Comments on: Reference Question of the Week – 2/10/13 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2013/02/16/reference-question-of-the-week-21013/ or, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fear and Loathing at a Public Library Reference Desk Wed, 08 May 2013 14:00:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Kerri http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2013/02/16/reference-question-of-the-week-21013/#comment-21180 Kerri Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:52:01 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=4035#comment-21180 The SearchReSearch blog had a great post that discussed ways to use Google image search to find a book based on what the cover looks like. http://searchresearch1.blogspot.com/2011/05/answer-how-can-you-find-book-by-its.html

]]> By: rebecca http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2013/02/16/reference-question-of-the-week-21013/#comment-20346 rebecca Mon, 18 Feb 2013 08:01:56 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=4035#comment-20346 I’ve also used google image search and limited by color to find books — works well if you know the main color of the book cover.

]]> By: Jackie http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2013/02/16/reference-question-of-the-week-21013/#comment-20311 Jackie Sun, 17 Feb 2013 03:52:15 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=4035#comment-20311 Regarding the thumbnail size in your catalog; your systems admin might be able to make that thumbnail bigger. I don’t know what ILS you use but many of them have options for things like that. Or, you might check with your content provider. They may have that option as well.

]]> By: Jessica http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2013/02/16/reference-question-of-the-week-21013/#comment-20305 Jessica Sat, 16 Feb 2013 23:24:28 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=4035#comment-20305 I did a Google Image search for

“children’s book” girl with duck cover

and limited it to the past six months (clicked on “Search Tools” and entered a start term of six months ago with no ending term). The result was in the first two rows. As mentioned above, if the book cover color is known as well, this might also be a great limiter on Google Image Search, although it didn’t help in this particular search due to its removing the book in question from a high search result placement.

]]> By: Allison http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2013/02/16/reference-question-of-the-week-21013/#comment-20303 Allison Sat, 16 Feb 2013 21:14:25 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=4035#comment-20303 I’ve had decent luck answering “what was the book?” cover description reference questions by using: http://bigbooksearch.com/. Your book in question comes up as the 11th result in a search using the same terms of “girl duck.” The covers link back to Amazon.

]]> By: Brian Herzog http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2013/02/16/reference-question-of-the-week-21013/#comment-20301 Brian Herzog Sat, 16 Feb 2013 19:48:09 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=4035#comment-20301 @Heather: good catch – I never actually clicked into the record (since we immediate searched for the title in the library catalog to see if it was on our shelf), so thank you for clearing that up.

@Michelle: I thought that must be a possibility, but I’ve never tried it – now I’ll give it a shot.

]]> By: Michelle http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2013/02/16/reference-question-of-the-week-21013/#comment-20299 Michelle Sat, 16 Feb 2013 19:18:52 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=4035#comment-20299 The advanced search for Google Images has a filter for the predominant color of the image. I’ve had some luck locating book covers this way, if the patron remembers the main color of the book.

]]> By: Heather http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2013/02/16/reference-question-of-the-week-21013/#comment-20298 Heather Sat, 16 Feb 2013 18:58:06 +0000 http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/?p=4035#comment-20298 Hi Brian, interesting post. Amazon has the pub. date as Sept. 2013 because that is when the paperback apparently is due to come out — if you notice, it’s available for pre-order. The hardcover is already out.

]]>