Comparing Book Search Engines

Comparing Book Search Engines Internet Librarian 2006 By Greg R. Notess, SearchEngineShowdown.com

Contenders
Amazon's "Search Inside the Book"
A9
Google Book Search
Open Content Alliance
Individual publishers' initiatives
Open Web

Scanned Books
OCR Quality Varies
Full Content Scans
Huge Collection of Data
Multiple Editions

Full Text Searching: Books
New information source for searchers
Searching, Not Reading
Think About Potential Uses
Limited Access, but Full(?) Search

A9.com and Amazon
Both can Search Inside the Covers
A9: Check Books box
Search Inside vs. Look Inside
Currently Published Books
(Including Reprints)

Amazon Search
Limit to Books Database
Look for
“Search Inside” or “Look Inside” image
“See more references to. . .”
Click here to see additional results
Click here to see additional results that may be relevant to your search

A9 Book
Check ‘Books’ Database
Larger Retrieval Set
“See more references to. . .”
Leads back to Amazon
Phrase searching works in both

Amazon Viewer
Purchase/Read Books Online
Highlight, Bookmark, Copy, Print
Add Annotations
Zoom Option under View

The Google Book Controversy
“ The aim of Google Book Search is to help you discover books, not read them cover to cover”
books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/help.html#whylogin

Google Books Search
books.google.com
Scans Books from Publishers
Or Electronic Copies from Publishers
Agreements with Publishers
No Agreement=Not Included
. . . Unless . . .

Google Library: Free
Part of Google Books Initiative
Plan: Scan 5 Library Collections
Old, Out of Copyright Books
books.google.com/books?id=yGZZXIrbUKQC
Freely Available to All
1922 and earlier

Google Library: Copyright
1923 to present
Considered Under Copyright
Even when NOT !
books.google.com/books?id=gJdHbAm4pPIC
(Note the incomplete bibliographic data)

Google Books: Access Levels
Limited Access (May require logging in)
Sample Pages (with publisher agreement)
Snippet View (without agreement)
Full View
Or No Preview Available

Options in Brief View

Log In Screen

Snippet View

Sample Pages

Full View

Google Books Links
To Publisher
To Book Stores/Shopping Sites
ABE, Alibris, Amazon, BN, BookSense, Froogle - (US)
To Open WorldCat + 14 Other Union Cats
Still not on all books; Separate results
Doesn’t works well if meta data is poor

The UMich Option
Google Scans in MIRLYN
mirlyn.lib.umich.edu
May include full text access of
Government Publications
Use Advanced Search
Limit: Format “Electronic Resources”

Open Content Alliance (OCA)
Announced, Live Later this Year?
Internet Archive, Yahoo!, O’Reilly, U. Toronto, UC, Microsoft, & more
Only Out of Copyright Works
Or Publisher Permission

OCA Availability
Since Open: Could be Anywhere
Google Books May Well Include
Superior User Interface Possibility:
Open Library: openlibrary.org
Magnify
Listen
Page turning

Google & Amazon
Both Can Have Old Books
Amazon: As Reprints
View Extracts Only, Log In to View
How Much Depends on Publisher

To Find Specific Books
Try Multiple Strategies
Check by title at A9, Google Books, OCA
Search open Web
Check publisher sites, Ebrary, Netlibrary
Look for illegal scans

Open Web
Find All Kinds of Out of Copyright Books
Includes Some Copyrighted Works
Project Gutenberg (19,000+) gutenberg.org
Online Books Page (25,000+)
digital.library.upenn.edu /books
Other nooks and crannies

Search Techniques
Phrase search title
Phrase search from content
(Maybe find extract at Amazon or publisher)
Looks for lists of books
Try title with no spaces
Try author last name

Book Listing Technique
QUERYWORD(S) intitle:"index of" "last modified size description" "parent directory"
(Works in Google & Yahoo)

Publisher Sites
May at Least Have TOC or Extracts
May Give Full Access
Even when Amazon and Google do not
nap.edu/books/0309088534/html
Compare NAP to Google to Amazon
May Note Ebook Platform
Netlibrary, Ebrary, Elsevier, Gale, etc.

Content Search Strategies
Again, try A9, Google Books, OCA
Find Book Record First, If Known
Then Search Within, If Available
Search for poor OCR
Try several word combinations or phrases

Who Has Most?
Too Varied to Tell
Each has Unique Content
Expect Many Changes & New Sources

Questions? Thank you! [email_address]

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Comparing Book Search Engines

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