Google <--> WorldCat
Google recently released a book viewability API that provides links to books in Google Book Search using ISBNs, LCCNs, and OCLC numbers. Basically (without going into a bunch of code stuff that I don’t really understand), this API allows other organizations to link to books that Google has scanned (and will scan) based on data that is pushed/pulled automatically back and forth between the requesting site and Google.
[BTW... You now know the ugly truth: I am not a programmer; see “code stuff†and “pushed/pulled†above]
The upshot of all this, though, is that sites like WorldCat.org can provide a link back to Google Books. Sometimes that will mean the full text of the book, sometimes not. For example, Cory Doctorow’s great novel, “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom,†is available in full. So the WorldCat.org page for that book shows a link under “Get it†to “View Item Online (Google Books).†This takes you to the Google Books page for that work and the full text.
It’s not just a one-way street, though. If you find a book in Google Book Search, you can often follow a link for it back to local libraries through WorldCat.org. So, suppose you locate the Google Book page for "The Future of Freedom" by Fareed Zakaria. You'll find that the entry for this work is a limited preview. But you'll also find a link under the "Buy this Book" choices to "Find this book in a library," which (you guessed it), takes you back to the WorldCat.org page for it.
Fun stuff.
[BTW... You now know the ugly truth: I am not a programmer; see “code stuff†and “pushed/pulled†above]
The upshot of all this, though, is that sites like WorldCat.org can provide a link back to Google Books. Sometimes that will mean the full text of the book, sometimes not. For example, Cory Doctorow’s great novel, “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom,†is available in full. So the WorldCat.org page for that book shows a link under “Get it†to “View Item Online (Google Books).†This takes you to the Google Books page for that work and the full text.
It’s not just a one-way street, though. If you find a book in Google Book Search, you can often follow a link for it back to local libraries through WorldCat.org. So, suppose you locate the Google Book page for "The Future of Freedom" by Fareed Zakaria. You'll find that the entry for this work is a limited preview. But you'll also find a link under the "Buy this Book" choices to "Find this book in a library," which (you guessed it), takes you back to the WorldCat.org page for it.
Fun stuff.
On May 27, 2008 at 6:58 PM M Belvadi said:
Will the link to Google Books (GBS) indicate in its wording whether the link will lead to the "full view" (Google's term for free access to the entire book) of the book? Or has WorldCat chosen to use the Viewability API to only display links to GBS if the full view is available?
On May 28, 2008 at 9:54 AM Andy Havens said:
M Belvadi: Yes, the link indicates if the GBS entry is for full text. As in the example above, "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" in WorldCat.org has, in the "Get It" services, a link that says, "View Item Online (Google Books)," whereas the WC page for "The Future of Freedom" has a Get It link that indicates, "Preview Item (Google Books)."
In the future, we'll be doing stuff to make it easier to find this kind of connection to full text works.
On June 5, 2008 at 2:16 PM Paul Capewell said:
I am probably mistaken, but following the above WorldCat link, under Get It, I don't see a Google link - just WorldCat and Amazon.
Should it be there?
On June 5, 2008 at 3:11 PM Andy Havens said:
Paul: Hmmm... I'm seeing it when I call up the page. It's on the left hand side, directly under the main entry details. There's also a "Buy this item" section in the right-hand nav. So, some of the info is in two places.
Let me know if it's not on the left for you, too, and I'll check with the development guys. Thanks.
On June 5, 2008 at 4:05 PM Paul Capewell said:
Thanks Andy. I see the Buy This Item part, but sadly not the Google Books part. This is on Safari at home now and was on IE6 at work earlier.
Don't wanna waste your time but I took a partial screenshot for you: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3275/2553732809_d9684cd82b_o.png
I'm probably just looking in the wrong place though!
On June 12, 2008 at 11:07 PM prying1 said:
I wonder why Google often times does not show World Cat in their search results.
For example, I typed "Mary Viola Lind" (with quote marks) into the Google web search, and only received hits for two websites. I type the name into World Cat and find her one book listed.
I've seen the same thing happen before. A little known author has no hits on Google, and yet is listed in World Cat.
Why is that Google does not send their little spider search thingy through World Cat. I think they should. it's the only right thing to do.
Paul - Prying1
On June 17, 2008 at 1:53 PM Bob Schulz said:
Hi Paul: OCLC actually provides Google (and Yahoo, and other partners) with a separate harvestable copy of the WorldCat database which they spider to grab what records they need. Google has opted to take the 4 million most widely held items from that set, so the full database is not represented in Google's main search. They also pull separate sets to build links from Google Scholar and Google Books back to WorldCat.org, so the coverage in links back to WorldCat.org from Google is actually fairly significant.
While coverage is large, it is not complete (as you've noticed). We are working with Google and other partners directly to encourage them to incorporate more of WorldCat into their indexes as the true richness of the database is the "long tail," less widely held items.