Comments on: Linking from the Catalog to Google Books http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/24/linking-from-the-catalog-to-google-books/ or, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fear and Loathing at a Public Library Reference Desk Sun, 07 Feb 2016 16:43:09 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.2 By: bankruptcy attorney san fernando valley http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/24/linking-from-the-catalog-to-google-books/#comment-19120 Sun, 20 Jan 2013 20:51:13 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=1982#comment-19120 Your style is unique compared to other people I have read stuff from.

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By: Brian Herzog http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/24/linking-from-the-catalog-to-google-books/#comment-2792 Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:04:12 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=1982#comment-2792 @Marcie: I agree. Our developers have been holding off on too many catalog style changes, because we’re supposed to migrate to an entirely new look in the fall – so since that is all “temporary,” they’re currently focusing their development time on some of the serious problems on the staff side.

It does now show the date a book is due, but it takes like three clicks to get there, which annoys me (but hopefully, that will be improved). I don’t think patrons can easily see how many people already have a book on hold, but that is supposed to be added fairly soon – that’s been the #1 patron request since we launched.

Hopefully we’ll get a lot of this stuff worked out before you guys launch, so you’ll have less work to do (but still plenty, I think). We’re also trying to work out all the bugs we found in communicating development suggestions and priorities, because that’s been bumpy for us too. It’s a whole new deal, running everything ourselves, but it’ll definitely (eventually) be better than our old vendor model.

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By: Marcie http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/24/linking-from-the-catalog-to-google-books/#comment-2762 Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:44:00 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=1982#comment-2762 Told you I might have more. 😉

Does your catalog not tell patrons when items are due back or how many people already have placed holds? Did your old catalog do that? Because those seem to be basic functions to me.

(Sorry, I just realized I’m responding to your post about Google Books when I have general catalog questions.)

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By: Marcie http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/24/linking-from-the-catalog-to-google-books/#comment-2760 Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:24:19 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=1982#comment-2760 The titles that are electronic could be delineated better. It’s confusing to see a title but no holdings (and no copies listed in the three columns on the right). The results list and the record summary do say “electronic remote 1 online resource” and there is a link to “Connect to this resource online,” but there is also an option to place a hold. What happens when someone types in their library card number?

For example, “Complete Digital Photography” (ISBN 9781584507116).

On the record summary, the “Place Hold” link could be more prominent. I had to hunt for it the first few times I played with your catalog.

BTW, I’m in Central Mass, and we’re moving to Evergreen this fall. Thanks for putting up your links and letting us mess around! I might have more comments later, but for now it’s nice to be able to experiment with a live system.

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By: Brian Herzog http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/24/linking-from-the-catalog-to-google-books/#comment-2729 Thu, 26 May 2011 02:42:27 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=1982#comment-2729 @Marnie: I think I would actually like it if full-text-online books showed up in our search results, regardless of whether any local library owned it. I can’t imagine having MARC records for every full-text Google Book, Libvrox recording, or Project Gutenberg book, but why not? I think it would really benefit patrons. And you’re right about always being able to add it later.

Oh, and by the way, librarians never retire – they just become full-time patrons.

@laura: It might be that Google’s API (and maybe Amazon’s too) require links back to them – in which case, it’s okay, because that’s the cost of using their free service. But everything they offer except full-text – covers, TOC, reviews, etc – are all things we’re paying for from other services, so duplicating them just to get the zazz of Google seems confusing and redundant. To me, anyway.

But the book store thing is trickier. I do think it’d be helpful to patrons to link to a local bookstore, because I often have patrons come to the library first, and if we don’t have the item they say, “well, I’ll just go buy it then because I need it by X day.” Linking to a local bookstore makes sense, because it addresses a patron need – it tells them right now if it’s worth a drive to the bookstore. However, linking to Amazon doesn’t really help, because they still have to order it and wait, which might take as long as requesting the book from another library.

And thanks for the encouragement about Evergreen. D-Day is the day after Memorial Day, and I’m sure I’ll be posting our experience with the launch.

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By: laura k http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/24/linking-from-the-catalog-to-google-books/#comment-2726 Wed, 25 May 2011 15:41:12 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=1982#comment-2726 Oh also, congrats on the migration to Evergreen! I hope the process has been going smoothly (enough) for you all. :-)

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By: laura k http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/24/linking-from-the-catalog-to-google-books/#comment-2725 Wed, 25 May 2011 15:40:32 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=1982#comment-2725 Hm. We used the Google Books API to provide book cover images on our search results page, and under each cover was a small link to the Google Book page for the item, even when there wasn’t a full-text preview available. I found this link to be really helpful: even if you can’t read or preview the text online, I liked the reviews, TOCs, and whatever other information was available. And I liked, personally, that it linked to Amazon: It gave me a quick way to decide if I wanted to buy a book versus check it out from the library. More often than not, I chose to check it out from the library.

I totally understand the issue with linking to Amazon versus a local bookstore, though. It’s a tricky issue. I guess I usually figured the more information we can provide, the better. It’s not like we’re forcing people to buy it from Amazon, or from Google, or even to visit the Google page, by providing the link. We’re just giving them the option.

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By: Marnie http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/24/linking-from-the-catalog-to-google-books/#comment-2724 Wed, 25 May 2011 01:15:28 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=1982#comment-2724 In the best of all possible worlds Google Books would display ONLY if the title was available there in full text and ONLY if the title was not owned by the consortium….or perhaps if all copies were checked out. I tried looking up 2 Google Books that I have been using. “Lynn” by Foley comes up nicely, but Ipswich owns a copy that I’m sure they would like to circulate. I first located it by doing a Google search for a Lynn business that interested me. The other title, “The History of the Fifteenth Connecticut Volunteers….”, {http://tinyurl.com/3pralwx) doesn’t come up because it isn’t owned by any MVLC library. If I’m looking for a book that MVLC doesn’t own, I still have to go to Google Books. “Save the time of the Reader” doesn’t work.
I don’t believe that a catalog should link to any bookstore since one can’t possibly link to all. Guess that goes against saving the reader time, but I’m retired. I don’t have to be consistent, do I?
Keep the link to Google Books off. You can always add it later.

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By: ChiLibrarian http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/05/24/linking-from-the-catalog-to-google-books/#comment-2723 Wed, 25 May 2011 00:11:11 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=1982#comment-2723 You might be interested in this post on the LibaryLaw Blog regarding privacy and Google Books: http://blog.librarylaw.com/librarylaw/2011/04/reader-privacy-update-association-of-research-libraries-sends-in-comments-to-ftc.html

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