Google Scholar and the Academic Web Laura Jeffrey Researcher Training Librarian

Outline Intelligent web searching Google Scholar Academic web Wider web Hidden web

Intelligent web searching What are you looking for? – Breadth or precision – Single document or comprehensive coverage How are you searching? – Targeted searching Combining terms = narrow search; AND is assumed OR, “phrase”, -not, ˜synonym, words**in between, site:ac.uk, date:months – Evaluating results

Intelligent web searching What are you looking for? How are you searching? What tools are you using? – Variety of access points – Range of search engines

Google Scholar What it includes How to search effectively – + include common words, letters or numbers – - excludes all results that include this search term – “phrase search” – OR for either of your search terms – intitle: only returns results that include your search term in the document's title.

Google Scholar Advanced features – Citations, grouped articles, related articles, alerts, set up ConneXions off campus, links to Endnote downloads Google Scholar

Advantages over library databases More results

Advantages over library databases More results Broader range of resource types e.g. books, journal articles, theses Information from range of sources e.g. databases, publishers, OA repositories Can have better date coverage

Disadvantages Too many results(?) Less quality control Doesn’t index all databases Inconsistent level of bibliographic information Some non-academic document types e.g. handbooks Less developed search options and ability to limit searches

Hands-on Link to Google Scholar Set up preferences Search using advanced search screen Explore advanced options e.g. alerts How does it compare with library databases you use?

Academic resources Full text, taster or bibliographic details Virtual libraries – Librarians’ Index to the Internet, WWW Virtual Library Generic portals – BUBL, Pinakes, Infomine, Intute BUBLIntute Subject portals – TechXtra, Voice of the Shuttle, ScirusScirus

Academic resources Books – Google Books, Gutenberg Project, Universal Library, Alex Google BooksAlex Journal ToCs – ticTOCs, My Favourite Journals, CiteULike Current Issues ticTOCs

Academic resources Open Access and repositories Institutional: DRO, Durham e-Theses, D-space at MITDRO Subject specific: ArXiv, British History Online Harvesters: OAIster, DriverOAIster …and of course Google Scholar

Hands-on Try and access full text academic resources using freely available search engines and not Google Scholar

Using a search engine, search for information on: library history in nineteenth century Britain Search

The wider web Different search engines have different search options They give different results They present them in a different order – ranking depends on location of word in title, headings, frequency, proximity

Types of search engine Keyword Directory Real time Content specific Meta-search engines Comparative search engines International search engines Netvibes page

Hidden web Search engines can access only about 16% of the available information on the WWW. Many library databases are not indexed by Google Scholar and other search engines. If they are, they may not be very visible. Library web pages

Access to tools Handouts and slides are available at Most of the links mentioned in today’s session are included in the handout Or via the web page:

Evaluation Please say what you thought of this session in the evaluation sheet in front of you More information Laura Jeffrey – or Liaison Librarian for your department –