How Google Print Helps Books

“Imagine a card catalog that (a) lists every book in every library anywhere, (b) shows you the title of every such book containing the search phrase of your choice (‘Crimean War,’ ‘HIV genome,’ ‘clown fetish’), and (c) gives you this information whether you’re online in your bedroom or at an Internet café in Ulaanbaatar. This index is what Google Print is poised to be, and yes, it does stretch the definition of ‘card catalog’ to the breaking point. Just keep in mind the one way in which Google’s version scarcely differs from the classic: If you want to read more than a snippet or two of the texts you’ve located, you still have to go get books.”