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History: Google Scholar

About Google Scholar

There are many benefits to setting up Google Scholar to link to full text from the Alfred University Libraries. Once it's set up, you will be presented with links to full text articles available through the Alfred University Libraries or, if full text isn't available, to interlibrary loan. 

Instruction appear below. If you have questions, please contact libraries@alfred.edu.

How to set up Google Scholar to link to Alfred University full text

1. Go to Google Scholar.

2. Click the menu icon (a three-bar icon in the upper left of the screen) and choose "Settings", then "Library links"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3, Search for "Alfred University" and select the option labelled "Alfred University - View AU Full-Text." Select SAVE. Note that cookies need to be enabled for these settings to persist.

4. Now you're ready to search! On the results page, look for the links labelled "View AU Full-Text"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. If there is no "View AU Full-Text" link, you can sometimes find links to freely available PDFs on the right-hand side

 

 

 

 


6. If there are no options on the right-hand side, try clicking on the double arrow option (>>) below the citation, which sometimes reveals a link to "Check for AU Full-Text" 

 

 

Using Google Scholar

Google Scholar is different from Google. Instead of searching public web content, it searches scholarly literature such as journal and conference papers, theses and dissertations, academic books, pre-prints, abstracts, and technical reports.

Google Scholar is especially useful for:

  • Quickly finding articles from a partial citation. Google Scholar can often find an article with just the title, and will provide the full citation and access to full text options once you have set up Google Scholar (see "How to set up Google Scholar to link to Alfred University full text").
  • Finding resources on interdisciplinary topics and supplementing information found in discipline-specific databases.
  • Finding "gray literature" like conference proceedings. 
  • Identifying highly cited works.
  • Taking advantage of Google Scholar tools such as the "Cited by" and "Related articles" links
  • Setting up alerts for topics of interest.


Google Scholar is less effective when it comes to:

  • Searching with the accuracy of library databases. 
  • Searching literature in one discipline/field.
  • Searching with controlled vocabulary/subject terms.