8 a - Basic searching
The shift from searching brief records to whole documents that we have seen with Google Scholar is even more dramatically evident in Google Book Search. Here the text of the whole book can be searched through for combinations words or phrases.
Click on the image to search
Google Book Search returns a hit only if our words appear on the same page and when we click on the blue link we are taken to the first page on which the terms are present.
8 b - Searching within the book
Note that it is now possible for us to search for other words or phrases within the book. Here we have looked for all occurrences of the word histocompatibility
8 c - Views
Google Book Search has four different levels of access or "views"
- No preview indicates that our search words are present
- Snippet view tells us that our words are present but does not take us to the relevant page or allow us to further search the book
- Limited preview takes us to the appropriate page and allows us to search within the book but does not give us access to the whole book or allow us to copy it in any way
- Full view allows us to search and navigate the whole book and may allow us to download it
8d – Finding references within books
A common complaint by researchers in the humanities and social sciences (and other book-oriented disciplines) is that their work is frequently cited in books, but that this activity is invisible to the standard bibliometric tools like Web of Science and Scopus.
Here, for example, we found 40 references in books to Atholl Anderson’s The Welcome of Strangers.
Click to run search
8 d - Exercise
Find information on a topic of your choice in Google Book Search. Try limiting to Full view items.
Note that the Massey Library catalogue includes links to GBS
8 e - Other book collections
New Zealand Electronic Text Collection
The Internet Archive Open-Access Text Archive
Massey Library's List of Ebooks Collections includes some free collections as well.
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