[Web4lib] Query: union search for online books

[Stevens, Julieanne H.]

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but Archive.org has an extensive collection, as well as search capability.  You can search in a number of collections :
American Libraries | Canadian Libraries | Universal Library | Project Gutenberg | Biodiversity Heritage Library | Children's Library | Additional Collections

Juju Stevens

Julieanne Hartman Stevens
Reference and  Electronic Resources Librarian
Stetson University College of Law
Law Library
1401 61st Street South
Gulfport, Florida 33707

727-562-7304
Internal extension: 7204
jhsteven at law.stetson.edu

Information is the currency of democracy. 
 - Thomas Jefferson
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-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Henry Gladney
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 1:57 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] Query: union search for online books

In recent years several giant digitizations of (mostly) out-of-copyright
books have been mounted, some by commercial enterprises and some by academic
institutions.  My relatively cursory Google search has not led me to a Web
service from which one can mount a search that inspects a large fraction of
these to determine whether or not a book (or a scholarly article) is
available in digital form.  (I am aware of Google Book Search (see
http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html ) but currently
believe its scope to be limited.)

I wonder, has the kind of service been programmed and made available?  (I
believe that providing it would be a relatively straightforward programming
task.  If not, perhaps some list member will take it on.)   If you know of
an example, I would be grateful for a pointer to it.  I suspect that other
members of this distribution list would be as interested as I am.

Best wishes, Henry

H.M. Gladney, Ph.D.     HMG Consulting http://home.pacbell.net/hgladney/
(408)867-5454
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