Searching within a Book

Here's a tip: If a book does not have a subject index, try searching for it in Google Books. If it has been indexed by Google Books, then you can search within the text of the book. The search results will point you to page numbers on which your search term appears, effectively serving as an index. I did this recently with Acquisition and Loss of Nationality, Vol. 1: Comparative Analyses, a 499- page book with no index. I had the book in hand but I wasn't inclined to read the entire text in order to locate references to "statelessness"!

Amazon.com offers a similar "search inside this book" feature; here's a link to the same book for comparative purposes.

Google Book Search Settlement Agreement

The New York Times reported yesterday that Google had reached a settlement with publishers and authors over content that it displays from millions of scanned texts in its Google Book search service.

"Under the agreement, Google will now show up to 20 percent of the text at no charge to users. It will also make the entire book available online for a fee. Universities, libraries and other organizations will be able to buy subscriptions that make entire collections of those books available to their visitors."

More information about the future of Google Book search is provided on Google's settlement agreement page.

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.