What else are you doing with Google Books?

On July 17, 2009, I blogged about using Google Books for a variety of groups whether you are an educator, student, parent, employer, virtual book club participant, or an individual wanting to consolidate books they have read, wanted to read, or associate books with your digital profile.

As an adult student, I started building My Library in Google Books with required textbooks and some other books on my physical bookshelf. You can add notes and tags, and annotate if you loan out the book or if you find online supplements to your books.

Of the 3 textbooks required for my current course, Research Methods & Designs, one book has a partial preview in Google Books and the other two have no preview of the book available. In all the textbooks I have checked out from libraries, rented, borrowed, or purchased...somewhere in the front matter of the book is some type of data about online supplemental information. For the textbooks required for RSH9102E, all three textbooks have some type of online supplemental information, so I just added the links to the Notes section in each of the textbooks. Long after the course is over and after I graduate, my notes will be available to me or other individuals who review My Library.

While Google Books provides access to a virtual library of a multitude of books and magazine along with previews of books that agree to display content, if there is a book you want and the preview of the content is not available, links are provided to locate the book in a library or if you want to purchase the book. The link to Find in a Library provides many additional opportunities.

Selecting the Find in a Library option opens up a WorldCat link that displays libraries that have the book based on a designated (your choice) or an associated zip code (based on your Google profile). From there you can cite the book, email or share the link along with additional features of the book from reviews, local libraries, table of contents with links to the Library of Congress, and many other features.

You can follow Google Books on Twitter @googlebooks, subscribe to the Google Books blog, check out the Google Books history, read Google Books Facts and Fiction, or the Google Books Library Project.

What is the difference in the views of Google Books? Full, limited, snippet, or no preview available.

What are you doing with Google Books? Have you built your own library in Google Books? Share the link to your Google Books library or post a comment about your Google Books experience. As always comments are welcome.