What is Google Scholar?
"Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web." Google Scholar is currently in beta release, so changes in appearance and functionality may occur.

What are the benefits of searching Google Scholar through the library's website?
By searching Google Scholar from the Library's web site, Albion College students, faculty, and staff will have access to full text journal articles (and other sources) that are already owned by the Library.

How do I know if an article I want is available?
If you're searching Google Scholar from on campus, or if you're off campus but have connected through the Library's web site, Google will recognize your computer's IP Address as coming from Albion College. In that case, if the article is one the Library has purchased, you will see a link that says "Full-Text@Albion" which will take you to the article.

What should I do if full text is not available online?
There are several steps you can take:

• Check the Library's Online Catalog to see if we own the book, or subscribe to the journal in print...if you're looking for a journal article, remember to search by the title of the journal, not the article title.


• Request the item through Interlibrary Loan.


• Ask A Librarian for assistance.

Are there other sources I can use to find scholarly articles?
Absolutely! The Albion College Library subscribes to numerous online databases. Most of these cover many more sources than does Google Scholar, and they generally offer more advanced searching capabilities. Like Google Scholar, they also link to full text when available. If you would like help choosing or using any of these databases, please contact a Librarian by calling the Reference Desk at 517-629-0382, or by using the Ask A Librarian form.