At the end of October 2023, the British Library was subject to a major cyber-attack, which disrupted access to electronic Legal Deposit (eLD) content. A large-scale exercise was subsequently undertaken to check the integrity of the vast core eLD dataset. This led to the development of a new secure interface for accessing eLD content collected prior to October 2023 (excluding the UK Web Archive, which remains unavailable).
The ELD SOLO Browser 
is an interim solution with limited functionality; for example, some of the tools and icons do not work properly.
Restoring access was deemed necessary despite these shortcomings. Fortunately, a project is underway to develop an improved version of the player. More information will be shared in due course.
Citing a PDF document is more straightforward than for ePUBs because PDFs have fixed pagination. Whether you need to include information about the format and a URL will depend on your referencing style. Most referencing style guides offer information about citing digital materials. If you are using a style which does require you to list the format/platform, we suggest referring to the eLD material as a ‘Restricted Access eBook’ or ‘Restricted Access Article’.
This guide is intended to provide assistance to staff who may have citation enquiries from readers faced with eLD ebooks which lack page numbers. It is not intended to take precedence over any guidance provided by academic tutors / supervisors who may have a recommended style they want people to follow.
Citation styles in printed publications normally use page numbers to direct readers to a section of text. Most subscription ebook packages purchased by the Bodleian Libraries currently provide pagination matching the printed book in PDF format. However, many of the eLD ebooks are coming through without page numbering in ePUB format This requires a new method for citation.
The recommendation is to use chapter and paragraph to create the reference, e.g.:
In some cases the chapter and paragraph may be easy to identify, e.g.:
Unfortunately, the interim system does not provide a reliable citation counting tool or location numbers for material in ePUB format.
Most ebooks in ePUB format will have a table of contents which can aid identification of the chapter within the ebook.
The menu below has a Table of Contents icon which can aid identification of the chapter within the ebook. The paragraph number can be counted on the screen (This is easier in some cases than others!)
If you select a block of text within the ePUB, a location number will appear on the screen; whilst this might seem helpful, it is unlikely to be accurate.
Using the same example as above one gets chapter 11, paragraph 4:
The 11 refers to a section of the book, which may include cover, title, contents, introduction etc before the chapters start. Similarly, everything except headings is classed as a paragraph, so in this example that includes the initial quote and then the reference, so the second paragraph is actually referred to as paragraph 4. I.e., the two pieces of text below are counted as 11.1 and 11.2.
At the moment, it is not possible to search for text in eLD ePUB books on the interim system. If a reader is trying to find an exact quotation for which they have the page number, or a quotation that is paraphrased in the text with page numbers, we will have to help them employ some alternative strategies.
Check the index (if present) at the back of the ebook as this may provide a hyperlink to instances of the keywords from the quotation in the text
Check if Google Books, or bookshop and publisher websites have a copy of the book with a table of contents and see what chapter that page is in
Check whether we have a print copy of the book; we may need to refer the reader to the print copy
If we don’t have an alternative copy of the book, refer the reader to their subject librarian who may be able to purchase a copy
Example quotation (paraphrased in the text):
“Two days after Canute died Gorm also died and Harald became King.”
(Oliver, 2013, p 294).
Taking the example above, if we go to the Index via the table of contents and find the entry for ‘Canute’, we can see that this directs us to pages 293-4.
Alternatively, using a table of contents from Blackwells, we can see that page 294 is near the beginning of chapter nine. So we would look at the start of chapter 9 in the ebook to find the corresponding text.
