Summary by Drew Dara-Abrams
Google Scholar is, in library lingo, a free federated search service, providing access to full-text papers and book records. Search results are drawn from publicly-accessible Web sites and from proprietary databases and are ranked by relevancy, similar to the standard Google search. In other words, it’s the “holy grail of the undergrad.” However, Google Scholar cannot provide access to all that is available in a real library. Users must critically evaluate what they find—Google Scholar often returns results from uncorrected pre-prints and conference posters.
See Also:
- Google Scholar, give it a try
- On Google Scholar, regularly updated news from a librarian