Searching a book's contents instead of a book title on internet archives?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the challenges of searching for book contents on internet archives, specifically the desire to perform a topic-based search rather than a title-based search. Participants explore the feasibility of such searches, the limitations imposed by copyright laws, and alternative methods for finding relevant books or materials.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses a desire to perform a topic search on internet archives, seeking to find books based on chapter contents rather than titles.
  • Another participant notes that such a search is only possible for books that have their content digitized and indexed by search engines, which is not universally applicable.
  • Concerns are raised about copyright laws and the implications of accessing book contents without proper authorization.
  • Some participants suggest using Google Books as an alternative for discovering books, as it provides a similar search functionality that displays relevant sections of books.
  • There is a discussion about the legality of using archive.org, with references to ongoing legal disputes regarding digital book lending.
  • One participant mentions that a list of books is not very useful without reading a chapter, emphasizing the importance of personal preference in choosing suitable materials.
  • Another participant suggests searching for lecture notes online as a way to find relevant academic content.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the feasibility of performing topic searches on internet archives. There are differing views on the legality of accessing certain content and the effectiveness of alternative search methods.

Contextual Notes

The discussion highlights limitations related to copyright laws, the indexing of digital content, and the varying effectiveness of different search platforms. Specific assumptions about the availability of content and the legality of access are also noted but remain unresolved.

brainbaby
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hi..

I am using internet archives for searching a book.

Normally the method of searching a book on internet archives is as follows-- we enter a word/ phrase/ book title that we want to search in the search tab and hit the search button, the result that is displayed are all the books that have that word or similar in their "TITLE".
But I want to make a reverse search instead, a TOPIC search.
i.e by entering a topic or chapter in the search tab.. the result that should be displayed must contain all the books having that topic or chapter in their contents... how can I do that.?

thanks!

https://archive.org/
 
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That would be possible only for books that have their content released in digital form and indexed by the search engines. Publishers are not too happy about doing that.
 
Borek said:
That would be possible only for books that have their content released in digital
Yes, I am talking of only those books.

Borek said:
That would be possible
How??
 
Search for a subject.
 
brainbaby said:
Yes, I am talking of only those books.

You have missed the second part:

Borek said:
and indexed by the search engines

Yes, some books are fully indexed. No, there is no sure way of finding them.
 
brainbaby said:
hi..

I am using internet archives for searching a book.

Normally the method of searching a book on internet archives is as follows-- we enter a word/ phrase/ book title that we want to search in the search tab and hit the search button, the result that is displayed are all the books that have that word or similar in their "TITLE".
But I want to make a reverse search instead, a TOPIC search.
i.e by entering a topic or chapter in the search tab.. the result that should be displayed must contain all the books having that topic or chapter in their contents... how can I do that.?

thanks!

https://archive.org/
You left out the most important part: why?

In detail: Why do you want to possibly, i.e. very likely breach the copyright laws?

A list of books is in my mind pretty worthless without reading at least a chapter of each. A suitable book depends on the preferences of the reader. Even asking on the internet, e.g. here, will get you answers that cover the entire range. By range, I mean something like: from Bourbaki, over Russian literature, to pre-Bourbaki novels. How could anybody choose without having classified the type, let alone the style?

My procedure was always to know whom you can ask for a recommendation.

If you want to study a certain subject, then google "<subject> + pdf" and you will find dozens of lecture notes. Now you can choose simply by opening one after the other.P.S.: arxiv.org is a good location if you want to break the law!
 
fresh_42 said:
You left out the most important part: why?

In detail: Why do you want to possibly, i.e. very likely breach the copyright laws?

A list of books is in my mind pretty worthless without reading at least a chapter of each. A suitable book depends on the preferences of the reader. Even asking on the internet, e.g. here, will get you answers that cover the entire range. By range, I mean something like: from Bourbaki, over Russian literature, to pre-Bourbaki novels. How could anybody choose without having classified the type, let alone the style?

My procedure was always to know whom you can ask for a recommendation.

If you want to study a certain subject, then google "<subject> + pdf" and you will find dozens of lecture notes. Now you can choose simply by opening one after the other.P.S.: arxiv.org is a good location if you want to break the law!
I believe you mean archive.org, not arxiv.org. (unless you are against preprints :wink:)

It is not clear that archive.org is illegal. It is being fought in the courts.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litig...fate-digital-book-lending-lawsuit-2022-09-06/
(from September 2022)

PF currently does not allow archive.org links. It used to, so one might find some old links.
 
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Frabjous said:
I believe you mean archive.org, not arxiv.org. (unless you are against preprints :wink:)
No. I meant arxiv.org. This is not only a preprint server!

I am against the many books on arxiv.org which - at least in principle, i.e. younger than 120 years - still have copyright protection.
 
If you're just looking to discover the existence of a book (and not have its whole contents for free), then Google Books is fairly good. Google won the copyright infringement case brought against it for Google Books.
 
  • #10
sorry to reply a bit late..
just to clarify my point..

As we do some search in google books...the results that are displayed there are just exactly the way I want them to be displayed on internet archives.

for e.g I searched the following--" design a datapath from given instruction set" in google books & the result which is displayed contained all the books which contained my search item listed specifically under FOUND INSIDE section..
I've shared the screenshots of what I exactly want..
 

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