The Good News: Google Scholar, which is the part of Google that indexes scholarly literature, includes some citations to books as well as to journal articles.
The Bad News: If you don’t click the proper link, you won’t get to the full text of the book.
To make sure that you don’t miss out on any e-books that the library has purchased, configure Google Scholar so that you’re connected to the libraries’ holdings. Now, the next time you search Google Scholar, you will see links that say FINDIT@JHU.
Here’s the important part: click on this FIND IT link, and *not* the title of the book, to see whether or not the book is available online.
Example: in Google Scholar, enter the words robotics and modelling. One of the first items that appears is a book called Robotics: modelling, planning and control. Click on the book’s TITLE and you’ll be taken to the book in Google Books. There, you can only view a small portion of the book. Click the FIND IT link and you’ll be taken to the book within JHU’s FIND IT system, which provides links to the whole book.
Why does Google Books only show *some* of the book?
As Google Books explains, it treats all books published from 1923 and later as if they are protected by copyright. Therefore, it gives you four options: full view, limited preview, snippet view, and none.
So, a search in Google Scholar might list an e-book. Click on the FINDIT@JHU link to find out whether or not we have this book as an e-book. If we DO, happy reading! If we DON’T, click on the TITLE of the book in Scholar. That will take you to Google Books, where you might be able to see some or most of the book. Or, just check out the print book from the library.
We’ve got much more information about e-books and related topics on our E-Books Guide. Please let us know whenever you have an e-book-related question!