FTT - Google Scholar

Just Google It,

But Be Smart About It

@joe_edtech

To coincide with our Paired Late Start days, this week's blog will focus on Google researching tools. Tomorrow we'll look more closely at advanced search, and Thursday will be a look at research tools inside Drive.

Common Core is coming, and with it is an increased emphasis on inquiry and research models. When you take your kids to the library or computer lab and start discussing research with them. What is the first thing they want to do? Google it!

That may not be such a bad strategy if they know how to really use Google to perform targeted searches. One of the easiest ways to increase the educational value of Google searches is to use Google Scholar, Google's answer to the card catalog from my days in college. According to their website, Google Scholar allows users to "search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other websites" (About Google Scholar). In other words, it is Google Search grown up and gone to school.

As with any normal Google Search, when you enter a topic and click to search, you may get thousands of hits. However, there are some limitations. Many of the articles present you with the abstract only, unless you are willing to pay for it. Being a fan of freely available data myself, I usually look for entries labeled as [PDF]. That way you can be fairly certain you can download and read the entire article.

[PDF] entries can be downloaded in their entirety.

Advanced Google Scholar Search

There are two other things you can do to beef up your Google Scholar searches as well. The first is in the Google Scholar Settings. If you have the right login, or proxy, you can add your library's subscription sites to your Google Scholar searches. And more importantly, just as with regular Google Searches, you can click in the search bar to perform an advanced search, specifying exact phrases, authors, journals, or publish dates.

Google Scholar does not really replace our favorite library subscription sites, but it does make a good Google search tool a little bit more academic. 

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For my step by step direction sheet on getting started with Google Scholar, click here.