Cool Tools Podcast Episode 3 - Google Books

This episode of the Cool Tools podcast series introduces the Google Books project. As collaborative effort between Google and both libraries and publishers, the project is concerned with preservation and organization as well as access. Although the project has been met with much resistance and has inspired much controversy, the services provided are certainly innovative and valuable, from the user's perspective.

Google Books offers users the opportunity to view and search the full content of books. For titles which have gone out of copyright or for which rights holders have given permission, users can also view either full content or limited previews of content. Users can search on a variety of standard library metadata, and they'll also find a host of supplemental information, including access information and lists of citing and related books. My Library is a relatively new feature of the Google Books project. It allows users to create their own collections of books to which they may also assign labels and reviews. Collections can be shared by RSS. As the audience for a universal, digital library continues to grow, the Google Books project presents users with an easy to use, familiar interface and a rich database, which, even if controversial, provides a wealth of information.

Without further ado, I present Cool Tools Podcast Episode 3 - Google Books:

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You can also download the podcast transcript as an RTF file.

Google Books links:
Google Books Search
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My Library

Thanks to Royalty Free Music for the intro/exit music.