IMO Publishing's bestsellers are now sold as e-reader products in

19 October 2011

All IMO Publishing’s bestsellers are now sold as e-reader products in

EBK format. The platform for the new products is The IMO Bookshelf,

which is aimed at the carriage of publications on board ships.

EBK-format e-reader products replace PDF-format e-books and, in some

instances, CDs. They are exact copies of our printed books, as were the

PDF-format e-books, but they can only be viewed using the free e-reader

software.

The IMO Bookshelf is the first product to offer the IMDG Code, SOLAS,

Ships’ Routeing and MARPOL in e-reader format (NB: the IMDG Code

for Windows, the IMO-Vega Database and SOLAS on CD will still be

sold). Titles not included in The IMO Bookshelf, including Model

Courses and most non-English titles, will continue to be sold in PDF

format as e-books.

To use an e-reader product, the customer must first obtain the e-reader

software, which will be licensed to a single computer. The software is

available in two ways:

 By download from our website (e-reader software without any of

the titles added). Purchased digital titles must be added to the e-

reader before they can be viewed. Full instructions are available on

the download page.

 On CD, from The IMO Bookshelf CD, which is aimed at shipboard

access and contains the e-reader software and all our main digital

titles, ready for unlocking.

Please see the next page for information on how to purchase and add

the titles available on The IMO Bookshelf.

See Circular MSC-MEPC.2/Circ.2, June 2006.

Purchasing EBK e-reader files

The EBK e-reader is free software. Each digital title must be bought

separately. The product code for an e-reader digital title starts with a K –

for example, KC938E is the new STCW Convention. You can purchase

these products as you would normally, through IMO’s Online Bookshop.

Once you have paid, click on the Virtual Publications link on the left-hand

side and click Submit.

Once you have entered the Virtual Publications site, click on the product

you have just purchased and choose the number of licences you want to

assign, followed by your customer’s details or ship.

When you click Submit, this will generate a Virtual Publications account

for your customer and they will receive a notification email saying that

their product is available. Please note that you will need to send them

their password if you chose it.

You now have successfully assigned the title(s) to your customer. Please

see the next page to view their process.

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What your customer sees

Your customer now logs into their account at http://vp.imo.org. They will

see a link to download the IMO Bookshelf, links to instructions, their

unlocking code and the actual product file.

Step 1

They need to either install the CD or download the e-reader software.

Step 2

IMO Bookshelf CD: they use the search facility to find their purchased

title and use the unlocking code to gain access.

Download: they must click on the blue product hyperlink within the site,

then save the EBK file to their desktop and use the Import E-Book button

to add the digital title. Once this is done they can use the unlocking code

to gain access.