Google Scholar™ Comes to the Library Homepage
The Library has added a link to Google Scholar to the "Search and Find" drop-down menu on its homepage. This new research tool provides a search interface that searches specifically for scholarly literature.
The Library's link has also been designed to call attention to several issues related to Google Scholar. Google Scholar cannot limit results to print materials available in UCLA libraries or to electronic materials licensed by UCLA, although results link to UCLA Library Catalog or Melvyl records and to online articles where possible. In addition, when very general search terms are entered into Google Scholar, the set of results can be very large, making it more difficult to determine which are most relevant. And results may not be as comprehensive or current as those produced by another search strategy.
The Library's Google Scholar page contains information on these issues and quick exercises to help users decide when to use Google Scholar and when to use a discipline-specific database or the Library Catalog. It also contains links to other Internet search engines that specialize in materials in broad disciplinary areas such as government documents, scientific information, and the arts and humanities.
Librarians are incorporating information on Google Scholar into instructional sessions for students to acquaint them with the possibilities and limitations of this powerful new tool. If you'd like to schedule a session for your class, contact Patti Caravello, head of the Library's Information Literacy Program, by telephone at extension 55025 or by email.
