Google Book Search links in Mirlyn

June 13, 2008

You may have noticed that the links to Google Books in Mirlyn have a little more information lately. We have always provided links to online copies in both Google Book Search and MBooks. We're now using the Google API to provide links to any book in Mirlyn that is also in Google Book Search.

We provide a thumbnail image of the cover or title page (although there's been some controversy about this lately). In addition, we also tell you what level of access you can expect if you follow the link to Google Book Search. Google Books has three levels of access, while MBooks has only two:

Google Book Search termsMBook terms
Snippet viewSearch Only
Limited view
Full-textFull Text

In Google Book Search, "Snippet view" means that you cannot view the full-text, but can see up to three text snippets; "Search Only" in MBooks means that you can search for keywords, and discover where all the matches occur, but can't view the pages. (See this previous post for more about "Search Only.") "Limited view" means that the book is part of Google's Publisher Partnership, and a limited number of pages is available for reading. You won't be able to see the entire book, but you will have access to a significant number of pages. "Full-text" in Google Book Search means that you can view the entire text, and get a PDF file of the entire text, while "Full Text" in MBooks means that you can view the page images using the MBooks pageturner, and get a 10-page PDF excerpt.

If you look at very many records for MBooks in Mirlyn, you will soon note that in some cases the access levels differ between MBooks and Google Book Search.

In this last example you'll have full-text in either Google Books or MBooks, so you can decide which interface you prefer. Knowing how to read the Mirlyn record will help you find the best access for any given book. Happy reading!

--Perry Willett
--Head, Digital Library Production Service

Posted by Perry Willett at 09:13 AM. Permalink

Comments

Can you predict if Google will provide search-inside-the-book based on status? It looks to me like Google status "Limited view" always includes search-inside-the-book functionality? Not sure about "Snippet view".

If you know that Google is going to provide search-inside-the-book, any thought as to putting a search box for that on the catalog page too? Looks like you just need to append a &q=[query] to the book URL to do a search inside the book, so it could be easily done---if you can reliably know that google will provide search inside the book for a given book.

Posted by: rochkind@jhu.edu at June 13, 2008 02:41 PM

Their API returns three "answers" about an item's access level: noview, limited and full. They really need four, because "noview" corresponds to two different types of entries in GBS. One is a book with snippet view, which is searchable. The other is for metadata records with no search at all. These seem to be placeholders for materials that are in the process of being scanned but aren't yet online. Both of these types of material are returned as "noview" from their API. I've asked their developer whether they couldn't have a different category, but I suppose their answer is "no" since they're still not doing it.

We haven't thought about adding a search box to GBS in Mirlyn--we're still beaming about adding a search box for MBooks! It's an interesting idea. One trick would be to keep it obvious what the multiple search boxes were for.

Posted by: pwillett at June 13, 2008 03:17 PM

The examples of GBS and Mirlyn records for the same books is very useful -- Do you have more similar examples?

Posted by: eric-rumsey@uiowa.edu at June 18, 2008 04:30 PM

1) Here's a book for which we've gotten permission from the copyright holder to provide free access through MBooks. So it's Full-Text in MBooks while only Snippet View in GBS.

Legal education at Michigan, 1859-1959.
http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu:80/F/?func=direct&doc_number=001624648&local_base=AA_PUB

2) Here's a book that we've determined to be in the public domain, either because copyright was not renewed or it was never registered in the first place (as was required in previous versions of US copyright law). So this is Full Text in MBooks and Snippet View in GBS:

7 Copyright Problems Analyzed
http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu:80/F/?func=direct&doc_number=001162222&local_base=AA_PUB

3) Here's an 18th century Italian journal, for whic all of the volumes are Full Text in MBooks but (for some unknown reason) Snippet View in GBS:

Giornale de letterati d'italia
http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu:80/F/?func=direct&doc_number=000058853&local_base=AA_PUB

4) And just to be fair to Google, here's a book that is Search Only in MBooks, but has a Limited View available in GBS:

Acting that matters
http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu:80/F/?func=direct&doc_number=005420610&local_base=AA_PUB

Posted by: pwillett at June 19, 2008 08:39 AM

The URLs get cut off, but they should all end in
local_base=AA_PUB

Posted by: pwillett at June 19, 2008 08:41 AM

Perry,

It's exciting to think of the future of library technology, with Google involved. Certainly Google has become synonymous with online searching, giving us nearly immediate access to information previously lost to all but those hardy enough to search through reams of card catalogs and reference books. Now, all the collected wisdom and information on nearly any subject - and certainly there's a ton of hidden material in the University library system - will be available to the masses. Using that previuosly-hidden information alone will provide a wealth of new discoveries. As I said - exciting!

Posted by: Vance@SalineMichiganRealEstate.com at June 19, 2008 01:44 PM

Thanks for your note--we're pretty excited too!

Posted by: pwillett at June 19, 2008 05:29 PM

Perry,

Thanks for the additional Mirlyn/Google examples (June 19) -- I'm re-posting your June 19 posting with html links because I find the examples so interesting. ...

1) Here's a book for which we've gotten permission from the copyright holder to provide free access through MBooks. So it's Full-Text in MBooks while only Snippet View in GBS.
Legal education at Michigan, 1859-1959

2) Here's a book that we've determined to be in the public domain, either because copyright was not renewed or it was never registered in the first place (as was required in previous versions of US copyright law). So this is Full Text in MBooks and Snippet View in GBS:
7 Copyright Problems Analyzed

3) Here's an 18th century Italian journal, for whic all of the volumes are Full Text in MBooks but (for some unknown reason) Snippet View in GBS:
Giornale de letterati d'italia

4) And just to be fair to Google, here's a book that is Search Only in MBooks, but has a Limited View available in GBS:
Acting that matters

These are especially interesting because they give an idea of the complexities of dealing with copyright, with different levels of access via Google and the local library. When people find one of the first three books in Google Books, that are only available full-text through Mirlyn, will they be able to find that out? Will you limit access to these to UM affiliates?

It's also interesting to see that Google does the scanning for these books that are then made available full-text only through Mirlyn i.e. pages are stamped: Digitized by Google, Provided by Library.

Eric Rumsey, University of Iowa, Hardin MD

Posted by: eric-rumsey@uiowa.edu at June 23, 2008 12:46 PM

Eric,

Thanks for making better links to the Mirlyn records. Yes, copyright is complicated. To answer your questions:
>When people find one of the first three books in
>Google Books, that are only available full-text
>through Mirlyn, will they be able to find that out?
Google does not provide any link to MBooks or give any indication that we might be providing full access to a book that has limited access in GBS.

>Will you limit access to these to UM affiliates?
Having a U-M login does not give anyone in the U-M community any better access to these materials than anyone else in the world at the moment. It's possible that this will change, and people here at U-M will have access to materials while everyone else is restricted, but so far that is not happening.

Finally, we are scanning books too (although not nearly as many as Google), and you'll start to see an indication of which books we've digitized.

Posted by: pwillett at June 23, 2008 02:45 PM

> we are scanning books too (although not nearly as many as Google), and you'll start to see an indication of which books we've digitized.
>
Are you choosing books to scan yourself because you want to assure that they get scanned well? -- I'm especially interested in medical images, and I've found that the quality of such images in GBS is mixed. In some cases images that are color in the original are scanned as gray-scale. This is a shame because many late 19th century medical books have excellent color illustrations.

Will the books that you scan be included in GBS?

Posted by: eric-rumsey@uiowa.edu at June 24, 2008 12:59 PM

We are scanning books that Google doesn't scan, because the pages are too brittle, or the book is in poor condition. Once we scan them, we send the images to Google. You'll see this on our flowchart (pdf) under "Digitization @ UM" (center bottom).

Posted by: pwillett at June 25, 2008 08:52 AM

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