How to verify a book's source, licence, and edition

Check who supplied a file, what permission applies, and whether the author, translation, and edition match the book you need.

Identify the source record

Start from a catalogue, publisher, library, repository, or author page that names the work and links to the file. Record its URL and identifier. A search result or direct file URL without a surrounding record is weaker evidence because it may omit access conditions and edition details.

LibreLeaf preserves sourceRecords when it clusters catalogue results into a canonical work. Open each record rather than assuming that a merged card means identical files. Exact normalized title and primary author can support a strong match, but they do not prove that translations, annotations, or abridgements are the same.

Read the permission precisely

  • Public domain: note who assessed it and for which jurisdiction. Check separately protected translation, illustration, introduction, and edition material.
  • Open licence: record the exact licence version and conditions, including attribution, share-alike, non-commercial, or no-derivatives restrictions.
  • Library borrow: follow the loan period, account, app, and access-control rules. Do not present it as a permanent downloadable copy.
  • Preview or free-to-read: do not infer permission to download, redistribute, adapt, or train a corpus from access alone.

Match the edition you will use

  1. Compare title, subtitle, author, translator, editor, publisher, year, language, and ISBN or another stable identifier.
  2. Open the file and inspect its title page, copyright or licence page, table of contents, and final pages. Do not rely only on external metadata.
  3. For quotations or page citations, confirm that pagination and text match the cited edition. EPUB locations and PDF page labels can differ from printed page numbers.
  4. Save a small provenance note with access date, record URL, file format, checksum if your workflow needs fixity, and the reason you believe the permission applies.

When evidence conflicts, stop at the source record. Contact the publisher, repository, library, or rights holder rather than filling the gap with an assumption.