Online Books/Book Search

Increasingly, full-text book collections are becoming available online. Several of relevance to forced migration researchers include:

Committee on Population (CPOP), National Academies Press (NAP) [access]
- Relevant titles include "Psychosocial Concepts in Humanitarian Work with Children: A Review of the Concepts and Related Literature" and "Tools and Methods for Estimating Populations at Risk from Natural Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Crises," among others.

Digital Library, Forced Migration Online [access]
- Some examples of books in the FMO collection include: Barbara Harrell-Bond's well-known text, "Imposing aid: emergency assistance to refugees" and "Risks and reconstruction: experiences of resettlers and refugees," ed. by Michael Cernea and Christopher McDowell.

Kumarian Press [access]
- Publishes a number of titles on disasters, humanitarianism and peacebuilding. Various books can be viewed online at no cost, including issues of the World Disasters Report and Larry Minear's "The Humanitarian Enterprise: Dilemmas and Discoveries," among others.

"Social and Political Sciences," International Development Research Centre (IDRC) [access]
- Collection includes "Palesinian Refugees: Challenges of Repatriation and Development" and "The Responsibility to Protect," among others.

The IDRC notes that its books are available through Google Book Search. This is a project to scan books already in the public domain or with permission from the copyright holder. Texts are then searchable. Depending on the level of copyright permission granted, users can either view the complete text, preview a limited portion, or read a displayed "snippet."

Several books from the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement can also be previewed through Google, including Masses in Flight: The Global Crisis of Internal Displacement, The Forsaken People: Case Studies of the Internally Displaced, and Exodus Within Borders: An Introduction to the Crisis of Internal Displacement. Likewise, most titles from Berghahn Books' refugee studies series also appear to be available for limited previews.

Another book search service is provided by Amazon.com. Books from participating publishers are fully searchable; sample pages can also be viewed and further searches can be conducted within an individual book. (See, for example, Jane McAdam's Complementary Protection in International Refugee Law.)

These services enable researchers to better evaluate the relevance of books as well as verify citations and locate quoted text within book passages. You can also create public book lists in Amazon or personalized libraries in Google, both of which allow you to describe, organize and share relevant titles with colleagues.