Tuesday, May 22, 2007

MTSU registers with Google Scholar

Google Scholar (scholar.google.com) Our Google registration is automatically available if you are working on an MTSU computer or a personal computer logged into the campus network. If you are working from off campus you will need to set “Scholar Preferences” from a link at the right of the search box. Search for and select Middle Tennessee State University as your preferred library. Open Worldcat should also be selected. When using Google Scholar you will find that many of the items returned will provide a link to “Fulltext @ MTSU.” That will take you into our Article Linker tool to connect to one of our subscribed databases. Please remember that the articles and other materials that you find by this pathway are paid for by MTSU. Google is only providing the indexing. You also need to remember that many of our subscribed databases are not indexed by Google (and they don’t reveal which are). If you’re not finding what you need, you will probably have better luck using our Research Guides by Subject to find the best tools.

Some returns in Google Scholar will be for books instead of online documents. For those returns you will see a link below the citation for “Library search.” If Walker Library owns the book we will be the first library listed, followed by other libraries that are near by, such as Vanderbilt or Nashville Public Library. If we don’t own the book you will see a link for “Request through ILL” at the top of the page. This will allow you to submit a request to Walker Library’s Interlibrary Loan service.

Try it and let us know how you like it.

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