Google Now Searches the Digital Shelves of a Library
October 27, 2017
Google can search the Internet in mere seconds and locate nearly every single bit of information on the planet. Except for ebooks you can rent for free from your local library…oh wait! According to the Digital Reader, that is now possible-read the news in the article, “Google Added Local Library eBook Listings To Search Results.”
Google has undertaken the challenge to add library catalogs to its search results, at least the digital collection holdings. Can you imagine visiting Google to search your library’s catalog? It will now be a thing, so go ahead and search your local library holdings through Google.
Google, however, cannot access all of a public library’s holdings, the physical items are left out. There are also some bugs in the new feature, such as an item’s availability status:
I did run into some inconsistency with this new feature. While some books would bring up the Borrow ebook card without any problem, other titles just wouldn’t trigger it. While Cixin Liu’s “Three-Body Problem” had the extra field in results, searches for N. K. Jemisin’s recent Hugo Award winner “The Obelisk Gate” didn’t trigger the same behavior.
I first thought it might have to do with availability, but the card appeared for titles with universally long waiting lists, too. Behavior was the same for search on both desktop and mobile, and I’m at a loss to explain why.
It is not perfect, but this is an excellent way for Google to connect people not only with a library’s digital collection but the physical collection as well. Searching a library’s catalog on their website, however, still remains the best way to locate the material.
Whitney Grace, October 27, 2017
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