ME2V20002 Media Comparison and Intermediality / ME2V2001 Mediavergelijking en Intermedialiteit: Books

Utrecht University Library offers you optimised access to WorldCat, including extra search and filter options, via: https://utrechtuniversity.on.worldcat.org

Here you will find:

• The contents of more than a thousand libraries from all over the world (and options to borrow these materials).
• The Utrecht University Library collection.

To optimise your search read the Libguide on WorldCat.

Attention: Worldcat also has a general entry without these additional options, which can be found at WorldCat.org.

Google Books is a search engine in which you will find (data on) more than 20 million books. Books are included in Google Books via the scan programme that Google executes at >20 large libraries and via publishers taking care of their own uploads. That is why Google Books often contains the searchable full text of books. However, though you can search the full text you cannot always read the full text in Google Books. It depends on copyright issues and publishers' permissions. Mainly the older books which are copyright-free are full text available in Google Books.

Though it is difficult to find there is also an advanced search form for Google Books that you can use to do a more targeted search.

In addition to the catalogue, use Google Books for:

• trying to find the title/author of books in which your subject is only a small part of the content (chapter, paragraph), because in the catalogue that only works in the case of e-books;
• (if you are lucky) reading the full text of (parts of) books which the library does not hold (but you can also make a purchase suggestion with sometimes very quick results;
• Finding more books on the same subject via the extra data that Google Books adds to a title (citations, related titles).

If you have found relevant titles in Google Books, you can look for the title in the catalogue of Utrecht University Library to get access to the book. Unfortunately, Google Books does not show the UBU link as Google Scholar does.

The LibGuide Search Strategy>Where to look for books> tab:Google Books offers more information about working with Google Books.

In your search for scholarly literature you may sometimes find the UBU-link. This link provides information about the availability of digital publications via the University Library.  Sometimes the UBU-link is in the form of a yellow button, but it can also be a text link.

Want to know more about all options to access digital publications? Visit our Online Access page.

If Utrecht University Library does not have the book or journal you are looking for, you can request the material from other libraries in the Netherlands and from foreign libraries (this is called Interlibrary Loans (ILL). Material  can be requested through WorldCat by clicking on the title of the item. Under "Access Options" then "Request from Libraries Worldwide" you will find the "Interlibrary Request" button. 

Read more about borrowing from other libraries.