Finding the books

A number of the books of interest to Kao-Hai members are rare or out of print. Does that mean expensive and very hard to find? Not always. Here are some solutions which are worth trying. Each will take a little time to get the hang of but the effort will be well spent.

Make sure you look on several websites as the prices can vary vastly.

WorldCat

WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services. WorldCat.org lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world. You can search many libraries at once for an item and then locate it in a library nearby. You may be surprised at what you find.

Website: www.worldcat.org

Verandah Books - click here

ABE Books - click here 

Wordery Books - click here

Ebay Books - click here

Amazon Books - click here

Google books

Google Books searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned. Books are provided by publishers and authors. There are four access levels:

Full view - Books in the public domain can be downloaded for free.

Preview - For in-print books where permission has been granted, the number of viewable pages is limited to a preview. It is usually enough to let you know if the book is worth getting.

Snippet view - Two to three lines of text surrounding the queried search term.

No preview – Probably means it is still on sale.

Website: books.google.com

HathiTrust

HathiTrust is a global partnership of research institutions and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and accessible long into the future. The mission of HathiTrust is to contribute to research, scholarship, and the common good by collaboratively collecting, organizing, preserving, communicating, and sharing the record of human knowledge.

Hathi, pronounced ‘hah-tee’, is the Hindi word for elephant - famed for its long-term memory.

Website: www.hathitrust.org

Finally – ask your library

Most libraries will welcome suggestion for purchases. You will need to provide the title and author (obviously) and in many cases the ISBN number (which can be found in WorldCat). About 80% of my requests have been adopted.