EBSCO eBooks Digital Rights Management Update

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Last updated: March 23, 2026 06:00 EDT

Notice written on a black background that is overlayed on a exterior photo of the McLaughlin Library

Starting April 2026, EBSCO eBooks downloads will be supported by Readium Licensed Content Protection (LCP) Digital Rights Management (DRM) by EDRLab. The change applies to DRM-protected titles. Users can now read downloads from the free Thorum Reader. Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) will no longer be supported. DRM-free titles and online reading from your internet browser are not affected by this change.

What is Changing?

Downloaded DRM-protected EBSCO eBooks will open using Thorium Reader (free).
Users may be prompted for a one-time EBSCO passphrase the first time you open an LCP-protected download in Thorium on a device.

What is not changing?

Online reading in the browser is not affected.
DRM-free downloads are not affected.

How to prepare

If you download EBSCO eBooks to your personal computer, install Thorium Reader (Windows/macOS/Linux).
Thorium Reader is installed on all public computers at McLaughlin Library.

More information about EBSCO eBooks and Thorium Reader:

Please contact us with any questions or concerns.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The library is committed to ensuring that members of our user community with disabilities have equal access to our services and resources and that their dignity and independence is always respected. If you encounter a barrier and/or need an alternate format, please fill out our Library Print and Multimedia Alternate-Format Request Form. Contact us if you’d like to provide feedback: lib.a11y@uoguelph.ca

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