|
|
First sent out March 2005
The Tyndale Library catalogue lists almost every Biblical Studies
book worth reading.
Now you can read a large proportion of them online,
thanks to Amazon and Google.
Just look up the book at www.TynCat.com and click on
the link to read it online.
Passing on this news will transform you into an
'internet guru' in your community.
It is still easier and quicker to
browse the books at Tyndale House Library, but until you can
come for a
visit, we'll make sure you can read as many of our books as possible on your
computer.
1) Reading books online at TynCat
2)
How to use Amazon and Google online books
3) Google plans to
scan 50,000,000 books!
4) Other sites with significant
online books
1) Reading books
online at TynCat
How many commentaries on Corinthians do you have in your
office?
OK, too many. But often you don't have the one you need. So do
the following:
- go to www.TynCat.com
- in "Title Keywords" type: Commentary
Corinthians
- click on "Search TynCat"
- almost all of the commentaries
listed on this page can be read online
Try the first, by Murray Harris (a
former Warden of Tyndale House)
- the note on the left says it isn't at
Amazon, so click on "Google"
- this finds it at Print.Google, along with
several similar books
- click to read it! (we will see how to get the most
out of Print.Google below)
Try the next, by Alan Johnson (a Tyndale
Fellowship member)
- it is at Amazon, so click on the word "Amazon" (not on
the picture)
- and there is the full text (we'll see how to get the most out
of it below)
Try the next, by David Garland, and you find the
problem
- when you click on Amazon you get an apology that they haven't added
it yet
- this usually means the publisher has given permission, so it is
worth trying later
The next one, by Frank Matera is there. And many
more...
2) How to use Amazon and Google
online books
You probably don't need these instructions, but they include some
useful tips.
To see the pages at Amazon you need to sign up with them,
with a credit card
- this doesn't mean that you will be charged anything, but
they want to know that
you could buy the book if you wanted to.
Try Frank Matera's commentary on Amazon
- when the cover displays,
click on the right of it to 'turn the page over'
- turn over three pages till
you get to the Contents page.
- let's look at the start of 2 Cor.4, which he
titles "Paul's Apostolic Integrity" (p.97-)
- so type "Apostolic Integrity"
into the search box right at the top of the page and click Go.
- this does a
concordance search for every page using these words.
- look for p.97 (it is
on the third page of results) and click on it.
- now that you are there, you
can read forwards or backwards three pages
- if you want to go beyond this,
look for a significant word on that page and search for it
Now try Murray
Harris' book on Print.Google
- click on the cover at the top of the Google
list, and you go to the Contents
- pick out the section you want and type
significant words into the search box on the left
- you will have to sign on
with a Google account to use this - but it is free
- like Amazon, you can
turn over two leaves before you have to search again.
With both, you
cannot print the pages, or save them, or read long stretches without
interruption
- and when you have read too many pages they may tell you to
come back another time
- but you wouldn't want to read too much of the book
on a computer screen anyway.
- if you find the book so useful that you get
frustrated, you'll buy a copy.
- then the price comparisons on the Tyndale
site will search 1000+ outlets for you
3) Google plans to scan 50,000,000 books!
Google books come in three styles
1) Out of Copyright: 100% of
the pages are scanned and readable
2) Copyrighted with Publisher's Donation:
90% of the pages are scanned and readable
- the other 10% are
visible on Amazon, if they have scanned it, so always try them first
3)
Copyrighted, with no permission from the publisher: only a few paragraphs are
visible
- this is Google's interpretation of the legal term
'fair use', which has got the lawyers excited
Amazon wants to sell books,
and Google wants to add material to their search engine.
But why would
publishers and authors want to allow free copies of their books on the web?
They get free publicity and shelf-space in the largest bookshop on the
planet - the web.
I always take a lot of trouble to put my books on the web,
but for 6 months one publisher
forced me to remove a book, and the sales
went down - till I put the book back on the web.
Many Christian publishers,
such as Crossway now routinely give all their books to Google
(see Google's
interesting page at https://print.google.com/publisher/crossway).
Google has plans to scan complete libraries and substantial
collections from others
These include high-profile academic libraries and
libraries in a number of countries, including
the whole of the University of
Michigan Library, plus substantial collections from the
University
libraries of Harvard, Stanford, Oxford (Bodleian) and the New York Public
Library.
Students already do a lot of their research online. Now their
legs could atrophy completely.
4)
Other sites with significant online books
Google accepts books in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch,
and Portuguese
but they make up a small proportion of the total. In response
to this:
France is imitating Google with their own scanning programme: see
http://gallica.bnf.fr/.
German
publishers are planning their own Volltextsuche Online (I haven't found it
yet)
Yahoo
are also starting their own (they say they thought of it before Google, but
didn't announce it)
Google Scholar - http://scholar.google.com/ - finds results from scholarly
sources only
- not another book collection, but a very useful service
which filters out most rubbish
Project Guttenberg - most copyright-free
books on the web: http://textual.net/access.gutenberg#E
For Biblical
Studies, there are a few significant collections of free books. Links collected
at
http://www.TyndaleHouse.com/links_books.htm#OnlineBooks
Some
commercial sources (pay per book or subscription)
Powells Books - general
Christian eBooks http://www.powells.com/subsection/ChristianityeBooks.html
Questia
- general college books with a good Religion section http://www.questia.com/library/religion/
EEBO -
Virtually every English book from 1473-1700. http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home
Ebrary - a lot of CUP
books and other publishers: http://shop.ebrary.com/
