Online books

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Various websites provide access to digitised copies of books. Online books can contain a wealth of useful material with the added bonus of often having the ability to search the text. You will find many links to online books across the FIBIwiki. Use the Search at the top of this page to locate pages of interest.

Please note that links to historical books are provided as an information and research tool and FIBIS cannot verify the accuracy of such works nor guarantee they are free from bias. Readers are advised to note the date of any historical books and assess the material accordingly.

See also:


Google Books

Google Books is an online repository of digitised books scanned from libraries around the world. Books that are labelled 'Full View' can be read in their entirety and pdf copies can be saved to your computer.

There are thousands of books that have content relevant for family history research including directories, civil lists, biographies and military histories. As well as reading around a topic or finding out about a place, it is worth searching on an ancestor's name in inverted commas e.g. "John Doe". You may have to try various combinations of the name. This is particularly successful for ancestors of a certain social class living in the first half of the nineteenth century, but you never know what you may find. Try tracing an officer's career via listings of promotions, look for births/marriages/deaths or find the postings of an apothecary. Using the Advanced Search to narrow down the time frame of publication can be useful.

Books may be viewed in a one page, or two pages side by side, format. The icons are in the top left hand corner. If you are viewing a book in the two pages side by side format, you may not be able to scroll through the book. If this occurs, you will need to change back to the one page format to scroll.

Currently (2018/3) Search Help includes links to Advanced Search and information about how to download a book if you want to save a copy rather than read it online. If you want to download a book file, look for "eBook - Free" on the left hand side of the webpage. Sometimes the Google Books Search or Advanced Search may not locate a book and you may find a Google Search using the search terms site:books.google and the book name may locate the book file. If still unsuccessful and you have full details of the book try browsing in Google Books Sitemap/Unclassified Select year of publication, then the first letter of the exact title. There are also other categories in the Sitemap.

FIBIS resources

  • "Using Google Books for Family History Research" by Ed Storey FIBIS Journal Number 25 (Spring 2011), pages 44-48

FIBIS on Google Books

FIBIS has a Google Books library with books on topics related to its aims.

You can search within the books in the library, a useful technique for eliminating results unrelated to historical British India topics. The FIBIS Webmaster advised (April 2012): "Placing a search term within speech marks asks the search engine to look for exact matches. If there are no exact matches it appears that the library produces results as if you hadn't searched for an exact match. If there are exact matches then only the exact matches are shown. I experimented with searching for "Samuel Smith" and only exact matches were shown, but searching for "Collett Smith" produced hits only for Collett and Smith separately as there were no exact matches". As Google Books frequently changes its website, this may change from time to time.

Copying Information from Full View Google Books

The following is the situation at April 2012 but could change from time to time as Google Books frequently changes its webpages
The following is not available if the book is labelled 'Limited View' or 'Snippet View' or 'No Preview'.
When you are reading a Full View book you can click:

  • ”Plain Text” to copy the text to a Word or similar document. This heading is hidden under a circular icon at the top right hand side of the page. What you copy will not be fully accurate, so you will need to check your copy against the original wording.
  • Click once on the scissors icon as a first step to copying a part of the actual page. The icon from the mouse connection then appears as a cross. Next left click on your mouse and draw a rectangle around the paragraph you require. Click within the paragraph which should then become blue. Then copy the link which appears under “Image” and paste in a document. You can subsequently use this link to view the paragraph you have saved. You can also use programs such as Powerpoint to make a slide of the paragraph you have clipped.

Expanding a Google Books Snippet view search result

A researcher was seeking further information on Colonel Warren Francis Trotter, born in India The first Google Books search result stated The Near East, Volume 11 1916 Snippet view "Colonel Warren Francis Trotter, Royal Marine Artillery, died at Briery Close. Windermere, on Monday. ... district preferred, and rough idea of fees should be given".

The link inside the book was not helpful, and the wording from the search result could not be seen on the snippet view of the page inside the book.

One method is to focus on less common words at the end of the search result wording and carry out a new search for these words. The next Google Books search was Artillery, “Briery Close” which resulted in the wording “Colonel Warren Francis Trotter, Royal Marine Artillery, died at Briery Close. Windermere, on Monday. He joined the RMA in 1876, and had seen service in China, Esquimault, and Egypt. He was awarded the Egyptian Medal. ...”. The next Google Books search result for "China, Esquimault, and Egypt" resulted in the wording “He joined the RMA in 1876, and had seen service in China, Esquimault, and Egypt. He was awarded the Egyptian Medal. 1882, and the Khedive's Bronze Star. At the time of his death he was in command of a howitzer and antiaircraft brigade. ...”. A final search using the words "Khedive's Bronze Star" howitzer resulted in the wording” 1882, and the Khedive's Bronze Star. At the time of his death he was in command of a howitzer and antiaircraft brigade. Captain Henry Needham Knox, RN, who took part in the Crimean War, died in Bournemouth ...”

The final wording appears to be Colonel Warren Francis Trotter, Royal Marine Artillery, died at Briery Close. Windermere, on Monday. He joined the RMA in 1876, and had seen service in China, Esquimault, and Egypt. He was awarded the Egyptian Medal 1882, and the Khedive's Bronze Star. At the time of his death he was in command of a howitzer and antiaircraft brigade

Archive.org

Searching for and reading books in The Internet Archive site

The Internet Archive and Open Library offers over 8,000,000 fully accessible public domain eBooks. These notes aim to help you retrieve what you are looking for.

Go to the website https://archive.org

On the home page you will see a row of icons and two search options below:

If you hover the mouse pointer over each icon you will see the range of media included in the database.

It’s probably always best to use Advanced Search, so that you can specify more precisely what you are looking for. Don’t be put off by the apparent complexity of the page!

As you can see from this example, it’s usually only necessary to fill in two fields. Be prepared to rephrase the search if you have no luck. In this case, entering “journeys india” found nothing.

To the right of the Results screen you will see something like this:

Choosing a Collection gives you a better idea of what is available. For example, in the present search, clicking on European Libraries gives page like this:

Click on any page image to see the full document.

On the page where the first page of the document is displayed notice that at the top right, on the black background, you have these choices:

If you choose the one indicated you will be able to read the text in book form. Use the icons at the bottom right of the screen to move between pages or change the layout.

If you now choose the lens icon you can search for words in the text (the search can take a minute or two).

Finally, notice that above the book there is the title in lower case, underlined. That is a link which, if you click on it, will take you to the earlier screen. Notice that in the lower half, in the white section and to the right, there is a choice of download options. The PDF choice is usually a good bet if you want the whole text for future reference.

If you have any problems please email John Carpenter

Frequently Asked Questions Click on the sections at the top of this webpage, including

  • Search Tips which includes the section "How do I sort search results".
  • Books and Texts: Includes information about various alternative formats such as DjVu.
  • Archive BitTorrents. Some books are available to read using this format.
  • Borrow from Lending Library. Some books are only available to read using a system similar to a lending library - only one person at a time is able to read the book.

Hathi Trust Digital Library

The website advises:

"Hathi Trust is a partnership of major research institutions and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and accessible long into the future."

Many of the online books originate from Google Books, but there are some volumes available which are not available on the Google Books website.

The books are available to read online, but can only be downloaded to your computer if you are associated with a participating institution. An advantage is that the pages may be rotated, which is a handy feature for the pages in some books, particularly Army Lists

British Library Digital Collection

Project Gutenberg

Over 30,000 free electronic books to download. The books available are out of copyright, so there are many dating from the 19th century. They are available in Plain text (.txt) format, having been OCR scanned and carefully checked by volunteers.

Pahar-Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset

This dataset consists of a collection of books, journals and maps related broadly to the Himalayas and its outlying attached ranges, available as pdf downloads. The categories include "Indian Subcontinent", Afghanistan, Nepal, "Tibet And China", and books, journals and maps are listed according to date of publication.

Examples of books available to download include Gazetteer of Kangra District-Parts II to IV Kulu, Lahul and Spiti 1897, Official Account of the Abor Expedition 1911-12 1913, both listed under "Books-Indian Subcontinent" and under "Journals" many editions of The Indian Forester.

Digitised Books from GIPE, Pune

Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), Pune (Poona). Pdfs to download.

The website contains a number of Gazetteers which may be located by using Gazetteer as the search term. Other books available to download include Chronicles of the East India Company trading to China, 1635 to 1835 by Hosea Ballou Morse 1926. Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5


Digital Library of India

Current website

After being unavailable for an extended period of time, (said to be for copyright reasons} the Digital Library of India is available again, although in a much reduced format.

The new website is http://www.dli.ernet.in

The digital files have the format http://www.dli.ernet.in/handle/2015/6427. (The previous format was http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/handle/2015/6427).

There are no book files available with publication date after 1900.

It is now necessary to register to download a book file.

The following information is retained for historical purposes.

Digital Library of India has many interesting books which are unavailable online elsewhere.

Previous website

A new website was introduced in the latter part of 2015, where all the digital book files are Adobe pdfs. It appears most of the books available using the TIFF format available on the old website are also now available as pdfs, but not all (at May 2017). Any new additions to the DLI are only available as pdfs. Please be aware the cataloguing may be erratic. The title may have spelling errors, or part of the title may be omitted. The author, or the date of publication may be omitted.

To locate the Advanced Search filters, click on the Search icon on the Home Page. The Search function is at times not as good as it could be, so if you can't find a title, try searching by author, or a different title word.

Update: January 2017. Roughly 80% of the books from the Digital Library of India are now available on the Internet Archive (Archive.org). Many, and in time probably all, of these books may be read online, in addition to the download options.
Update: June 2017. A large number of DLI books added to Archive.org appear to have since been delated. Roughly 67% of the total DLI books appear to remain.
Update: September 2017. Further DLI books appear to have been delated from Archive.org, and the collection has been renamed the "Public Library of India" Collection.

Oldest website

The book page images are in the TIFF format. If you can't read the pages you will need to download a plug-in to read the TIFF format (Alternatiff for Windows users and Plugger for Linux users) whose details you will also find within the website. Books available include volumes of the Calcutta Review published later than those available on Google Books, books in the Indian Records Series, Yearbooks etc

This site is not very user friendly and is sometimes unavailable. The quality of the scanned print varies from excellent to poor. Individual books do not have their own URL and it will be necessary to search for the book you require. The great advantage of the site however, is that you can find books which are not available elsewhere.

Book Reader 1 is now the only option. Make sure you can see the bottom of the screen which has the arrows and the page numbers. You will need to see these to be able to turn the pages. If you can’t see these, there are two scrolling devices on the side of the screen, and you will need to scroll the bottom one until you can see the arrows etc. Individual books do not have a search facility. If however you have a page reference (from the index, or elsewhere), you can first click over the existing page number to delete it, type the page number you require, then press ‘enter’ on your computer keyboard. This may not bring you to exactly the page you require, but by looking at the actual page number of the page displayed, (as opposed to the computer page number) you should be able to find the page you require. The first few pages of the book may be blank, you just need to keep going further into the book before you can read a page. (Note that the facility to type in the page number was, until October 2013, apparently only available with the browser Internet Explorer but now extends to other browsers including Google Chrome and Safari)

Mac users who cannot read TIFF images can read about suitable plug-ins in this link from the US Patents Office, now archived, or consult Apple Help.

TIFF tips Library of Virginia has general information about viewing TIFF images.

National Digital Library of India, NDL

A portal website, which will include the Digital Library of India, but currently (3 June 2017) does not. From the description, it appears that the main purpose is to provide a single Search for many institutions, as the actual digital files appear to be downloaded from the websites of the participating institutions, including Archaeological Survey of India, Central Archaeological Library, New Delhi, refer below. Prior registration is required to access files from within NDL. One database included is the South Asia Archive, see Subscription websites-online newspapers, journals and directories - South Asia Archive, but it is unclear who is able to access this database.

DSpace at West Bengal State Central Library

DSpace at West Bengal State Central Library is the Digital repository of the ‘West Bengal Public Library Network’ which is a joint effort of public Libraries of West Bengal. The texts are available as searchable pdfs to download.

The most useful volumes appear to be those under the heading Gazetteers and Gazeeters. Browse ‘Subjects’and select ‘Gazetteers”. In addition to various Gazetteers, there are editions of the Calcutta Gazette, 1846 and 1872- 1942 (broken range) and the Gazette of India 1877-1918 (broken series). The site also hosts the Bengal District Gazetteers: 24-Parganas 1914 by L.S.S. O'Malley

Some of the digital files from West Bengal State Central Library are now available at the Internet Archive (archive.org), refer above, as part of the Public Library of India Collection.

Osmania University Digital Library [OUDL]

Osmania University is situated in Hyderabad. The library has a connection with the Digital Library of India, however it is not known whether all the books available on OUDL are also available o the the DLI website. An example of a book available is Fatehgarh And The Mutiny by C L Wallace 1933

The texts are available as pdfs to download.

The OUDL site appears to be available only during Indian office hours (IST 10 am to 6 pm), according to this link (sanskritdocuments.org) (IST = GMT+5:30)

Panjab Digital Library

The website advises "The mission of the Panjab Digital Library (PDL) is to locate, digitize, preserve, collect and make accessible the accumulated wisdom of the Panjab region, without distinction as to script, language, religion, nationality, or other physical condition".

It is necessary to register to read more than the first few pages of each online book. The collection includes a number of Punjab District Gazetteers (The spelling also includes Gazeteer/ Gazetter/ Gazeetter)

Rare Books On Sindh

This link is part of the website Panhwar.com about Sindh Many books on Bombay and Sindh. Must be downloaded to view.

Tamil Virtual Library

Tamil Virtual Library, a Division of Tamil Virtual Academy.

For examples of books and newspapers included on the Tamil Virtual Library, see Cemeteries - Inscriptions in online books and Newspapers and journals online - Madras Courier.

Kerala State Central Library Rare Books Online

Click on 'Archives' and then 'Titles' to browse the books available. Many editions of the Travancore Almanac 1880-1925, Travancore Almanac and Directory 1911-1944 and Travancore Directory 1939-1946 are available.

It appears that the Search facility can be used to search for titles, or for keywords

Archaeological Survey of India, Central Archaeological Library, New Delhi

Pdf files to download.

Some of these digital files are now also available at the Internet Archive (archive.org), see above, as part of the Public Library of India Collection.

National Library of Singapore: BookSG

See the Fibiwiki page Singapore for examples of some of the digital books available from BookSG.

Cornell University Library: South East Asia Visions

The website says: South East Asia Visions is a collection of European travel accounts of pre-modern Southeast Asia from Cornell University Library's John M. Echols Collection. The site provides online access to more than 350 books and journal articles written in English and French. The works in the collection were selected for the quality of their first-hand observations and, together, provide a comprehensive representation of Southeast Asia.

Family History Books from FamilySearch

These books can also be accessed through the FamilySearch Catalog, which also contains additional books which are digitised FamilySearch microfilms from various sources.

Hosted by FamilySearch, this is a searchable site containing over 40,000 family history related books from seven major US Libraries. This is an ongoing project.

If the catalogue reference indicates 'Public access', you can download the book file to your home computer. If the catalogue reference indicates 'Protected access', the material is accessible on a Family History Library computer at a FamilySearch Centre. The protected status extends to books which are subject to copyright laws and, therefore, restrictions on usage applies. The protected status also extends to books which are digitised FamilySearch microfilms which were filmed in institutions such as the British Library, even if the books would otherwise not be subject to copyright restrictions. (See explanations on website for further details)

An example of a 'Public access' book available is the Indian Army List April 1921 which is available as a free (large (99MB)) pdf type download.

There may be download problems during maintenance night time Utah Time (Utah Time=GMT less seven hours). Try again at another time.

An Adobe Acrobat reader is required for the Indian Army List April 1921, so is probably generally required.

Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

The website (at May 2014) stated "Please find here 2,115 institutions currently registered with the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek. The number of partners is rising all the time and, in the long term, all German cultural and scientific institutions are to contribute their contents". By August 2017, the number of institutions had increased to 4348.

Search results may be filtered according to Language, Media type etc

You can view a volume by clicking on either “Data provider's object view” or "DFG Viewer". The first option takes you to the contributing institution's website, where you will generally find a pdf download in addition to the online book file. The second viewer appears to be a "standard" viewer across all institutions.

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek - Bavarian State Library

Search for books and maps. The search result will indicate whether the item is available online. It is understood most of the online books are also available on the Google Books website. If searching for maps, use the search term plan in addition to map. There is a digital category Karten und Pläne. The search here is however limited to title words. Some maps were located using the words India, Calcutta and Indus. The maps (and possibly even the books) may use a Tiff format. If so you may need a plug-in, see Online books-Digital Library of India for more details.

Savifadok- Heidelberg University

Savifadok: English Books from British India collection, Heidelberg University Digital Repository, South Asian Studies. Currently (September 2013} consists of a small collection. The website also contains other items such as Burma/Myanmar Bibliographic Project: A Collection of Publications in West-European Languages by Siegfried M. Schwertner. An extensive bibliography, with separate downloads for each letter of the alphabet.

Gallica

Gallica is the digital library of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. A researcher has advised:

There are a surprisingly large number of English books, especially scientific journals, and travelogues. Somebody in France was systematically collecting these throughout the early and mid 19th century. There was an earlier version of the "Great Game" going on between Britain and France. My 4 x great uncle John Croft Hawkins, a Bombay Marine officer, took the first steam vessel up the Euphrates to Hit in what is now Iraq. I knew he had done this, because it is mentioned in his obituaries, but do you think I could find an account of it in the British papers? No, either it was so "secret" that the papers were hidden away and lost, or the ants had got it. Yet I have found a nearly contemporary French account of his progess! I have found books in Galica that are not available in Google Books, and some that are only Snippet View in Google Books are available in Full View.

Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.


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