What do Homer's The Iliad, Dante's Inferno, and Shakespeare's Othello have in common? Answer: they can all be read online for free at Google Books. When a book falls out of copyright the public and culture in general benefit through free access. Much of what is available at Google books are scanned out-of-copyright items.
To get the most out of Google Books use advanced search and limit your search to either full view or public domain. When looking to see who has a book in a city, or state, use WorldCat instead.
Google Scholar provides a search of scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles. Depending on what you are researching, Google Scholar can be useful or of limited value. Keep in mind that free information is, well, free, and that New York Tech databases offer 100s-of-thousands of paid-for subscription products. If you would like to get more miles out of Google Scholar: