Google Scholar: Boon or Bust

I'm giving a presentation on Google Scholar today for a faculty technology workshop. Besides demonstrating how to use it, I'm discussing the pros and cons and the murky areas in between. I'm a big fan of all things Google, but am not entirely sold on Google Scholar. Yet. I love this idea however: University of Michigan Book Printing Machine

In the session I will cover how to set scholar preferences to show SFX links from Earlham. It should be noted that exactly how this works is not understood, and I discussed this with our resident techy librarians.


Why might you want to use Google Scholar?

--For quick access to open access articles.

--One stop shopping; Google Scholar, or something like it, may very well represent the future of searching. Instead of having to search multiple databases, researchers could go to one place.

--In theory, Google Scholar provides a way for people without access to scholarly databases--public library patrons, for instance--to be able to find citations, if not full text, of scholarly resources they could then acquire via interlibrary loan. It is free to search, and some items are available for free. Note, however, that of right now an interlibrary loan link is not available from the Google scholar link

--Once you recognize its current limitations, Google scholar can be a useful tool and a place to start research.

Why Might You Hesitate to Use Google Scholar?

--As of today, a significant amount of scholarly material does not seem to be available. Not all publishers have reached an agreement with Google.

--Confusing display: articles and books may come up several times in the search and it may not be obvious which one to choose. How the items are ranked is not entirely clear. Without going deep into the search, researchers may miss an important item.

--Unlike databases such as PsychInfo, there is not a clear editorial policy or explanation of what it is included. The items generally are scholarly, but books for children sometimes come up in the search as well.