Monday, October 29, 2007

15. Play with Google Book Search

Play MP3 Play audio introduction for this task

In 2004, Google announced a partnership with several large academic and public libraries to scan 15 million books within a decade. Out of this project, called the Google Print Library Project, eventually came the product Google Book Search.

Google Book Search now allows browsing and searching full text within hundreds of thousands of titles from publishers as well as titles in the public domain. Subject to copyright restrictions, Google Book Search allows either viewing and downloading (as a PDF) of an entire volume, or online viewing of portions of volumes only.

Your task

Visit Google Book Search and search for a book. I suggest Google: The Missing Manual by Sarah Milstein as it allows a limited preview.

The limited preview allows you to view the table of contents on the right hand side and view some segments of the book in the main panel. You can usually search within the full text, although some pages may not be available for viewing in the main view due to copyright restrictions.

You may also want to locate a public domain work. In the Google Book Search results page, click on 'Full View' to restrict your search only to works that are wholly available for viewing and download. This includes works in which the copyright term has expired, as well as works which the publisher has released into the public domain.

Make a blog post about Google Book Search. Is it a good idea?

This is the final task for week 7. Next week, you'll be having a look at iGoogle, another product from Google allowing you to create a customised home page. If you are feeling a little overwhelmed, next week will be more easy-going.

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