Kortext: a guide for students

You can access Kortext ebooks from your resource list or from FindIt@Bham, or you can go to Kortext directly. 

If you go straight to Kortext, choose "University of Birmingham" from the dropdown of institutions and click the arrow. You will be taken to the University's sign in page. Enter your login details, accept the terms and conditions, and you will be taken to our Kortext library. NB: If you have not used Kortext before you will be prompted to register the first time you access a book from Kortext. Please enter your University email address and create a password for a Kortext account. You will then be able to view your bookshelf from any device.

Start reading

All you need to do to start reading is click on the cover of the book you want. You can also search the institutional collection, to see what books are available under our subscription.

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Navigating through the book

Navigation tools are at the bottom of the page of the book. If you're jumping multiple pages, there’s an option to go back to the previous page by clicking on Return to page in the bottom-left corner. Alternatively, type in the number of the page you want to jump to.

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Bookmarks

To add a Bookmark in the book you're reading, click on the bookmark icon, which you'll find just before the navigation slide bar at the bottom of the screen. It's a small rectangle with a notch taken out at the bottom.

Bookshelf search

You can search across all of our books, and view your in-book results from the bookshelf search. This will take you to the given location in the book. In-book search results will be listed at the top, followed by title results if applicable. On selecting a title to view, all search results will appear in a pop-up window.

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Highlight and create notes

1. To highlight, drag across a section of text and a pop-up will appear with some colour options.

2. To add a note, select Create note from the same pop-up window and type in your note.

3. To type in your note, use the provided field in the pop-up.

4. To copy the selected text, click Copy Text from the pop-up menu.

5. From the same menu, you can also Export a reference to EndNote (RefWorks is also listed as an option, but the University no longer supports RefWorks, so please export to EndNote instead).

6. To find content on the internet, highlight the text and click Search the Web, which opens up a new window with the selected text appearing in the search bar.

7. To share a note with a group, via email or OneNote, use the icons in the bottom left corner of the pop-up window.

8. You can access all your saved notes from the menu panel on the left. From there you can also delete notes or share them via email.

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Menu panel

When you're reading a book, the menu panel on the left-hand side of the page allows you to:

  • Search for keywords and terms within the book
  • Access the table of contents
  • Print pages
  • Access and edit bookmarks
  • Export references
  • Access and delete notes
  • Access book information

Display options

The layout of the page can be changed from the display options menu in the top right corner. You can:

  • Fit page to screen by height
  • Fit page width to screen
  • Zoom out and zoom in

You can select full screen mode by clicking the square icon on the far-right at the top of the screen.

Export references

Export a reference by clicking the double quotes icon on the left of the screen. It will bring up a pop-up window with options to export to RefWorks or EndNote. The University no longer supports RefWorks, so please select EndNote. Click Export Reference once you’ve made your selection.kortext3

 

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