>The general consensus around here seems to be even the minimal
records tend to have useful information, more so than if Google was
just repeating the catalog entry.

What bothers me here is that this isn't a "good enough" situation.
This isn't so-so information in an information poor environment. The
library has the book in all its glory, right there on the shelf ready
for the deepest, truest engagement.

As a former educator (okay, a TA, but I cared!), I believe that
learning often requires some effort—not involves but requires.
Engaging with something you don't know or understand is hard. Giving
students tools is good. But if you give them a tool simultaneously
super-easy and deeply deficient, too many will choose it over harder,
better tools. (Of course, getting a book off a shelf didn't *used* to
seem like hard work.) At some point, schools and libraries should
promote tools that are "good for you" over ones that aren't.

I don't want to overdo this. I built LibraryThing. I'm the farthest
thing from anti-web. But I balk at pushing empty Google Book Search
pages on students who could get off their rear ends and hold the book
in their hands two minutes later.

Tim