Audio Access to Books, E-Books, and Articles in the Library

The library has a small collection of professionally performed audiobooks available through OverDrive. These cover a number of topics including American and British historical literature, theatre, philosophy, and more.

To access our audiobooks from your computer, log in with your Rowan ID below:

To access our audiobooks from your mobile device:

1. Install the Libby app on your mobile device, and open it.
2. On the opening screen, select Yes, I Have A Library Card.
3. Select Search For A Library, search for Rowan, and select Rowan University.
4. Select Sign In With My Card and then Next, and log in with your Rowan NetID and password, including Duo verification.

Read&Write is a literacy support tool that helps with reading text out loud, understanding unfamiliar words, and more. It is available free to anyone in the Rowan community. To install Read&Write:

1. Go to the Read&Write website 
2. Pick the install file for your operating system or web browser
3. Install Read&Write and launch the program
4. Select Sign in with Google and sign in with your Rowan University email address

Read&Write can be used for any of its functions, including reading text aloud, with library e-books and electronic articles.

Usually the best way to use an e-book with Read&Write is to download part or all of it as a PDF, if possible. To do this:

1. Install Read&Write on your computer and launch it. When it's ready, you should have a blue bar with icons across the top of your screen.
2. Find the e-book you want to read in Library Search.
3. Click on the title of the e-book to open detailed information about it.
4. Scroll down to the section marked View Online, and click the link under it. If there is more than one link, any of them should work.
5. Find the first chapter you want to read, and look for an option that says Download PDF. Click it to download the chapter.
6. In Read&Write, select PDF Reader: 
7. Find where you downloaded the PDF on your computer (probably the Downloads folder) and open it. You can then use the controls in Read&Write to start and stop read-aloud, as well as using other options.

What if I can't download the PDF?

Some e-books in EBSCOhost or eBook Central have license restrictions that limit how many pages you can download as a PDF, or do not allow PDF downloads at all. You may still be able to use Read&Write to read the book aloud online, however.

1. In either platform, click on the first chapter that you want to read to open the first page.
2. Use the Screenshot Reader  to highlight the text on the page you want to read, and use the controls to read it aloud.
3. Repeat this for each page as you move through the book.

While this is a more cumbersome process, it still lets you read parts of the book aloud and use Read&Write's other built-in tools.

What if that doesn't work?

You may occasionally encounter e-books where the Screenshot Reader also does not work on the text, usually because it has not been made sufficiently accessible by the publisher. If this happens, please contact the library so we can let the publisher know this is an issue for our users.

If you need audio access to the book because it would be difficult for you to read otherwise (not only because you prefer it), you can also reach out to Accessibility Services about alternate ways you may be able to access the book.

Usually the best way to use Read&Write to read an article is to download it as a PDF. To do this:

1. Install Read&Write on your computer and launch it. When it's ready, you should have a blue bar with icons across the top of your screen.
2. Find the article you want to read in Library Search or one of the library databases.
3. Look for an option for Download PDF or PDF Full Text for the article. Click it and download the PDF.
4. In Read&Write, select PDF Reader: 
5. Find where you downloaded the PDF on your computer (probably the Downloads folder) and open it. You can then use the controls in Read&Write to start and stop read-aloud, as well as using other options.

What if I can read the article online, but there is no PDF?

Sometimes the only option available for an article is HTML Full Text. This option will let you read the whole article online, but not download a PDF. There are still options to read these aloud, though:

1. First, check at the top of the article to see if there's a built-in option to read the article aloud. Some databases and articles provide this.
2. If no built-in option is available, in Read&Write, use the Screenshot Reader  to highlight the text on the page you want to read, and use the controls to read it aloud.
3. Repeat this as necessary as you read through the article.
4. Alternatively, screen readers should also function well with these articles.

What if I can't access the full article at all?

The library may not have access to this article. In this case, you can request it for free through Interlibrary Loan:

1. Log into the ILLiad Interlibrary Loan system with your Rowan ID.
2. In the top bar, click New Requests, and click Article.
3. Fill out all of the required information about the article, and click Submit Request.
4. Usually within 1-2 days, you will receive an email at your Rowan address letting you know the article is ready. Log back into ILLiad with the link above, and you should see it available for download as a PDF on the main screen.
5. Use the PDF with Read&Write's PDF Reader as above.