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CMP 200 - Clemens: Using Google wisely

Setting up Google Scholar to search the KU Databases on your Personal Device.

There are two ways to set up Google Scholar to search the KU Databases

Using the Library website

  1. From the library homepage, under COLLECTIONS, select A -Z DATABASES
  2. On the Databases page, select "G" from the alphabet bar
  3. From the list of database titles that start with G, select Google Scholar.

Using the Settings in Google Scholar to change all your Google Scholar searching to include KU

You will need a gmail account for this to work.

  1. Open GOOGLE 
  2. Type GOOGLE SCHOLAR in the search box
  3. On the next page, open GOOGLE SCHOLAR.
  4. On the next page, select the hamburger on the left and then scroll down to the bottom and select SETTINGS.
  5. On the settings page, select LIBRARY LINKS.
  6. On the library links page, type KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY in the search box, then SEARCH. 
  7. Select all the boxes that appear below the search box and SAVE
  8. Now whenever you use GOOGLE SCHOLAR on this device, it will automatically search the KU databases, and add a link in the right column for you.

Link to podcast:  https://www.screencast.com/t/Neg7hVl1aX

 

 

All GOOGLE is not created equal

Here at KU, the librarians have configured Google Scholar to work with some of the library databases to pull in the PDF of articles you have a paid subscription for as a student here.  To take advantage of this "extra", you need to use a special link.  You can get it by going to the A-Z Database link and selecting Google Scholar from that page, or use this link:   https://library.kutztown.edu/googlescholar

A Word of Caution:

  • Google SCHOLAR is a subset of the larger Google search engine. It searches only for articles from mostly scholarly sources where the holder of the copyright has allowed internet access.
  • There is a problem in academic publishing, sometimes referred to as "predatory journals."  These are made-up, online journals that charge authors to publish their articles, but the journals do not have legitimate peer-review, and will publish anything for a price.  Often these journal names are closely related to the names of legitimate journals, so be careful.  Google Scholar does nothing to filter-out these fake scholarly journals.
  • The Library provides a list of predatory journals, called Cabells Predatory Journals.  You can check a suspicious journal against this list.  And if you still have doubts, you can CHAT with a librarian, or email your professor.

 

Finding reliable websites on the Internet

Google's Advanced Search

To help you evaluate the sites you find:

  • info:  for information about a website. Works best with the homepage address.  info:aclu.org

  • related: search for related sites, use the word "related" followed by a colon:  related:api.org

  • link: Find out where someone referenced this link on the website:  link:wwf.org

  • v-e-r-y important: there is no space after the colon when using these commands; don't need to put in the "http" or the "www"

More Tips for searching Google

  1. site:.[extension]   put in your keywords and then add site: [extension for website, like .com]
    • for example:  scholarships   site:.edu
    • site:.org for organizations; site:.gov for government sites
  2. Use quotes for names and phrases:  "Donald Trump"   "climate change"   "left wing"
  3. Use a hyphen to exclude terms:  football  -soccer
  4. Search a range of numbers with two dots:    2008..     100..150       ..50
    1. This works great with monetary vaules, for example, $10.00..$50.00