Paige Alfonzo - Teaching Google Scholar: A Practical Guide for Librarians

Teaching Google Scholar

Practical Guides for Librarians

About the Series

This innovative series written and edited for librarians by librarians provides authoritative, practical information and guidance on a wide spectrum of library processes and operations.

Books in the series are focused, describing practical and innovative solutions to a problem facing todays librarian and delivering step-by-step guidance for planning, creating, implementing, managing, and evaluating a wide range of services and programs.

The books are aimed at beginning and intermediate librarians needing basic instruction/guidance in a specific subject and at experienced librarians who need to gain knowledge in a new area or guidance in implementing a new program/service.

About the Series Editor

The Practical Guides for Librarians series was conceived by and is edited by M. Sandra Wood, MLS, MBA, AHIP, FMLA, Librarian Emerita, Penn State University Libraries.

M. Sandra Wood was a librarian at the George T. Harrell Library, the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, for over thirty-five years, specializing in reference, educational, and database services. Ms. Wood worked for several years as a development editor for Neal-Schuman Publishers.

Ms. Wood received an MLS from Indiana University and an MBA from the University of Maryland. She is a fellow of the Medical Library Association and served as a member of MLAs Board of Directors from 1991 to 1995. Ms. Wood is founding and current editor of Medical Reference Services Quarterly , now in its thirty-fifth volume. She also was founding editor of the Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet and the Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries and served as editor/coeditor of both journals through 2011.

Titles in the Series

1. How to Teach: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Beverley E. Crane
2. Implementing an Inclusive Staffing Model for Todays Reference Services by Julia K. Nims, Paula Storm, and Robert Stevens
3. Managing Digital Audiovisual Resources: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Matthew C. Mariner
4. Outsourcing Technology: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Robin Hastings
5. Making the Library Accessible for All: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Jane Vincent
6. Discovering and Using Historical Geographical Resources on the Web: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Eva H. Dodsworth and L. W. Lalibert
7. Digitization and Digital Archiving: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Elizabeth R. Leggett
8. Makerspaces: A Practical Guide for Librarians by John J. Burke
9. Implementing Web-Scale Discovery Services: A Practical Guide for Librarians by JoLinda Thompson
10. Using iPhones and iPads: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Matthew Connolly and Tony Cosgrave
11. Usability Testing: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Rebecca Blakiston
12. Mobile Devices: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Ben Rawlins
13. Going Beyond Loaning Books to Loaning Technologies: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Janelle Sander, Lori S. Mestre, and Eric Kurt
14. Childrens Services Today: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Jeanette Larson
15. Genealogy: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Katherine Pennavaria
16. Collection Evaluation in Academic Libraries: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Karen C. Kohn
17. Creating Online Tutorials: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Hannah Gascho Rempel and Maribeth Slebodnik
18. Using Google Earth in Libraries: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Eva Dodsworth and Andrew Nicholson
19. Integrating the Web into Everyday Library Services: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Elizabeth R. Leggett
20. Infographics: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Beverley E. Crane
21. Meeting Community Needs: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Pamela H. MacKellar
22. 3D Printing: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Sara Russell Gonzalez and Denise Beaubien Bennett
23. Patron-Driven Acquisitions in Academic and Special Libraries: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Steven Carrico, Michelle Leonard, and Erin Gallagher
24. Collaborative Grant-Seeking: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Bess G. de Farber
25. Story Time Success: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Katie Fitzgerald
26. Teaching Google Scholar: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Paige Alfonzo
27. Teen Services Today: A Practical Guide for Librarians by Sara K. Joiner & Geri Swanzy

Teaching Google Scholar

A Practical Guide for Librarians

Paige Alfonzo

Practical Guides for Librarians, No. 26

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Published by Rowman & Littlefield

A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.rowman.com

Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB

Copyright 2016 by Rowman & Littlefield

All images created by the author unless otherwise noted.

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Alfonzo, Paige, 1985 author.

Title: Teaching Google Scholar : a practical guide for librarians / Paige Alfonzo.

Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2016] | Series: Practical guides for librarians ; no. 26 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016012360 (print) | LCCN 2016032089 (ebook) | ISBN 9781442243583 (paperback) | ISBN 9781442243590 (eBook) | ISBN 9781442243590 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Google Scholar. | ResearchMethodologyStudy and teaching (Higher) | Information literacyStudy and teaching (Higher) | Academic librariesRelations with faculty and curriculum. | Web applications in libraries. | Library orientation for college students.

Classification: LCC ZA3075 .A46 2016 (print) | LCC ZA3075 (ebook) | DDC 025.04252071/1dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016012360

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Preface

There is no denying the popularity of Google Scholar among academics. Researchers, librarians, and students alike have realized the utility of the search engine in academic work. Even publishers and content vendors are now opening their pay walls to Google Scholars web crawlers. While Google Scholar will not report their exact usage numbers, estimates place it around 100 million to 160 million queries per day, and while Anurag Acharya (Google Scholars cocreator) states he cannot give usage metrics, he does assert that the number is very very large (Van Noorden, 2014). When I worked as an academic librarian, I noticed that many of my students and faculty members were turning to Google Scholar as their first research stop and were requesting assistance on how to use the tool more efficiently. This need inspired me to develop my own Google and Google Scholar information-literacy sessions designed to meet the needs of researchers and students at my university.