[nfais-l] Changes to Google Books Display, Interface

[Jill O'Neill]

NFAIS members may be interested to learn that within the past 24-48 hours,
there have been some changes implemented in Google Books itself. Results
from searches run in Google Books are now displayed in the enhanced Google
search page with the left hand panel showing new filters available to the
user for refinements of search. One can slice-and-dice according to view
(full, partial, etc.), document type (book, magazine), time frame (19th c,
20th c, current), sort by relevance or by date, and display results as
either a list or as a grid.

 

I'm told by an angry academic researcher (who happens as well to be a
personal friend) in contacting me this afternoon that there have been
changes made as well that hide volumes of scanned bound periodicals from
easy retrieval. Her particular focus is in 19th century (ergo, public domain
content) American literature and her sample search appears below:

 

Here's a great (as in appalling) example. If you search on "appalachia
journal mountain" in title (to pull up Appalachia, The Journal of the
Appalachian Mountain Club), all that's showing now is vol. 1, in "No
preview" mode.  Searching on "Appalachia" in title in "full view" calls up
one volume, from 1920.  On 6/12, however, I could access at least the first
seven volumes (sometimes in multiple editions), all in full view. 

 

The question for this individual at least is whether the launch of Google
Editions as a potential source of sales revenue for Google will make this
resource less valuable to her.  

 

Jill O'Neill

Director, Planning & Communication

NFAIS

(v) 215-893-1561

(email) jilloneill at nfais.org

 

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