Answered By: Crumb Library
Last Updated: Aug 23, 2022     Views: 89

Google Scholar specifically searches for academic resources and scholarly literature including books, articles and documents.  This focus to a particular kind of material differentiates the results of a Google Scholar search from the broader results of an ordinary Google search.  Google Scholar can be a good option for getting started on research when you want to see what kind of resources are available on a broad topic.

Google Scholar provides results it identifies as scholarly and only provides access to the freely available full-text of the citations it finds.  If you are using a computer on campus, your results should provide access to full-text content we have available in our library databases.  If you are off-campus, you will not see these links unless you configure it to link to the full-text in our library databases.

While Google Scholar offers some convenience, it does not provide comprehensive or subject-specific results.  There is some overlap with the Libraries' databases but our databases provide more precise searching, more content and more extensive features.  When you need resources in a particular subject area, it is always better to search the appropriate library subject database.

If you want the best of both worlds -- a Google Scholar-like experience with all the library database features attached, use the Quick Search box on the Libraries' website. Quick Search provides a search engine that searches across most of our databases at once and provides links to available full-text.