I've just implemented this in the test catalogue at Deakin - taking
the instructions from Annette Bailey's ppt demo - and was surprised
at the number of hits. And every time I clicked on the Google link I
was taken to a partial preview of the book.
Is there something in the code that prevents the link from being
offered unless it goes to at least a partial preview (which I take to
mean scanned pages), or have I just been lucky in my searching? I
can't comment on whether or not the 'no preview' is useful because
every book I see has some scanned content.
If 'no preview' means no scanned text but info. such as summaries and
reviews, then I agree that this information is really useful,
particularly for distance education students - about 40% of our total
student population - as it is often enough to determine if the book
is worth requesting. There is a benefit for libraries too because
they're not wasting time sending out books that are irrelevant to the user.
Michelle
At 11:08 AM 7/05/2008, you wrote:
>On Tue, 6 May 2008 20:24:47 -0400
> Tim Spalding <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>0.2% full text? Yowch!
>>
>>Do academic libraries with full-text versions of the book on their
>>shelves really want to point people to no-preview pages on Google.
>>That's like a dating site with no photos of the members, and the
>>profiles omit everything but their favorite potato variety.
>
>I think that depends how you view information services to your patrons. If
>you think full text is the end-all-be-all, then I say double-yowch. But if
>you think there's more to information than full-text, then perhaps you might
>think that patrons will benefit from the other information one can get via
>GBS. I've seen books that didn't have a preview or full text, but GBS offered
>links to reviews, author interviews, ToCs, summaries, etc.
>
>Bob Duncan
>
>~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
>Robert E. Duncan
>Systems Librarian
>David Bishop Skillman Library
>Lafayette College
>Easton, PA 18042
>[log in to unmask]
>http://www.library.lafayette.edu/
Michelle Watson, Web Cataloguing Librarian, Library
+ Deakin University Geelong Victoria 3217 Australia.
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