The author is well-known, and the title is truthful, snappy and ties in with one of your highly specialized interests. Let’s say you’re more into multilateral disarmament than Curious George. You’re in luck, right?
But what a letdown! When you follow up on the listing for Disarmament and the Dr. Strangelove Factor in your local library catalog, the book itself is a boring and inaccurate dud.
Suppose, however, that you could instantly preview the book—read at least some pages—through a link in the catalog itself?
Google, in fact, has just created an API to allow librarians to automate the inclusion of Google previews in their catalogues. The company’s search engine is the nearest thing to a Web nexus, and you can bet that the company wants its book-search operation to be the same for the library world.
Mixed feelings
Yes, like many librarians, although I’m not one myself, I have mixed feelings. What’s happening to librarians as book finders? Will technology leave them behind? Can they establish meaningful alliances with the right Ph.D.s at universities to keep up with the private sector?
Still, however you feel on this issue, you to have to hand it to Google for coming up with an API to make it much easier to incorporate previews of books. Click here or on the first screenshot to get a better idea of how the Deschutes Public Library in Oregon has implemented the preview feature. Then click here or on the second screenshot to see in detail how the book shows up within Google (hint given in third screen shot). For further information, see the official Google blog and the book search blog as well as WebPro News and observations from Tim Spaulding of LibraryThing. His company is including the Google preview capability but he makes clear the negatives:
“The GBS API is a big step forward, but there are some technical limitations. Google data loads after the rest of the page, and may not be instant. Because the data loads in your web browser, with no data ‘passing through’ LibraryThing servers, we can’t sort or search by it, and all-library searching is impossible. You can get something like this if you create a Google Books account, which is, of course, the whole point.”
Down the road…Amazon beware!
That said, the preview feature is definite progress and has possible ramifications down the road, not just on the library side but also the retail side. Imagine Google setting up an Amazon-style affiliate network to push books—and including truly sophisticated preview-style features among the enticements for affiliates and their visitors. Google could go far beyond what Amazon is doing in this area for affiliates. For good books, at least, previews are among the best ways of selling them. I’d also recommend that Google offer downloads of first chapters—and ideally much more—of the books. In any event, given the possibilities here, this just might spell trouble for Amazon in time, considering the vast size of Google’s scanning operation.
Disclosure: I own a tiny, tiny slice of Google for retirement investment purposes.
>>>Suppose, however, that you could instantly preview the book—read at least some pages—through a link in the catalog itself?
Behold, for once again I am the pin that bursts the bubble of enthusiasm.
The NYPL (nypl.org) for the longest time has provided a link to Google in their online card catalog (which is their card catalog, period; all terminals, no cards, for years now).
But I never used it til today. After your item here. Did a search for Ken Bruen.
And damn if the Goggle link didn’t give a first result that led to previews of some of his novels:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Bruen,%20Ken.&ie=UTF-8
Next step:
http://books.google.com/books?as_auth=Ken+Bruen&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=author-navigational&hl=en
And finally one novel:
http://books.google.com/books?id=bt6HEIkKjGkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:Ken+inauthor:Bruen&sig=qDcUPfXAOgxN5ZA8bz4W2WhnCMA#PPA2,M1
Really, I didn’t think the NYPL had anything above and beyond what other libraries had!
Oh, and trust me, even with the computer catalog, the librarians are *still* called on to find books. Even by me!
Well, Mike, here in little ole Alexandria, VA, the catalog is Google-less—no previews, at least when accessed remotely. I still believe NYC is the exception. When I tried the Chicago system just now, I struck out. Perhaps other readers can check their local catalogs and enlighten us. My hunch is that the API will reduce costs—the NYC system is big enough to do things the expensive way. Meanwhile thanks for the NYC angle, and I’m glad if, at least unwittingly, I expanded your library horizons! Thanks. David
Addendum: Unlike the NYPL, the API takes you directly to the good stuff—the previews. A definite improvement over NYPL! Not to slight the good folks there. It’s great they were bothering to do the links even if the direct results weren’t as good as they’ll be in the future.
I also like that the NYPL provides links to available reviews. It’s help me to decide if a book I was looking was among duplicate or similar titles was the one I wanted (because the actual catalog listing doesn’t go into that kind of content detail).
If anyone wants to give it a whirl:
http://www.nypl.org
What you want is the LEO catalog (not CATNYP, which is for the Research Library — the one with the flanking twin iconic lions).
It’s late, me eyes are tired, typos in that, but I hope it makes sense.