Google Search Strategies

Google Books: The Tool You Should Use Every Day! Lisa Louise Cooke Website: https://lisalouisecooke.com

Google Books has 25 million digitized and searchable free books at your fingertips! Here’s how to make the most of this goldmine, which is chock full of historical data.

Google Books URL: http://books.google.com A goldmine of genealogical resources: • Over 25 million books; 10 million+ are digitized • They digitize out-of-copyright and public domain books • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) makes digitized books keyword searchable • Foreign language books • MyLibrary which provides you with your own digital library for research and organization that you can access from any device through your free Google account

Search Basics Search Operator: A symbol or function that narrows or broadens a search.

Quotation Marks When you want to search for an exact word or phrase. Example: phrase “horseless carriage exhibition” or single word “Lincoln”

OR When you want to provide for options in the results. Burkhart Ohio OR Indiana

“-” Minus When you want to subtract a keyword, so that only results that do not include the word are returned. Example: Lincoln -Abraham -President

Asterisk When you want to allow a letter, word, or two words to be able to appear between two words. It can hold the place for an initial in a name. Example: city * directory returns results such as city directory, city telephone directory, etc.

NumRange (..) When you want to narrow the search results within a certain timespan. This only works for your 4-digit years. Don’t include month or day. Example: “Indiana” “newspapers” 1790..1830

Mix and match Search Operators. Narrow your search with features such as View Selection, Content Type Selection, and Language.

Skip Straight to the Free Fully Digitized Books 1. Go to http://books.google.com 2. Enter your search query and click the Search button. 3. The results page will include all types of books – from fully digitized to no preview. Click the Search Tools button just below the search field. 4. In the drop-down menu click the down arrow (under Any Books) and select Free Google eBooks. 5. Your search results will now only include books that are fully digitized and freely available to use.

Search Within a Book The search box at the top of each page searches the entire Google Books collection. To search within a particular book, click the book title in the search results and use the search box on the left side of the book page. This will search for your search terms only in the selected book.

Things to Keep in Mind Book Search isn’t perfect: • Some pages are not high quality. • Search is not an exact science and takes some trial and error. • Use the Advanced Search and try your searches from many different approaches. • The Search feature won’t always pick up your search terms. If you don’t see a book you expect to find in your results, try a title or author search.

Finding the Unexpected in Google Books • Old maps and images: Use the thumbnail button in the toolbar (it looks like a checkerboard) to view many pages at one time. This will help make maps, photos, and other images easy to spot. • The complete catalog of Ancestry magazine.

Foreign Language Books It’s easy to miss the fact that Google Books contains countless foreign language history books because they don’t appear when English words are searched. Use Google Translate to help you get more out of Google Books. 1. Go to Google Translate at https://translate.google.com 2. Type your search words in the box on the left (the language will be detected, but you can also click to select English). 3. Above the box on the right, click to select the desired language you want to translate your search words into. 4. Click the Translate button. The translated text will appear in the box on the right. 5. Copy the translated text (click the copy button at the bottom of the translation box). 6. Go to Google Books at https://books.google.com and paste the translation into the search box and click the Search button. 7. You will receive books in your search results that meet your criteria.

8. Notice that each search result has a Translate this page link. This will only translate the book description, not the digitized pages. 9. When you click through to the book, your search terms will be highlighted on the page where they appear. On the scroll bar on the right side of the page you will see “notches” indicating which pages contain your search terms. Or scroll through them by clicking the Prev and Next links in the yellow search results bar at the top of the book page. 10. When you find a passage on a digitized page that you want to translate into English you have two options. Because translation can’t be perfect, it doesn’t hurt to use both methods get as complete a translation as possible.

A) Use the free Google Translate app on your mobile device. Zoom in on the passage so it fills your computer screen. (This technique works much better with smaller sections of text rather than an entire page.) Open the app on your device and hold it up to the screen. The translation will appear in the app. Get even better translations by snapping a photo and allowing the app to translate the photo.

B) On the book page, click the clipper tool and draw a box around the desired text. Upon release of your mouse, a Share this clip box will appear. Click the Translate link and the text will appear translated in Google Translate.

My Library A powerful tool within Google Books is My Library. It allows you to create a virtual library within Google Books of the books you have found. To get to My Library click the My Library link.

Here you can: • Create a My Library profile. • Import books from your searches into My Library for future reference. You can add both free and purchased books. Consider adding previews of the books you’ve already purchased so you can keep track of all the books you own. • Organize your books on “shelves” by topic. • Add notes to each book. Notes on public books will be public, and notes on private books will be private. • Add labels to each book. Examples: Surnames, locations, and other genealogical topics of interest. • Write a review of the book for the benefit of all researchers.

Shelves As your Google Books My Library grows you’ll want to stay organized, and shelves are a great way to do it. You can add customized “shelves” to keep track of different kinds of books (like genealogy how- tos, or books related to a certain family). Create as many as you want and mark them private or public as desired.

How to Setup a New Shelf in My Library: 1. Click the red New Shelf button. 2. Type in a name for your shelf and a description of the types of books you will be including. 3. Select whether you want the shelf to be public or private. Any notes included on books on public shelves will be visible to everyone. You can change the setting in the future by clicking on the shelf and then going to Settings > Edit Properties. 4. Click the My Library link from any page and you will see your shelves displayed. First in the list will be default shelves such as My Books on Google Play, Purchased, Reviewed, Recently Viewed (very handy for finding a book you looked at recently), and Browsing History. Your custom shelves will be listed alphabetically. The privacy setting can be adjusted for each of these as well.

How to Add a Book to a Shelf in My Library: 1. Pull up the book in Google Books. 2. From the book page, hover your mouse over the Add to My Library button and click on the desired shelf from the drop-down list.

BONUS: Use Google Lens to Search for Books 1. On your mobile device open the Google search app. 2. Tap the Google Lens icon in the search bar. 3. Point your camera at the title page of the book. 4. Press the search button. 5. Results will appear on the screen. If available in Google Books you will see a blue Read Now button.

SPECIAL WEBINAR SAVINGS Learn more about Google Books, Google Lens and more in Lisa’s book & Premium Membership:

Use 25% Discount Coupon Code: SAVE25LISA Expires 3 days after the webinar.

The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, 3rd edition by Lisa Louise Cooke Available at https://www.shopgenealogygems.com

Premium Membership to Lisa Louise Cooke’s website for 1 year Includes 50+ video classes and handouts, exclusive premium podcast and more! Available at https://lisalouisecooke.com/premium-membership/