Sunday, January 20, 2008

Books.google.com--The What & How

A good friend of mine has written a useful and well thought out series on GOOGLE BOOKS.
Google books is a must for all ministers and laymen researchers:

Part 1:
One of the most amazing resources on the web is books.google.com. Google is trying to get all of the books in the public domain on the web both downloadable and searchable. A few weeks ago, I went to the eye doctor and was amazed at some of the ways that technology is changing optometry. The woman asked, "How does technology affect your field as a pastor?"

I answered, "I don't know." But, then, I though about it, and I realized that it is changing the pastorate quite a bit. First, there are cell phones, which make a pastor easier to get a hold of. Second, there is the computer and all its usefulness for searching and studying the Scriptures. Now, there is google books. Basically, what google books does for us is to give the rural pastor or western pastors the ability to have as much access to pre-20th century books as anyone near Harvard or any of the best eastern libraries. In many ways, though, it is even better because we can download this material and print it off or search it.

I have told many people about this resource, and yet, I find that many people are not making the use of it that they should. Of course, old habits die hard. On the other hand, I think there is a bit of a learning curve. In these few posts, I want to try and break the learning curve and give some examples of how this resource can be used in the pastorate.

Part 2: Breaking the Learning Curve
Part 3: Latin Works
Part 4: Commentaries
Part 5: Presbyterian Polity
Part 6: Conclusion

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