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University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Google for Academic Research

A guide on techniques for researchers to increase their skills with Google's various search options.

What is Google Books?

Google Books is an index of full-text books and magazines that Google has digitized. Materials are provided by publishers, authors, and partnering libraries through various Google programs. You can view the full-text of books in the public domain. For materials that have been digitized but still remain protected under copyright, Google often provides previews or snippets.

Connect Your Account

To share your reviews and your public bookshelves, you must link your Google Profile to your Google Books account.

1. Go to the google books website.

2. Underneath the search bar, click on 'My Library.'

3. On the left-hand side of the page, in the yellow box, click 'Show my profile next to my public books Data.'

4. To see your connected profile, refresh the Google Books page.

 

Advanced Book Search

The Advanced Book Search is hidden on the right side of the screen under the gear icon cogwheel only after you have performed a search and clicked on the title of a book.

This is a screenshot of the location of the Advanced Search feature.

Once you have clicked on the Advanced Book Search option, you can narrow your search by:

  • author
  • publisher
  • subject
  • language
  • title
  • ISBN/ISSN

You can also find only books that have full text available online, though keep in mind that many of these titles will be older works in the public domain. To search for books that have full-text available online, select 'Full view only' in the 'Search' row.

This is an image of the Advanced Search function search interface.

Search Within Book

To search within a book, locate the navigation bar on the left side of the screen. Underneath the title, author, and/or an image of the book in the left-hand navigation bar you will see a small search bar. You can use this search bar to search within a book.

This is a screenshot of the full-text version of a book inside Google Books.

Bibliographic Information

To find more information about this book as an object, you can access the book or magazine's bibliographic information by clicking on 'About this Book':

1. When you are in an item, the 'About this Book' link can be found in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen. 'About this Book' can be found directly beneath the search bar in the left-hand side navigation bar. Click on 'About this Book.' This will open up a new page.

2. Scroll all the way to the bottom until you see a section titled, 'Bibliographic Information.' Here you can find further information about the author, publisher, ISBN, edition, and more.

This is a screenshot of the Bibliographic Information section, which is at the bottom of the page Google sends you to after clicking 'About this Book.'