[Web4lib] Google Books a tease, not a useful tool, for serious research

[Richard Wiggins]

>
> >-- You must be able to reproduce the search that found the item.
> >
>
> I'm not sure about this one.  After all, this assumes a static universe.
>  If you cannot reproduce the same search in an articles database six months
> later since newer materials are added, is it no longer a serious research
> tool?
>


Grrrr!  It wasn't six months later -- it was more like six minutes later.

The first search pulled up the info I needed, and offered a page image in
context.

Great!  I thought, I've found a nugget.

A few minutes later, the same search pulled up a link to metadata about the
book, not the image in context.

An hour later, I could not locate the same book using the same search I'd
used an hour before.  I could not find the same book using words in the
title of the work.  That's when I resorted to the browser cache.

Yes, it's in beta.  Yes, it's free.  I'm trying to grok if it's as reliable
and useful as a professional tool such as Dialog.

/rich