through the Reader app

All books in desLibris are available for library purchase under perpetual access licensing.  Use the Checklist View to get quotes and place orders. 

To maintain a wish list, use saved searches and usage indicators like "Access denied" reports to add titles to your Acquisition Profile.

All titles purchased by your library are stored in your Repository as watermarked PDF, which may be used locally for any use covered under the license. 

Searchng is granular and specific with the many options offered in Advanced Search including search in fulltext. Save search and search histories provide further user assistance.

Internet Archive and Open Library may be configured for access by library users using the External Search option.

Library administrators may set up  external search sites to enrich the results found in desLibris. These may be general sites like Google or Wikipedia, or specialized sites like CANLII. 

Anyone may "suggest a document" for inclusion in desLibris with a simple form submission. 

While personal accounts are not required in a library setting, they provide many advantages, including access to Bookshelves, storage of annotations and use of the Offline Reader.

The "Dita Reader" app gives library users access to the contents of their Bookshelves on both Android and IOS tablets. 

Personal account holders may "stack" permissions to access any book in the entitlement of  any institutional library or libraries of which they are members. 

The terms and conditions under which desLibris is licensed to your library.