23 Things: NetLibrary

NetLibrary is a service that provides access to electronic content in the form of digital books, e-journals and audiobooks. I determined that my public library has a subscription to NetLibrary, and I was able to log in from home. Unfortunately, when I began exploring, I discovered that in fact, my library only has access to digital books and not the other types of content. From a refugee & forced migration standpoint, I didn't find the ebook collection terribly up-to-date. I did take a look at "Human Rights: A Reference Handbook." (Interestingly, there is another book in the same Contemporary World Issues series that focuses on refugees but it's not included in this collection.) It was the 1998 edition, but I know that there is a revised 2006 edition that's been published.

As it happens, the local library also offers a separate digital catalog of audiobooks, ebooks and video. No hits here for "refugees," though, so I browsed the various subject categories instead. An easy site to navigate and certainly useful if you want to listen to a good mystery or if you aren't able to get your hands on the latest sci fi title!

Researching Migration Web Book

Researching Migration: Stories from the Field (Social Science Research Council, Dec. 2007)

This Web-based book is available online as a complete PDF and by individual chapters. The abstract reads as follows: "...[F]ellows of the International Migration Program reflect upon their experience conducting research on international migration to the United States. Although their essays describe the substantive findings of their research, their main focus is on the multiple methods employed in producing those findings. The narratives of methodological practices in this publication have been selected in part because they address central themes and questions of international migration studies and will be substantively relevant to the research findings of other scholars in the field. ..."

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.