Google Scholar's Impact on Libraries

Read the Google Scholar Support for Libraries information page.

Google Scholar often leads users to the library - meaning that it is the library - not Google - that is responsible for allowing authorized access to much of the licensed full-text material.

Key Points  ·  Known Sources Indexed  ·  Bibliography

Key Points: Google Scholar's Strengths and Limitations

Google Scholar was released to the world in beta version during November 2004.

• Google Scholar, because it indexes only what it defines as "scholarly" information sources, can be a useful tool for persons who are frustrated with the reliability and authority of results returned by general search engines.
• In addition to indexing scholarly sources from the surface web, Google Scholar also makes arrangements with commercial publishers to scan the invisible or deep web. This allows licensed or restricted content results to be included in the Google Scholar indexing.
• Google Scholar supports the Open URL protocol.
• Google Scholar is similiar to journal article indexes in that not everything indexed will be available in full-text format. Full-text availability will be determined in many cases by whether or not the library or organization has purchased licensed access to this content.
• Google Scholar does not provide comprehensive results on topics - its depth can be very shallow.
• Results from Google Scholar are not necessarily the most significant research/writings that exist on a topic.
• Google Scholar provides a "cited by" feature.

• Google Scholar is a single search tool, and no single search tool searches the entire bibliographic universe.
• Google Scholar does not index the majority of the scholarly materials indexed by commercial database vendors.
• Because most scholarly information is not openly accessible (i.e. remains only accessible to individuals affiliated with organizations who have paid monies to license access to that content), Google Scholar is unlikely to ever duplicate what has already been done by existing scholarly databases like PsycINFO, Academic Search Premier, etc.
• Google Scholar does not provide equal coverage of all subject areas.
• Google Scholar, unlike most scholarly research tools (i.e. journal article indexes), does not provide a list of the sources it is indexing.

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Known Sources Indexed by Google Scholar

• *PubMed

* Henderson notes that "Scholar accesses only 1 million of the some 15 million records at PubMed."

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Bibliography: Critiques of Google Scholar

Arnold, Stephen E. (2005). The Google Legacy: How Google's Internet Search Is Transforming Application Software. Tetbury, England: Infonortics.
http://www.infonortics.com/publications/google/google-legacy.html
"Chapter Seven: Google Print and Scholar." This book is not free online.

Banks, Marcus A. (2005). "The excitement of Google Scholar, the worry of Google Print." Biomedical Digital Libraries, 2(2).
http://www.bio-diglib.com/content/2/1/2

Bhatt, Jay. "Google Scholar and other information resource tools: Constructive analysis."
http://www.library.drexel.edu/resources/tutorials/GoogleScholar.ppt

Bowering Mullen, Laura, and Karen A. Hartman. (2006, Mar.). "Google Scholar and the library web site: The early response by ARL libraries." College & Research Libraries, 67(2): 106-122.

CSU Monterey Bay Library. "Using Google Scholar & the CSUMB Library."
http://library.csumb.edu/instruction/howto/googlescholar.php

Friend, Frederick J. (2006 winter). "Google Scholar: Potentially good for users of academic information." The Journal of Electronic Publishing, 9(1).
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jep;cc=jep;view=text;rgn=main;idno=3336451.0009.105

Georgia State University Library. "Using Google Scholar at GSU Library."
http://www.library.gsu.edu/googlescholar/

Giles, Jim. (2005, Dec. 1). "Science in the web age: Start your engines." Nature, 438(7068): 554-555.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7068/pdf/438554a.pdf

Giustini, Dean. "How Google is changing medicine." BMJ, 331(7531): 1487.
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/331/7531/1487

Hardin Library, University of Iowa Libraries. "Google Scholar."
http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/GoogleScholar.html

Harzing, Anne Wil K. and van der Wal, Ron. (2008). "Google Scholar As a New Source for Citation Analysis." Ethics in Sciences and Enivronmental Politics, 8: 61-73.
http://www.int-res.com/articles/esep2008/8/e008p061.pdf
DOI: 10.3354/esep00076

Henderson, Jim. (2005, June 7). "Google Scholar: A source for clinicians?" Canadian Medical Association Journal, 172(12): 1549-1550.
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/172/12/1549

Hsieh-Yee, Ingrid. (2009) Google Scholar and Its Competitors: Assessing Scholarly Resources on the Web. Oxford: Chandos.
http://www.chandospublishing.com/chandos_publishing_record_detail.php?ID=232

Howland, Jared L., Wright, Thomas C., Boughan, Rebecca A. and Roberts, Brian C. "How Scholarly is Google Scholar? A Comparison to Library Databases."
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crljournal/preprints/Howland.pdf
Note: This version is a "College & Research Libraries" pre-print.

Inside Google. "Google Scholar adds access to college libraries."
http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2005/05/10/google-adds-access-to-libraries/
Includes a list of the university libraries that have set-up authentication with Google Scholar.

Jasco, Peter. "Side-by-side: Native search engines vs Google Scholar."
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~jacso/scholarly/side-by-side2.htm

Jacso, Peter. "Savvy searching - Google Scholar: The pros and the cons." Online Information Review, 29.2(2005): 208-214.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.html

Kennedy, Shirl and Gary Price. "Big news: 'Google Scholar' is born." Nov. 18, 2004.
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/11/wow-its-google-scholar.html

Meltzer, E. "UC Libraries use of Google Scholar." Aug. 2005.
http://www.cdlib.org/inside/assess/evaluation_activities/docs/2005/googleScholar_summary_0805.pdf

Miller, William and Pellen, Rita M., eds. (2005). Libraries and Google. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Information Press.

Includes several chapters on Google Scholar.

Miller, William and Pellen, Rita M., eds. (2008). Google Scholar and More: New Google Applications and Tools for Libraries and Library Users. . New York: Routledge.

Includes several chapters on Google Scholar.
Was also published as Journal of Library Administration, Vol. 46, Issues 3/4.

Notess, Greg R. "Scholarly web searching: Google Scholar and Scirus." Online: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals, 29.4(July/Aug. 2005): 39-41.

O Dochartaigh, Niall. (2007). Internet Research Skills: How To Do Your Literature Search and Find Research Information Online. London; Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Chapter 1 includes a section on Google Scholar.

Oberlin College Library. "Google Scholar vs. library databases."
http://www.oberlin.edu/library/science/google_tips.html

Oder, Norman. "Google Scholar links with libs." Library Journal. April 15, 2005.
http://libraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA516043

Peter's Digital Reference Shelf. "Google Scholar (redux)." June 2005.
http://www.gale.com/free_resources/reference/peter/current.htm#google

Quint, Barbara. "Google Scholar focuses on research-quality content." Newsbreaks. Nov. 22, 2004. Information Today, Inc.
http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb041122-1.shtml

Quint, Barbara. "Library collections linked on Google Scholar for free." May 16, 2005. Information Today, Inc.
http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb050516-1.shtml

Simba Information Inc. (2005) "Professional Publishing: The Impact Factor of Google Scholar." Stamford, CT: Simba Information.
http://www.simbainformation.com/pub/1103241.html
Not a free report

Sondermann, T.J. "On Google Scholar."
http://schoogle.blogspot.com/

Sullivan, Danny. "Google Scholar offers access to academic information." ClickZ Network.
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/opt/print.php/3438451

Syracuse University Library. What is Google Scholar?
http://libwww.syr.edu/instruction/questions/Google-Scholar.htm

The University of British Columbia Library. UBC Google Scholar Blog.
http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/weblogs/googlescholar/

UNLV Libraries. "Google Scholar FAQ."
http://www.library.unlv.edu/help/googlescholar.html

Wleklinski, Joann M. "Studying Google Scholar: Wall to wall coverage?" Online: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals, 29.3(May/June 2005): 22-26.

Young, Jeffrey, R. (2004, Dec. 3). "Google unveils a search engine focused on scholarly materials." The Chronicle of Higher Education, 51(15): A34.
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v51/i15/15a03401.htm