Free Books Anyone?

Kiera Sunderland

Google Books. Say the name in one library and you’ll be met with a sneer, say it in another and you’ll get a treatise on the copyright infringements of the project. Approaching its twentieth anniversary, the Google Books Project created by Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, allows the user to search an extensive database of books and textual resources by keyword (Google Books). The project’s endgame is to “create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers discover new readers” (Donatich). The creators want a library equal in stature to the Library of Alexandria. Google was able to amass such a large collection by partnering with institutions such as academic libraries, museums, and publishers to digitize their paper collections. The Project was challenged in court due to concerns over copyrighted material, but the court determined that Google’s digitization project is considered fair use (Russell). Yet, many libraries have been hesitant to embrace Google Books as a reference material. Rather than debating the legality of the project or panicking over speculations of the demise of the library we as library staff should seek to learn how to use the resource and learn from the project to improve our library catalogs.

Applications

Locating rare resources

Google Books can be used to find resources that are “out of print and out of copyright” (Donatich). It is a resource used by many researchers seeking rare materials. Once the user locates a source they can use the “similar books” feature to find other resources that may be of interest. “The really neat thing about it is the ability to find obscure information since the entire text can be searched even if the page is not available for perusal” (Russell).

In-text searching

A revolutionary feature that Google Books boasts allows the user to “search inside.” Instead of just being able to keyword search for a specific title the user can look inside the book to find pertinent information to determine if the source fits their needs.

Lucrative library visits

Google Books helps patrons have more satisfactory library visits. One librarian remarked “Because my students, and even some of my faculty members face significant challenges and barriers to accessing resources… Google Books’ search helps us find out if resources exist, to identify if those resources may be helpful to their academic purposes, and get started on the path to access.” (Russell).

Lessons Learned

Keyword searching is the future

Each of the aforementioned features that makes Google Books a wonderful reference resource in the library is the keyword searching function whether to locate a resource or look inside a book. We have already seen an explosion in keyword searching-enabled library catalogs, specifically discovery services in recent years. The popularity of Google Books further demonstrates the need for library catalogs to be indexed and for keyword searching to be available to match patron's information-seeking abilities.

Metadata is the key

One of the goals of the project was “to index the books’ content and analyze the connections between them, determining any given book’s relevance and usefulness by tracking the number and quality of citations from other books” (Google Books). To anyone familiar with technical services and cataloging the above quote seems to perfectly describe metadata and FRBR. To create a sought-after catalog these features must be considered.

Collaboration is necessary for digitization

Google Books has amassed over “40 million books in over 400 languages” (Donatich). However, they didn’t go it alone. They partnered with other information-oriented institutions. When completing a digitization project one should consider connecting with other libraries and working with the community rather than flying solo. Creating a comprehensive collection or digital preservation project on a large scale is near impossible if no partnerships are sought.

Watch this video to learn more about Google Books and its endless applications.

References

Donatich, John. "Books Still Matter in a Digital Age." Are Books Becoming Extinct?, edited by David M. Haugen, Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints. Accessed 8 May 2023. Originally published as "Why Books Still Matter," Journal of Scholarly Publishing, vol. 40, no. 4, July 2009, pp. 329-342.

“Google Books.” Google Books,

https://books.google.com/googlebooks/about/

Russel, Carrie. “5 Examples of the Value of Google Books’ Search Function: How Librarians and Educators Framed the Discussion in Authors Guild v. Google.” American Libraries, 2 Dec. 2015,https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/e-content/5-examples-of-the-value-of-google-books-search-function/

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