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The National Academies Press Web site has
thousands of books that you can read for free. Browse categories to
find books that interest you or use the search engine above. You can also
search within a book to find the information you want.
To find a book by title or ISBN:
- Enter word(s) that are in the title.
Example: sun, storms or surviving cancer
- Enter the complete ISBN of the book
without hyphens.
Example: 0309084385 not 0-309-08438-5.
To find books on a topic:
Our search engine searches the full text of our
books.
- Enter obvious word(s).
Example: You want information on nutrition. Enter nutrition
instead of food.
- Enter words that probably appear in the
text of the book.
Example: nutrition, diet, weight get more specific results
than diet food.
- Be specific.
Example: folate, niacin, choline get more relevant results
than minerals.
- Using a comma to separate words will
affect your results.
Example: If you enter toxic environment, that phrase will be
searched. If you separate toxic, environment with a comma,
those two words ("environment", "toxic") will be searched separately,
not as a complete phrase.
Use "Discovery Tools" to Explore Our
Resources
Because of
the vast breadth of the Academies material (life sciences, physical
sciences, international policy, health and medicine, engineering and
technology, etc.) and the volume of material (thousands of books, and
tens of thousands of other documents), simple linear search results
have been shown to be inadequate. To address the complex diversity of
the Academies, we've developed a "discovery engine" that provides not
only a rich set of results, but also processes the results of a search
to provide a rich set of new possibilities for the searcher.
The best strategy is to start with a general
search for a key term or a two-word phrase, see what is returned,
and then use one or more of the engine's "discovery tools" to further
explore our resources if needed. These tools include:
 "Find More Like This":
You'll see this "search target" button throughout the results. Every
instance is an "active button" which when clicked will use the
associated document or report as the example to "find more like." It's
a very powerful means of exploring related material. Note: when
using this tool, multiple terms-in-context are highlighted when
displaying sample sentences. Note 2: All documents are
returned; that is, clicking "find more like this" on a "publication"
will return both publications and non-publications, as will clicking
the "find more like" button on a document.
 "Research Dashboard":
Associated with every publication is its "Research Dashboard" tool,
which presents the top key terms extracted from any NAP title as an
active element. With this you can apply any term to instantly
search within the book, as well as apply paired searches across the
entire Academies resources (Note: for most visitors, "and/or" is used:
"and" results are given greater weight than "or" results). Other
features may be available to select audiences. This is a powerful tool
for exploration.
 "Reference Finder/More Like Your
Document":
Paste in a rough draft of a policy proposal, a paper you're writing, an
outside article, or any other multi-page document (more pages are
better; between two and eight pages are optimal), and then click
one of the two action buttons: to immediately find "publications like
your document" from the 3000 books on the NAP site, or to "build
searches" via a Research Dashboard.
It's an ideal tool for policymakers, students, and active researchers
to use to find research and recommendations from the best minds in the
country.
Searching within a book
Over 500,000 pages of National Academies' reports,
recommendations, and examinations have been optically "read" and
indexed so you can search within the book.
- Enter words that probably appear in
the book in the "Search this Book" box.
Example: reading difficulties or toxic waste.
- Be specific.
Example: hdl, cholesterol gets more relevant results than fats.
Results are displayed within the book's Table of
Contents. To the left of each chapter are the number of hits, or times
your word or phrase appears in the chapter.
Select a chapter to see where your word(s) or
phrase(s) are located. Excerpts from the chapter provide context.
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