Do you find searching the web with Google frustrating?  Have you entered keywords and received off target hits, ads at the top of the list, and links to unreliable sources that you don't have time to scroll through? 

Are you searching for scholarly articles but missing them among the clutter? I have two Google tips to make your search on Google better and it includes using a citator on Google Scholar for those articles. 

Using these two tips should make your research on Google just a little bit easier to navigate.

First tip: Library Links

In Google Scholar, you can narrow your search to specific institutions by selecting Settings, then scrolling to, library links, to search in up to five institutions of your choice.

If you are on campus, Google Scholar automatically uses your location to search in the UW-campus libraries system, linking you to full-text articles. You may have already used Google Scholar for this purpose. 

You can also search additional university libraries (e.g. Harvard, University of Michigan, or Oxford) to search for what is available in their libraries. 

Unfortunately, unlike a UW-campus search, you will not receive links to the full-text of an article from other institutions, but you can order a copy of the article using the Law Library's Document Delivery service. 

Here's how to setup library links in Google Scholar:

  1. Go to Google Scholar at http://scholar.google.com.
  2.  Select the menu (three lines at the top of the left-hand side of the screen) and then click on "Settings."
  3.  From the drop-down list, select "Library links."
  4. Type the full name of your institution into the pop-up menu box, and check the boxes below that have your library's name.
  5. Save your changes.

Once set, Google Scholar will only search within those institution's libraries.  

Second tip: Google Scholar Button Browser ExtenSION

The Google Scholar Button provides an additional pop-up from your Google search which lists articles and includes a "Find it at the UW" button to the UW library catalog. The pop-up will also have the cite and cited by features from Google Scholar included in the pop-up box.

To use the Google Scholar Button:

  1. Add the Google Scholar Button as a browser extension on Chrome or FireFox.
  2. Find the extension in your browser bar or under "Extensions" in your browser settings.
  3. After a search on Google, select the Google Scholar Button from your browser bar to see the pop-up reference above.

Submitted by Jenny Zook, Reference Librarian on April 20, 2022

This article appears in the categories: Law Library

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