Guidance

Access eBooks: UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services

Knowledge and Library Services (KLS) provide access to a wide range of eBooks to UKHSA staff.

Find eBooks 

You can find eBooks by: 

BorrowBox (UKHSA staff only)

BorrowBox contains eBooks and audiobooks on: 

  • wellbeing  
  • learning and development 
  • popular science 

You can also access some newspapers and magazines including New Scientist.

Accessing BorrowBox

Access UKHSA BorrowBox on your computer or use the BorrowBox app on your mobile phone or tablet. 

To read titles on a laptop, install Adobe Digital Editions. Request this from the software self-service catalogue on the IT helpdesk.

Signing in to BorrowBox

When using BorrowBox for the first time, enter your institution (UK Health Security Agency). Your login is your library catalogue login (the login you use for the library self-issue kiosks and to view your loans or renew your books online). Your username is the first part of your UKHSA email address before the @ sign. Reset your password if you do not know it.

BorrowBox from multiple libraries

If you have BorrowBox access from your local public library, you can still use UKHSA’s BorrowBox collection. Log out of the app and log back in with your UKHSA account to access UKHSA content.

BorrowBox privacy information

The BorrowBox Privacy Policy governs the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information by the service.

GIDEON guides (UKHSA staff only)

The GIDEON eBooks cover infectious diseases and microbiology. 

The ‘disease series’ summarises the status of individual or related infectious diseases worldwide, with distribution maps and images. 

The ‘country series’ summarises infectious diseases for each country, including vaccination schedules. This includes Infectious Diseases of the World, showing worldwide disease status. 

View GIDEON eBooks in the library catalogue.

Publisher collections

These can be accessed from the resources list in MyAthens

Springer Nature eBooks 

Includes chapter-level access to tens of thousands of eBooks published by Springer Nature. 

This includes the Springer Protocols Handbooks, which provide step-by-step laboratory methods and protocols across the life and biomedical sciences. 

Oxford University Press 

Includes major titles such as:  

  • Oxford Public Health and Epidemiology 
  • Oxford Textbook of Medicine 
  • Oxford Textbook of Global Health   

Taylor and Francis 

Offers eBooks on topics including: 

  • data science 
  • statistics 
  • infectious diseases 
  • pollution 
  • health communication 

OVID eBooks 

Over 270 eBooks are available.

Sage Research Methods (UKHSA staff only) 

Provides eBooks covering research methods, statistics, and evaluation.

ScienceDirect Focus Collections (UKHSA staff only)

Thousands of eBooks including book series, major reference works and textbooks. 

Subject collections: 

  • agricultural, biological and food sciences 
  • biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology 
  • biomedical science and medicine 
  • environmental sciences 
  • health sciences 
  • immunology and microbiology 
  • pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutical sciences

Feedback

This is a new service. Help us improve it by providing feedback.

Updates to this page

Published 28 July 2025

Sign up for emails or print this page