Google Book Search: Not So Easy to Find the Library Link

-- Library Journal, 12/12/2005

Librarians and library users alike are starting to use Google Book Search (formerly Google Print) the way they use Google—and are now mining information from books. But does Google Book Search let its users easily find a library version of a book? Not unless the book is out of copyright, and Google doesn't yet explain that. The third question in the Google Book Search FAQ reads as follows: "What is the 'Find it in a Library' link?" The answer: "When you click on 'Find it in a Library' we send you to the OCLC Worldcat where you can enter your zip code and find a local library that has the book." The reality is more complicated and less impressive. The "Find it in a Library" link only appears on books that Google has scanned from libraries, in the Library Project, not the much larger (as of now) collection of current books submitted for scanning by publishers.

So, for example, someone searching on "Abu Ghraib" will get links to buy a current book from its publisher, from Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, BookSense.com, and Google's own comparison-shopping engine Froogle. Those using the advanced search feature to find works in the public domain, published before 1923, will see a "Find this book in a library" link. Google spokesman Nate Tyler said, "Currently the link shows on books that we scanned from the library, which are, generally speaking, public domain books. We are not showing this link on books that are part of the publisher program, but we may do so in the future." Why the delay: "I guess that we're trying to create a tool for publishers to sell more books online." Should the FAQ be revised? "We can try to clarify that," Tyler said. "This product is still under development." Commented Chip Nilges, OCLC's VP for new services, "Google is working with us to place 'find in a library' links on all books digitized from library collections, and we're glad to have this placement, which complements the link from every monograph indexed in Google Scholar to Open WorldCat and the collection of 3.4 million Open WorldCat records in the Google main index." He added, "We'd of course like them to appear on every book in the Google Book Search program," but said that it was Google's call. OCLC publishes a standard linking syntax for Open WorldCat that anyone can use to embed a link to the "find in a library" service.