EBSCO has a new tool for reading ebooks online, called Thorium Reader.
Besides the expected functionality of being able to navigate through an e-book, Thorium offers the following:
- Note taking
- Highlighting
- Bookmarking
- Changing background color, font type, point size, spacing, and layout
- Text to speech
- Progress indicator
- Searching within the e-book
- Light and dark modes
- Opening any LCP-DRM-encrypted e-book and DRM-free e-books from any provider
Additionally, Thorium offers several new accessibility features, including:
- Screen reader support (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver)
- Keyboard navigation
- Customizable reading interface
- EPUB 3 with accessibility support
- DAISY audiobook support
You must activate eBook licenses with a unique passphrase. This passphrase will be generated by EBSCO upon full-text download of an eBook and can be used on up to 6 devices simultaneously for access to active checkouts. Thorium Reader will remember all your previous passphrases on the device where it is downloaded, so you will not need to reenter your passphrase each time you open the Thorium app on the same device.
If you forget your passphrase, you can regenerate it in the full-text download workflow.
Thorium is available on desktop computers but is not currently available for mobile devices. An iOS version is currently in development and an Android version is next.
Users on mobile devices will still be able to read full e-books in the online viewer and can download e-book chapters and full DRM-free e-books as well.
EDRLab is available to address any issues or questions specific to Thorium, and they can be contacted at contact@edrlab.org