Search Books Online
One of the best kept secrets of the online world is that books still have relevance in research. Searchers generally believe the information they seek is, or ought to be, available on the Web - easy to find and free. If they think about books at all, they perceive them as more troublesome to access because they have to trek to the library or purchase them.
Finding book content online requires more search skill and knowledge of potential resources. Whereas WorldCat, or your local library catalog, provides a single method for finding books worldwide or in your immediate area, there is no single resource for finding book content online.
Again, it’s best to begin with your local library (or local specialized collection). University and special libraries (law, medicine), in particular, often catalog book content available electronically, whether in CD-ROM or DVD format, in a database or via a fee-based Web site.
While your library has resources that will assist you in determining whether the books you identify are available online, you may do some searching yourself. Sometimes searching the author and title in Google will turn up an online source.
If you know the publisher, check its Web site. Some publishers are experimenting with making books available - in whole or in part - online.
You might also check e-book booksellers, such as Diesel eBooks or eBooks.com. With the success of its Kindle device, Amazon now also sells a number of books in electronic format.
Once you identify potential titles at Amazon, you may search their content, if the publisher allows it. Moreover, if the keywords you enter in the main search box are uncommon, they will yield results directly from inside a book.
Google Book Search also enables searching inside a book. But whether or not you can display the relevant content depends on the copyright status of the book or the deal Google has with the publisher.
Finally, if the book you seek is in the public domain , there are several search engines designed to help you find it.
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