Google Scholar is already a handy tool for quickly scanning the academic research landscape. I’ve found a couple of additional features that extend its capabilities even further than the vanilla version. These features can be activated and set from the Scholar Preferences link (login required).
Library Links
The Library Links setting allows you to indicate which library catalogues you wish to search for any items you find through Google Scholar. Without this, you generally need to copy pertinent information from Google Scholar over to the search interface for your preferred library. Using Library Links, you can indicate your preferred library, then Google Scholar will provide a link under each search result (such as “Find it! @ CMU,” below) that will allow you to immediately search your library catalogue for the selected item. You can select up to three libraries. Generally, you will require login access to the libraries you wish to search. More information about Library Links can be found here.
I was able to create links for Central Michigan University and Canadian National Catalogue (Amicus). A link for Red River College was unavailable.
Bibliography Manager
My love of Zotero has been on exhibit throughout this blog. Well, the reasons for the love just keep on coming. With Google Scholar, you can set a bibliography manager so that each search result can be imported directly into your Zotero collections with no additional steps.
Under Bibliography Manager, select the option for “Show links to import citations into.” Then select EndNote from the drop-down list.
Once you’ve set this option, each Google Scholar search result will have a link labelled “Import into EndNote” (see image above). Because Zotero understands the EndNote format, whenever you click this link Zotero will intercept the import and create a new item for you in your Zotero collections.
More information about Bibliography Manager and other Google Scholar features can be found here.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
