[Web4lib] google & library catalogs

[Richard Wiggins]

Let's define our terms carefully here:

-- To look for books to borrow?

-- To look for books to read online?

-- To look for information about particular books?

-- To look for books to buy?

My guess is Google will have a role to play in all of these. But I don't
count Amazon out either.  I remember SLA in Seattle in 1997 when a couple
hundred librarians eagerly offered advice to Jeff Bezos on how to build his
business. ..

 http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_5/wiggins/index.html

War Eagle,

/rich


On 4/13/06, Chris Stearns <stearcs at auburn.edu> wrote:
>
> > Does anybody really think that Google/GBS would ever overtake Amazon
> as 'the place to look for books'?
>
> I don't, but then I can remember attending a presentation back in
> '97/'98 on various search engines, and there was this new one called
> "Google", and I remember saying "That'll never take off. Stupid name."
>
> Guess that's why I'm still slogging away in the basement of the
> technological revolution instead of standing on the apex ;-)
>
> Ross Singer wrote:
> > Strange.
> >
>
> >
> > Because I find that a bit unlikely.
> >
> > -Ross.
> >
> > On 4/13/06, K.G. Schneider <kgs at bluehighways.com> wrote:
> >>> In a bit of a pre-coffee haze, but wondering....is there a way to save
> >>> this kind of search on Google, so it's available when you need it, so
> >>> you don't have to remember the secret handshake phrase?  I'm not
> likely
> >>> to use this often, so won't remember it, I'm sure.
> >> You can install a toolbar, courtesy of OCLC, but if Google was betting
> on
> >> paper books and real libraries, they'd implement this feature directly
> in
> >> Google itself, not leaving us to provide an add-on. In the same vein,
> >> they'd
> >> offer library findability from inside Google Book Search. (And if
> >> libraries
> >> participating in this project had a clue, they would have insisted that
> >> this
> >> be a prerequisite for participation. How good we are at contributing to
> >> our
> >> own demise.) If GBS becomes the de facto book finding aid for the body
> >> politic (something I don't see as long as the focus is on academic
> books),
> >> we're all hosed. I always worry we're just seeing Phase One from them.
> >>
> >> It is interesting to see Google experiment with faceting and metadata,
> >> after
> >> years of promoting search uber alles. I wonder if Ask.com is making
> them
> >> feel any heat?
> >>
> >> Karen G. Schneider
> >> kgs at bluehighways.com
> >>
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> --
> Chris Stearns
> Software/Programming
> Auburn University Libraries
> http://www.lib.auburn.edu
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