The Taylor and Francis eBookstore provides a range of academic-related titles that are very useful for professionals and students alike. While this eBook store is not mainstream, it does provide hard-to-find titles that are useful for academic and professional work.
This eBook store site provides users with simple navigation by subject and sub-topics. As an academic research resource the site provides amble ability to search by specific key words and subject areas. The Taylor & Francis site provides one very important search function not found on the other sites reviewed here – ‘Full Content’ search. With this search capability a user can search through the full content of over 22,000 books to find only those that meet specific keyword requirements.
Pricing, relative to other eBook store sites reviewed here, is above average. However, the site contains unique and specific academic research materials which one would expect to be more expensive than average.
Several eBook formats are available including Mobipocket Reader, Microsoft Reader, Adobe PDF and EPUB and DX Reader. These choices provide enough flexibility for nearly any mobile reader options available. Information about each format is provided in addition to features and best options based on needs.
Taylor & Francis provide a very unique electronic service for researchers and students. In addition to offering otherwise unavailable books and materials the site provides a service called eCompile. With eCompile users are able to browser chapters and pages of various resources and compile them into their own unique, custom document. The user then purchases this custom document.
Additionally, the site provides subscription options that allow users to “check out” books and materials for a set amount of time. Instead of purchasing an expensive book necessary for a short period of time, subscriptions allow users to purchase only the time needed to explore the book and find pertinent information for their needs.
Help on the site includes fairly comprehensive FAQs and an online Help Desk that allows users to email questions or issues to support staff.
While the Taylor & Francis eBookstore website provides many services unheard of in other eBook stores, because its selection is mostly limited to academic and professional materials it is not a site most mainstream readers will find useful. Barring that difference between this and other sites in this review, the features of the site are extremely useful and user-friendly. eCompile is an option that proves that digital can also be flexible and convenient for many purposes. As an eBook store the Taylor & Francis eBookstore epitomizes what flexible digital purchasing should strive for, keeping the user’s needs in the forefront of service offerings.
