The interface is in French. In the portals, ebooks are divided by subject into browsable “bouquets”. An advanced search option allows the user to narrow down the large amount of content. Unfortunately, the user cannot search by language of the material.

Ebooks can be read either on the platform’s online reader, or downloaded using Adobe Digital Editions. Articles are read using Adobe. Viewing the videos requires the use of DivX. The audio content is available through Flash.

Strengths and weaknesses

The database has the advantage of having a wide variety of subjects and formats within the areas of the humanities and social sciences, including an impressive number of newly added texts, as well as the children's ebooks, audio books, and videos. It would be nice to have resources in the sciences as well. The periodicals content is not as extensive as the variety in CAIRN, but it does offer periodical titles not in CAIRN (mostly those issued from Harmattan, such as L'Homme et la Société, and Cultures et Conflits.)

Comments from CRL members during trial access included:

• Downloading a book requires installation of Adobe Editions. One advantage is its compatibility with iPads.
• Instructions for printing full document did not work successfully.
• Need a better display of the date of a periodical article.
• Limiting a search to "North America" delivers mostly content from the United States, although there is some content from Francophone Canada and Mexico.