In theory, why can't some student who wants to work in that professor's lab just request the books that the professor checked out (or are likely to check out)?
Seems like it would've been easier to just swing by his office and tell him you wanted to work in his lab. That'd probably get you farther than the book thing anyway.
You probably can't figure out which books he has on his shelf, especially if he realizes this approach and consciously conceals them and suppresses the information.
Seems like hacking the hack.