Scholarly books are written by experts for other experts and published by a university press or other academic publisher. They also contain references to outside research.
Use scholarly books or book chapters when you need more depth on a topic.
Use the table of contents (near the front of the book) and the index (at the back of the book) to see if there are any chapters or particular pages that may discuss a particular aspect of your topic. eBooks will also have a table of contents and an index; the index may be searchable, but you can also run a search within the text of the eBook itself.
The table below describes the common components of scholarly books, though not every section may be represented.
| Title Page | provides the publication information you need to properly cite the book, such as the complete title (sometimes, book have subtitles), names of all authors or editors, edition of the book if there is more than one, name of the publisher, city of publication, and date of publication. |
| Table of Contents | provides a list of the chapters with the corresponding page numbers. The table of contents may give a general idea of the topics covered in the book, as well as a sense of how the book is arranged (e.g., chronologically). |
| List of Illustrations | provides a list of photographs, drawings, tables, or other types of illustrations used to support the contents of the book, usually with corresponding page numbers. |
| Preface, Foreward, or Introduction | provides the reader with the author's intention or purpose for writing the book, as well as a sense of the kind of research that was used to produce the book. |
| Bibliography, References List, or Further Readings | a list of sources that were used to create the book or a list of additional sources on the topic. Bibliographies may be located at the ends of chapters throughout the book, or at the end of the book. |
| Index |
located at the back of the book, the index is an alphabetical list of the specific subjects in the book, along with the corresponding page numbers. Indexes may provide names, dates, events, geographic locations, and other terms related to the contents of the book. Browsing an index is an excellent way to identify exactly where in the book relevant information may be located. An index can also provide subject terms and keywords that might be useful for further research on a topic. |
| From Cayuga Community College Library's "How to Use Books for Research" guide. | |
Gasping for Air by
Breathing is a continuous battle between our need for oxygen and forces in nature that attack our lungs. Three hundred thousand Americans will die of respiratory diseases this year. Gasping for Air is the dramatic story of how infections, toxins, carcinogens, and air pollution strike against one of our basic body functions. The book also describes how we come into the struggle with diseases like asthma, cystic fibrosis, and sleep apnea, which make us vulnerable to assaults on breathing from without and within. We have powerful weapons to defend breathing. Medical science, public health, engineering, and business, all play important roles in the effort to support breathing. Yet, Gasping for Air also reminds readers how breathing support has been at the eye of the storm in many ethical dilemmas of modern healthcare. Here, Kevin Glynn, an experienced pulmonologist and lifelong asthma sufferer tells stories about the third most common cause of premature deaths in the developed world, describes lethal forces in Nature (infections, genetic predispositions) and from human activities (dusty occupations, tobacco smoking, chemical toxins, drug overdoses) that threaten to suffocate us, and offers sage advice for how to prevent and address those threats and the damage they cause.
