Terms of Service

About these Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and ELM-Digital Library ("we", "us") about your use of the ELM-Digital Library website and reading service (the "Platform").

By creating an account, or by using the Platform without one, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Platform.

What the Platform offers

The Platform lets you discover and read digital books, journals, theses, magazines and other publications provided by publishers, institutions and authors. Some titles are free, some can be bought individually, and some are included in subscription plans or institutional access.

Titles are read in our in-browser reader. Unless a title's page says otherwise, buying or subscribing gives you access to read it on the Platform - it does not give you a downloadable copy or ownership of the work.

Your account

Some features, including buying, subscribing and saving titles to your library, need an account. You must give accurate information, including an email address you control, and confirm that email address before buying or subscribing.

If you are under 18, you may use the Platform only with the involvement and permission of a parent or guardian, who is responsible for any purchases made.

• Keep your password private; you are responsible for activity on your account.
• One person per account. For security, signing in on a new device signs out the previous session.
• Tell us promptly at support@elm-digitallibrary.com if you think your account has been misused.

Prices and payments

Prices are shown on each title or plan, in Tanzanian shillings (TZS) or, where offered, another currency shown at checkout. Prices may change, but a change never affects a purchase you have already completed.

Payments are processed by our payment provider (currently Selcom) using mobile money and any other methods shown at checkout. We do not receive or store your mobile money PIN or full card details. Access is granted once the payment provider confirms the payment.

Subscriptions

We offer three subscription plans, each available for a day, a week or a month: Basic (up to 3 titles on your shelf at a time), Standard (up to 6) and Premium (up to 12). Current prices are shown on the Subscription plans page. No other subscription plan is offered.

A plan starts as soon as our payment provider confirms your payment and lasts exactly 24 hours (daily), 7 days (weekly) or 30 days (monthly) from that moment. An account can have one running plan at a time.

Your shelf: to read a title with your plan, open the title's page and choose "Activate This Title" to put it on your shelf. Only titles on your shelf can be read under your plan, up to your plan's limit. Not every title is included in subscriptions - the title page shows how it can be accessed - and titles may be added to or removed from subscriptions as publisher agreements change.

• A title stays on your shelf for at least 24 hours after you add it before you can swap it out for another.
• There is no limit on how many titles you read during your plan. The limit is on how many are on your shelf at the same time.
• Buying a plan of the same size while your plan is running adds the new period on top of the time you have left. Your shelf stays as it is.
• Upgrading to a bigger plan starts straight away and keeps the titles on your shelf. The unused part of your current plan is converted, by value, into extra time on the new plan at the new plan's daily rate. The new end date is shown before you pay.
• Moving to a smaller plan is possible only after your current plan has ended.

Subscriptions do not renew automatically: you are never charged again unless you choose to buy another plan. When a plan ends, access to the titles on your shelf ends and your shelf is cleared. If you subscribe again later, you add your titles again.

Refunds

Because digital content is available immediately, purchases and subscriptions are generally not refundable once access has been granted. Unused time on a subscription is not refunded in money; when you upgrade, it is converted into extra time on the new plan as described in section 5.

We will refund, or restore access, where: you were charged more than once for the same item; you paid but access was never granted; or a title cannot be read because of a fault on our side that we cannot fix within a reasonable time. Contact support@elm-digitallibrary.com within 7 days of the payment, with the transaction reference.

Acceptable use

When using the Platform you must not:

• copy, download, screenshot, print, record or redistribute protected content, or try to get around the reader's protections;
• share your account, or sell or give away access to it;
• use bots, scrapers or automated tools to access the Platform or its content;
• attack, overload or test the security of the Platform without our written permission;
• upload or post anything unlawful, infringing, misleading or abusive, including in reviews and comments.

Intellectual property

All publications on the Platform belong to their authors, publishers or other rights holders and are protected by copyright law, including the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act of Tanzania. The Platform's design, software and branding belong to us or our licensors.

Authors and publishers who supply content do so under separate agreements with us, which govern licensing, royalties and payouts. Where those agreements conflict with these Terms, the separate agreement applies to that relationship.

If you believe content on the Platform infringes your rights, write to support@elm-digitallibrary.com with details and we will investigate and, where appropriate, remove it.

Ratings, reviews and comments

You keep ownership of reviews and comments you post, but you allow us to display them on the Platform. We may remove content that breaks these Terms.

Institutional access

If you access titles through a university, school or other institution, your access depends on that institution's agreement with us and on the institution confirming your membership. It may end when your membership or the agreement ends.

Availability and changes

We work to keep the Platform available and accurate, but it is provided "as is" and may occasionally be interrupted for maintenance or reasons outside our control. We may change, add or remove features and titles.

We may update these Terms. If a change is significant we will tell you on the Platform or by email, and may ask you to accept the new version. The version and date are shown at the top of this page.

Suspension and closing your account

We may suspend or close an account that breaks these Terms, for example by sharing or redistributing content, or for fraud. Where we can, we will tell you why.

You can ask us to close your account at any time by writing to support@elm-digitallibrary.com. Closing an account ends access to purchases and subscriptions linked to it.

Our responsibility to you

Nothing in these Terms limits rights you have under Tanzanian consumer protection law. Otherwise, to the extent the law allows, we are not responsible for indirect or unforeseeable losses, and our total responsibility for any claim about a purchase is limited to the amount you paid for it.

Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United Republic of Tanzania. If you have a complaint, please contact us first at support@elm-digitallibrary.com - most issues can be resolved quickly. Any dispute that cannot be resolved will be handled by the competent courts of Tanzania.

Contact us

ELM-Digital Library · Dar es Salaam, Tanzania · support@elm-digitallibrary.com