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Search seven million books via Google Book Search
Posted on December 1, 2008
Using Google Book Search, you can research your topic in seven million books by entering key words in one search box. (When you do a generic Google search, you are also searching the book index as well.) This resource is a boon to academics and researchers, but two caveats should be kept in mind:
- Most of these books were published some years ago.
- The amount of contents you can see for each book will vary depending on the copyright status of the book and from what source Google got the book information.
"Partner Project" books are available via a partnership between Google and publishers. You can preview a few pages of these books and will see links to libraries (including UT Southwestern) that own the book and to bookstores where you can buy the book.
"Library Project" books are available from a library collection. The "Library Project" books fall into two categories:
- In-copyright books: You will see information about the book and, usually, a few snippets of text showing your search term in context.
- Out-of-copyright books: You can read and download the entire book.
Of course, when researching the book literature on a topic, you will want to check the Library's collection of electronic books and the Library catalog of print materials. Any books you need that the UT Southwestern Library does not own may be borrowed on interlibrary loan by filling out and ILLiad request on the Library Web site.
Google Book Search will be expanding its contents greatly, due to the settlement in October of a lawsuit by publishers and authors. Once the settlement is approved, both the number of books and the amount of text that can be viewed for certain books will increase, along with an expansion in the options to purchase books online or in a pay-per-view mode, For more information, see the Future of Google Book Search article on the Book Search Web site.
