On 13 April 2022 OCLC and Google announced they are working together to link from books discovered through Google Search directly to print book records in the catalogs of hundreds of U.S. libraries. This feature is part of Google’s ongoing effort to connect people to their local libraries through Google Search. An OCLC spokesman explained that the project is starting with U.S. libraries due to the higher concentration of libraries there than in other regions. The plan is to extend the program to other libraries in other countries over time.
The initial phase of this new program connects people using Google Search to the catalogs of hundreds of U.S. libraries whose books are cataloged in WorldCat, a worldwide database of information about library collections, and made available for discovery on the web. The program is expected to expand to more libraries and connect to more library resources in the future.
These links to library catalogs can be found in several different displays of Google Search results for specific books, including under “Get” or “Borrow” the book options in the knowledge panel, or within Google Books previews.
For more details, read the press release here.