Google Scholar, Google’s search engine for scholarly material, turns 10 on Monday (Nov 18). It has become a major alternative to commercial library databases in those 10 years, so much so that Langsdale and many other libraries have linked their own holdings to it (see how you can connect UB’s holdings to Google Scholar) or even provided a Google Scholar search widget on their home pages.
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| image courtesy of Google |
Google Scholar has leveraged Google’s robust algorithms to its advantage, making it the largest index of scholarly materials, and over the years it has added features for authors to create profiles and track their citations (see example).
Here at Langsdale, we see the value of GS’ size and search strength and include it in our research recommendations. However, too many students and faculty who don’t connect GS with our holdings are often stymied at GS because of article costs. Connecting with UB’s collections allows users to access those materials for free.
The latest issue of Nature has an interesting interview with Google Scholar’s co-creator and current manager, Anurag Acharya, who describes both the history and future of the engine.