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Guide to O'Reilly for Higher Education

Note on Sessions

O'Reilly has a very generous timeout period of 24 hours, so unlike some other databases the PG Library has that have 30 minute - 2 hour windows, ebooks and other content in O'Reilly can be kept open for 1 day before you'll be asked to log in again.

However, sometimes 24 hours after you started a session, even if you closed that browser tab, you may see a "403 - Forbidden: No Access" message when trying to access content.  In these cases, restarting your browser and logging in again should be sufficient to fix the issue.  In severe cases, try a private browsing session or delete your browser cookies/cache.  

Opening a Book

To view a book:

  • Click the title of the book or the cover image.
  • On the next screen, click the Start Reading Now button or select a chapter from the Table of Contents. If you don't see the Table of Contents initially, scroll past the book description.  
  • Once opened, in a bar running across the top of the screen, there is an option to browse to specific chapters or move to the next section or chapter.
  • To the right of the book reader, there are options to search within the book, add it to a personal playlist, change the font size and background color and other options, or share the book on social media or email. 
  • To read all pages in a chapter, simply scroll down. O'Reilly's ebook reader features an "infinite scroll" rather than individual pages that need to be clicked through. 

Book reader screen with annotations

Playing a Video

The video player in O'Reilly is similar to other video players you've likely come across.  Standard options include the ability to scrub forward or backward, change playback speed, enter a full-screen mode, and see closed captions. 

O'Reilly video player example