#7 Google Book Search.

I must confess, usually I look for new books on Amazon if I wish to get them reserved for me at the library and I was unaware of the existance of google book search. Google has a number of advantages over amazon. Firstly, the screen is a lot less cluttered tham amazon and sticks to the basic info the average searcher is looking to extract - Basic publishing information, a 'blurb' and a few reviews (which may be more or less helpful, or contain spoilers, but I quibble because Amazon is the same). I particularly like the listing of all known different editions. Best of all though is the link "Find in a library" which will lead to the libraries australia site and list all libries, both public and university, which hold the item. There are drawbacks however. Firstly I could not discern any order in the results. Example I searched for one of my favourite authors Jose Saramago and was presented with a random collection of his works, which did not appear to be in any order, not chronological nor alphabetical. I also found no way of sorting the results a'la Amazon (I love to sort by publication date to find new and upcoming works). On the plus side I was able to track my favourite book from when I was in Prep, "William Tell" by Margaret Early, a retelling of the fable in 32 lavish pages illustrated in an illuminated manuscript style. Sadly I do not own the book, but now I know which libries do! In conclusion I will still be using Amazon to find new reading material, but if I know specifically what I am after, or an older title, Google Book Search is a useful resource which will give you most of what you need to know.