Q. What can I do if an e-book is "checked out" or "in use"?

At the moment I don't have a better answer for you than to be patient.

eBooks are a different animal than print books, and they are leased from private companies as opposed to a library which purchased the title and then could offer use of the book to its patrons.

I looked through the ebook help info and there does not appear to be a way to determine when the book is "due" or for you to place a hold on it to be the next user. If anyone views the book, even for a minute, it is locked down for about 45 minutes. The best advice I can give is to drop in on the title from time to time till you can get it.

The direct URL for the book is: https://akin.css.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=119271&site=ehost-live

eBooks have different facets to the purchasing model. When we "bought" Non-Western Educational Traditions we paid for one user to use it at any given time. We are paying more today (11/18/2013) to upgrade the title to 3 users at one time (this is as many as the publisher will allow). I am not sure how long it takes for this change to go into effect, but hopefully in the next day or two this will alleviate access issues for you and your classmates.