Google scholar

Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/) was released in beta version in November 2004 and is an effort by Google to create a database of scholarly articles for which citation and abstract information is widely available to all users. Google Scholar is not stating where they are getting the citations from, but PubMed, ACM, and IEEE all appear in the search results. Google Scholar also includes library materials which may or may not be scholarly from a database called WorldCat.

Things to note

• Google Scholar searches a separate database from Google Web;
• We don't know how big Google Scholar is and what it covers;
• Google Scholar provides access to citations and abstracts but not necessarily the full text of articles;
• Google Scholar duplicates information contained in many full-text databases already provided by academic libraries.

Caveats

If you are looking to Google Scholar as a replacement for PubMed/Medline and other health sciences databases, be cautious. Rita Vine, author of SiteLines, has discovered that Google Scholar is a full year late indexing its PubMed content. This raises questions about the currency and accuracy of other Google Scholar content.

Cool tools

Google Scholar @ my library

You can now set preferences in Google Scholar which will allow you to see holdings information from participating libraries. If you are accessing Google Scholar from a campus workstation, you can do your search and the results will display a text link to the library's linking service. Click on this link to view the full text of the item (if it is available).

If you are working from home you must set the Google Scholar Preferences before searching in order to view materials from the Libraries. To set your preferences:

• Navigate to Google Scholar
• Click on the Scholar Preferences link to the right of the search button. Click in the checkbox next to your library of choice.
• Click Save Preferences
• Search as you would normally

If patrons continue to experience problems accessing library materials and the institution has a proxy server, patrons should be encouraged to access Google Scholar through the proxy server. This seems to solve the issue.

Firefox extension shows Libraries holdings

If your library is using an OpenURL product to provide access to e-journals and you use the new Firefox web browser there is an extension available from Openly Informatics that makes it possible to display the library's holdings for each citation.

If you decide to download the OpenURL Referrer, follow these instructions to set up the preferences:

• From the Firefox menu bar click Tools
• Next click Extensions
• Select OpenURL Referrer and click on Options
• Select / Enter the following preferences:
  • Profiles: select OpenResolver
  • Link Server Base URL: (obtain from your library)
  • Image Location: (obtain from your library)
• Click OK
• Using the Firefox web browser go to Google Scholar
• Type in your search
• Click on the Link Resolver Service button as you would normally

Bookmarklet

Paul R. Pival, Distance Education Librarian at the University of Calgary, and author of the blog, The Distant Librarian, has created an easy-to-use bookmarklet to help you search Google Scholar more quickly from your web browser. The bookmarklet and instructions on its use are available from his site.

Articles

Kennedy, Shirl and Gary Price. "Big news: "Google Scholar" is Born" (Nov. 18, 2004) from ResourceShelf

Sullivan, Danny. "Google Scholar offers access to academic information" (Nov. 18, 2004) from SearchEngineWatch

Tenopir, Carol. "Google in the Academic Library" (Feb. 1, 2005) from LibraryJournal

Vine, Rita. "Google Scholar is a Full Year Late Indexing PubMed Content" (Feb. 8,2005) from SiteLines

Blog

On Google Scholar