google scholar and the academic web
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Google Scholar and the Academic Web. Ben Taylorson Academic Liaison 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 - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Google Scholar and the Academic Web
Ben TaylorsonAcademic Liaison 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
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
• Library catalogue, databases• Generic portals– BUBL, Pinakes, Infomine, Intute
• Subject portals– TechXtra, Voice of the Shuttle, Scirus
Academic resources
• Books– Google Books, Gutenberg Project, Universal
Library, Alex
• Journal ToCs– ZETOC, ticTOCs, My Favourite Journals , CiteULike
Current Issues
Academic resources
Open Access and repositories
• Institutional: DRO, Durham e-Theses, D-space at MIT
• Subject specific: ArXiv, British History Online• Harvesters: OAIster, Driver
• …and of course Google Scholar
Hands-on
• Try and access full text academic resources using freely available search engines and not Google Scholar
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
• Search engines vs. meta-search engines
Ask, Bing, Google, Yahoo
Vs.
Mamma, Dogpile, Metacrawler
Hands-on
• Try a search engine you wouldn’t normally use• Try a meta-search engine• Look at the advanced search options• Are there any results that will make you refine
your search?
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 www.dur.ac.uk/library/research/training/
• Most of the links mentioned in today’s session are included in the handout
• Or via the web page:www.netvibes.com/intelligentwebsearch#Welcome!
Evaluation
Please fill in the evaluation sheet to let me know what you thought of this session
More information • Ben Taylorson– [email protected]– or 0191 3342975
• Liaison Librarian for your department– www.dur.ac.uk/library/resources/subject/