Most electronic library materials (eBooks, Journals, databases) are purchased through licensing agreements with publishers. These agreements outline what users materials can and cannot do with the licensed material. These licenses usually prohibit the upload of licensed content to third-party services, like Perusall. The publisher’s license usually requires that users link to the book (aka a URL) to share it with others and not download the entire book in order to upload it somewhere else (like Sakai or Box). For the publishers, linking to the book is preferable because it means that the book is not widely distributed and is protected behind a login that is tightly controlled.
If you are interested in downloading an eBook from the library in order to upload it to a site like Perusall, you might also notice you are prohibited on the publisher’s platform from downloading an entire eBook. This is because most eBooks are controlled by DRMs (Digital Rights Management). Basically, a DRM controls how an eBook is shared from user to user and device to device. DRM locks a file so that a user cannot share the e-book with others or move it to another device. Restrictions also limit how much (if any) of the eBook can be printed, copied,or saved.
If you are curious about uploading a specific material to Perusall, you can always reach out to your Subject Librarian.
