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Google Books is not (yet) a library ...

... is a basic book. In
despite their new homepage interface (English only)
A librarian explained that a library is the rational constitution of a collection of books, depending on choices. But
anyway, it is clear that Google does not become that kind of library. Google clearly aims to propose a more or less near-term, all the existing books through Google Books.
However there is another approach to define a library: it is possible to find books by browsing the shelves.
I thought for a moment that Google was interested in offering them the Literacy Project, ie a thematic (literature) in the collections digitized by Google.
And seeing the left column of this new homepage, I thought my dreams goodbye : A list of topics, so an opportunity to finally learn everything that Google had been able to scan, for example, the history of medieval Europe.
Alas! Only eight categories are available: Philosophy, Economics, Political Science, Linguistics, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology.
The humanities are not.
And besides, as for the Literacy Project, these are not classes: it is a simple search on a field "Subject".
Click on the "category" Philosophy "comes to search Subject = Philosophy.
We therefore find (on November 5 2008) 1575 books.
But it is so little class, if I replace "Philosophy" to "Philosophy," I can not find more than 56 pounds .
And within that category, I can not go further in precision.

So what's the point?
Personally, I would say nothing. Strictly.
It does not even give an idea of the number of books scanned by Google as "subject" (but "social sciences" can not be considered a "subject"), since the list obtained is dependent on the indexing is not multilingual.

However, it is used to dream about what Google could one day offer.
Google has agreements in effect with WorldCat , with Sudoc . Why not get their indexing, and especially their listing Dewey?
This would navigate through the collections on Google that model, invented by OCLC.
The classification obtained is then combined with a subject search, and it finally becomes interesting. So
dream ...

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Zotero: we advance

Do not have my usual gear, I can not test, so I'm just relaying the news:
draft Zotero 1.5 Sync advance: the latest pre-public just been announced on the blog Zotero. It's even a version for developers, but it is a sign that's almost soon.
Zotero Sync is the ability to manage his bibliography online Zotero, with synchronization of the bibliography in line with that stored in its Firefox extension. It's like merging into Endnote Endnote Web (about Zotero vs Endnote, ongoing trial, I refer you to the analysis confident Darcusblog : it looks like the day Microsoft said in May 2007 that OpenOffice violates 235 patents - it was mostly to scare users and delay the inevitable).
So I have not tried, but things are progressing.

Something that I wish to put up Zotero is the initial configuration when installing the software on its Firefox browser: for the former settings, Zotero would have moved immediately to link the user library, modeled on "links to libraries of Google Scholar (could it be that Zotero actually utilizes this base?): this allows for any item then click the button" Find "(in upper right section of the instruction), and query the catalog of his university library for a possible link to the article, where the location of the print journal. This service operates
the OpenURL standard : metadata (journal title, author name, year, etc..) Section are put in the URL sent to the library catalog. All it lacks is the URL of the OpenURL resolver library (same as the URL of the catalog, alas), and users are generally unaware.
So if Zotero can offer the visitor, upon installation, to indicate what his university library, he could go and question in the list of known URL resolvers Google Scholar and repatriate the library indicated. An agreement
Zotero - Google? I do not know if this kind of thing is possible or against nature. But for us it would not be so bad.