So, you’ve heard that some big libraries are putting ALL their books on Google.
Sorry, that’s not exactly the entire story. The first priority is to digitize the books that are old enough to be out of copyright. Those published before about 1923 and not renewed since, or any that have been released to the public domain since that time, such as government and public documents, can appear in full text.
Other materials still under copyright will be searchable but only display a few lines.
Check on Google Book Search Library Project for all the facts.
Google provides some text for books online, depending on the copyright and what the publisher allows.
- Just type Books about followed by the title or subject.
- At the top of the results, you should see links labeled Book Results. Click on the title or subject.
- Select a book from the list, if you asked for a subject.
- On the right sidebar beside the book, one of the choices will be Find this book in a library. Click on that.
- Enter your location information, such as your zip code, and search.
- Google will find the nearest libraries with this book.
Note: all the libraries must members of the international library database called OCLC. Other libraries may hold the title but not be listed for that reason.
