Digital Book Index: Main Help Page

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Here's How

Hierarchy of Returned Records

Leading Articles

Search Methods Used

Using Keywords in Title Searches

How to Download

Publishers & Distributors

Here's How

Here's the simple procedure:
(1) Select a search method:

-by Author

-by title or key words in the title

-by a subject group
(2) Find the title you want.
(3) Decide which "format" you

want.
(3) Click on the "format" of that title.
(4) Download the book you want, or

read it on screen.
It should be simple. However,

here are the refinements:

There are many different formats -- you need to decide which you prefer. (see, Book Formats)

Because there are many different publishers, there are many different ways of spelling or entering a title into a database. A search for "key words" makes this process easier. (See, Spelling, Leading Articles, and Understanding Keywords)

Because there are many different ways of "downloading" a title, we have explained the most common below. (See, How to Download)

Hint: Click your

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Order of Returned

Records

Generally, search results are returned in the
following order:
Reference titles
Documents (especially under Historical

Categories), ordered by year
Regular Titles Listings

Abbreviations

(1) When searching Authors, "United States" is usually abbreviated as U.S. -- this, in turn, will find all U.S. departments, congressional reports, etc.
(2) When searching key words in Titles for reference titles, the following abbreviations have been used:

aero = aeronautics

arts = arts

astro. = astrophysics, astronomy

govt. = government

lang. = languages

lit. = literatures

Most spellings have been regularized to American English. For example, "Brontë, Charlotte" should be entered as "Bronte, Charlotte".

â ä à å á ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô ö ù ú û ü ÿ
should all be entered as
a a a a a c e e e e i i i i n o o o o u u u u y

Leading Articles

The use of "The" or "A" or "de" (as in Thomas de Quincy) etc. will vary by how the publisher entered an author/title listing. Most searches will be easier using Key Word(s) in Title searches, eliminating the concern for articles.

Archaic Usages:

Spelling & Words

When searching Titles, be aware of archaic spellings and usages. For example, in the 19th century, "New York" was sometimes spelled as New-York (with a hyphen), when used as an adjective. Similarly, United-States, etc.

Understanding

Using Key Words is a very powerful tool for finding titles for which you can only remember a fragment of the title or for finding titles in a specific subject area. However, it does require a little experimentation and a little knowledge of how this works.

For example, if you enter "war" (without the quote marks) the search will return titles with "war" anywhere in the title or anywhere within a word within a title. This might be the result:

war, warfare, warplanes, warlord, hardware, etc.

This is called a "string" search. It will find a string of characters anywhere in the entire list of titles.

If you were looking for books on the subject of Dance it would be helpful to enter the word as " Danc " (leaving off the "ing"). This would return:

dance, dancer, and dancing,

and would provide a fuller list of titles on Dancing.

If you entered the word "transportation" and the word "career", you would find all books about careers in transportation. However, if you exclude the word "career", you will find all those books that refer to transportation, but not those about careers in transportaion.

Here are some samples:

If you want		try	potential results
philosophy		philos	philosophy philosopher philosophical etc
economics		econ	economics economical econometric etc
astronomy astrophysics		astron astrop	astronomy astrophysics
Note: if you only entered "astro", you would also find astrology, a very different subject.

Be aware, however, such general words may return hundreds of titles. The "secret" to this kind of search is finding the right balance between a word or fragment that is too general or too narrow.

How to Download

a Title

You will find a link to the title you wish to download (or read on-line) in the Format column on your screen. Click on the Format, and you will be linked to the title. Because different Publishers have different methods of downloading, when you click on the link, one of several different things can happen:

You will be connected immediately to a book file for downloading. Your browser will ask you if is OK (and where) to download. (or) In some instances, a file will start downloading without asking. (or)

You will be connected to another site to download a book file. You may be asked (even if a book is "free") to "login" at the download site before downloading. (or)

If you have selected a "Txt," "Txt-G" (Gutenberg Text) or PDF file, the actual text file may load onto your screen. You may then choose "File" on your browser and "Save As". Give the file a name and a folder location. A variant: You will land in a "folder" on the Web Server. You will then have to select the book file you want to download. (or)

If you have clicked on a site which requires payment (such as NetLibrary or Barnes & Noble), you will be transferred to the "front door" of that site. Follow the procedures for logging in or starting a shopping session. Then, locate the title you wish to purchase and add it to your shopping cart. (or)

Some combination of the above. Please follow the directions on the destination site.

Publishers &

Distributors

We try to list both where known. Some "publishers" only distribute their titles through their own web site. Some use "distributors" such as NetLibrary or Barnes & Noble. Some use both.

Out of Print

"Out of Print" has a new or different meaning from the printed-book world. OP may mean that a title has been withdrawn from public distribution or that it has been superseded by a later edition. It may also mean that the URL link has been lost, scrambled, or changed or that a publisher has gone "out of business" or no longer maintains a Website.

Search Methods

There are three basic searching styles:

1. "begins with" (the first characters typed)

If you type "Shakes", you will get everything

that starts with those characters, including

Shakespeare.
2. "contains" If you type "war", you will get

everything that contains the characters "war"
anywhere in the title or within a word,

including war, warfare, warlord, or hardware
3. "exact match"

If you type in "war", it will only find "war" in the
starting position. It will not find warfare or warlord.

When entering search words, be aware which of these formats are being used (see below).

Search Methods
Used

Author searches use: "begins with"
Title searches use both: "begins with" and; "contains"
Subject searches usually use: "contains"
Keyword searches usually use: "contains"
ISBN searches use: "exact matches"
Dewey searches use: "begins with"
L/C searches use: "begins with"

Book Formats: The principal formats included here are:

Identifier		File Type	Open or Encrypted
Txt	=	ASCII text --plain text	open, non-encrypted
Txt-G	=	ASCII text (Gutenburg Project-US) --plain text	open, non-encrypted. A plain, but usually authoritative, text version prepared from original sources.
PDF-Adobe	=	Adobe PDF (Adobe Acrobat Reader); versions available for Windows, Mac, Palm, Pocket PC, Linux, Sun Solaris, Unix, etc.	Note: The newer versions (after January 2001) of Adobe (Acrobat) eBook Reader will read all Adobe eBook files, Adobe PDF files, and the former Glassbook files -- in both encrypted and non-encrypted formats. (The regular Acrobat Reader, version 4.x or 5.x, will not read the earlier encrypted Glassbook files.)
Adobe eBook or AeBook	=	(Adobe Acrobat e-Book Reader); many versions available, as above.
HTML	=	HTML (web-style) Format	usually open, non-encrypted --usually text on screen.
Flip		Graphic	page-images in a page-turning format. Used extensively at Internet Archive. Open access.
Gemstar (formerly) Rocket	=	Rocket Book Format	proprietary; requires the portable Rocketbook reader or the newer RCA 1100 or 1200 readers.
Graphic	=	Graphic format (mostly scanned images)	usually open. Graphic files are usually a "picture" image of the original book.

MSReadr or Ms	=	Microsoft Reader Format	both, open and encrypted

NetLibrary	=	NetLibrary	Proprietary; readable on screen. Frequently accessible through your public, college, or university library.
On-Line	=	On Line (Reference)	Open (usually). Some reference sources charge a fee. Usually text on screen.
Palm(A)	=	Palm Pilot --Aportis	requires Palm Pilot with the AportisDoc Reader; both open & encrypted. This is the reader required for the Univ. of Virginia texts.
Palm(P)	=	Palm Pilot --Peanut Press	requires Palm Pilot with the Peanut Press Reader; both open & encrypted.
Audio	=	e-Audio Books	Not yet included here.
MM	=	Multimedia	various, frequently with audio & video.
ZIP	=	various	most of the above stored in a compressed ZIP format for downloading. Requires an un-compression utility such as WinZip.

Post	=	Postscript	Adobe Postscript format

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PUBLISHER: THOMAS R. FRANKLIN