Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Books go live at Google Books
 
As we all know Google had encountered the Copyright issue earlier but now the alternate Google Book Search program offers Publishers and Authors new features for online Book experience. Google has designed a new browsing interface and you can simply scroll through the pages, or, for full view books, view them in two-page mode and flip through just like a book. You can zoom in, switch to full screen, and jump directly to the chapters that interest you. If the book is part of the public domain, you can comfortably read it on screen or download it if you prefer. For an in-copyright book, just follow the links to buy it or to find it in a library.

For this, Google Book Search now features links to WorldCat's free Web service. The Google service, which lets you search the full text of books provided by participating libraries and publishers, includes "Find this book in a library" links that lead to the WorldCat Web record for an item. There you can enter a geographic identifier such as postal code and receive a list of nearby libraries that hold the item.

The "Find this book in a library" link to WorldCat typically appears in the right-hand column of any Google Book Search "view," beneath descriptive information for a book (title, authors) and "Buy this book" purchase options.

The WorldCat link appears within all four available Google Book views:

>>the Full View offering access to the full content of a digitized title;
>>the Limited Preview that lets you read only several pages of the book;
>>the Snippet View that contextually presents passages of the book which contain your search terms; and
>>the basic record view which does not feature a content preview.

Advanced Book Search also has Library Catalogs option.Google's Advanced Book Search also now allows you to limit a search to "Library Catalogs." Results produced by this limited search contain "Find libraries" links that lead to the WorldCat Web record for each item. (Some search results may also include links to other non-U.S. national catalogs.)

Google Books already has a Library Project in the pipeline and you can view the same here.

Well, I am happy that MJ books are now available for viewers at Google Books and also, my very own Guardian of Angels is soon to go live for view online, partnering google books search program. Enjoy!

- ilaxi

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