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An Organic Research Approach, the Google Book Search Way
March 26, 2008
Okay, so now I have even more reason to love Google (as if I needed it). Last week a new feature allowing us to link from HOLLIS records (our OPAC) to Google Book Search “about this book” pages was added, and now, when we locate a book in the OPAC, ofttimes, at screen right, an icon appears showing the cover or title page of the book as it appears in Google Books, along with the invitation to “Discover more in Google Books,” along with the note, “full text available” for those items that have been fully scanned. For example, here’s the HOLLIS record for Laura Spencer Portor’s The Greatest Books in the World; Interpretative Studies, Chautauqua, N.Y., Chautauqua Press, 1917.
So I’ve also begun to show the “About This Book” page from Google Book Search in many of my library classes, since it aptly illustrates what I think of as an “organic research approach.” For example, the “about this book” page for C.S. Lewis’ God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics gives links for buying the book, finding it in a nearby library, the table of contents, selected pages, popular passages, references from web pages, references from books, other editions, references from scholarly works, related books, and a list of key terms. Fabulous!
This probably is old hat to some of you, but I hadn’t realized until just recently how much added value there is at GBS “about this book,” and I figure if I didn’t, maybe some of you haven’t, either. Take a look – it is truly fantastic, and very useful.
More as it happens, nearly magically,
Cheryl
Posted by Cheryl LaGuardia on March 26, 2008 | Comments (0)
