HIST 82B / 182B: Childhood in the US (Gudgeirsson): Google and Google Scholar tips

Google Scholar

Google Scholar includes scholarly article content, as well as chapters from authoritative books and reports. The search is more forgiving, and sometimes can help find relevant articles of use to your research. After finding some articles in Scholar, you can see how your subject matter is talked about, and revisit the databases armed with some good information and powerful search terms.

Keep in mind that full text may not always be available from Google Scholar; if you have enough time, articles that do not have accompanying full text may be requested through Interlibrary Loan.

Google

Another place to search for needed information is simply to 'Google it.'  Again, it is important to think about what results you are finding. Who is the author or sponsor, why is the information being published? Is there obvious bias? How authoritative is the source that you find?

Google gives you so many results it is difficult to know which ones are useful or reliable. Articles rise to the top of a search based on the number of times they are clicked on; this might not be the best way to choose what will be important for your research.

However, Google allows several ways for you to target your results. If you implement some of the following techniques, you will find that you can leverage the power of Google to help you find solid results for your project. Try out some of the tips below.

Get the most out of your Google search

Searching in Google can also help you uncover relevant articles for your research. The problem is, how to find results that will be helpful? 

SITE Searching

One way to target results in Google is to employ the site search. This requires you use a specific phrase before adding search terms to tell Google you only want results from a specific website or domain. The search always begins with site + colon + URL or Domain all without any spaces; next, add a space and insert your search terms.

If you use the domain .org you will get results only from libraries, archives, museums, and non-profit organizations.

If you use the domain .edu you will get results only from colleges and universities

If you use the domain .gov you will get results only from US Federal Government sites

If you use the site URL of a commercial website (.com) in the site search, you will get only results from that one website.  This is a good way to find information from sources you already trust.  Site:.NYTimes.com Space Station will get only articles only from the New York Times on the space station.  To use this effectively you need to know the actual site address of the source, you may need to look this up. 

Here are some examples of ways that you can use a site search.

• site:.org Quaker AND Abolition AND Diary would look for written primary sources (like diaries) of Quakers working in the Abolitionist movement.  The site search tells google to look for museums and archives.  When I wrote this, this search returned several primary resources from archives.
• site:.edu guadalupe AND virgin AND feminist will look for scholarly writing or work examining Our Lady of Guadalupe from a feminist perspective.  Site searching this way is not the best way to find peer reviewed articles, because those are usually found through the article publisher, rather than through universities.  But many college and individual professors publish scholarly work through smaller journals, university websites, university library collections, conferences or repositories.   Google can help you quickly find work by scholarly experts in a particular field.
• site:.nytimes.com  gender COVID 'mental health'    This search phrase tells Google that you'd like results for Covid issues related to gender and mental health found only on the New York Times website.  
• site:.gov sexual orientation workplace  This search phrase tells Google you'd like to see articles, reports, etc., from government websites that include information or policies about sexual orientation in the workplace.

Other search tips in Google

• Limit the date of your results by inserting the phrase after + colon + year or date  without any spaces
  • after:2016 vaping policies college campuses  This phrase tells Google that you'd like all your results to have been published after 2016 (note: the after:2016 phrase can come before or after your search terms)
  • You can also limit your results to a given date range by clicking on Tools under the search bar, and then Any Time under that.
• Search for an exact phrase by putting your terms in quotes when entering them in the search bar, e.g., "mental health" or "online shopping" -- placing two or three word terms in quotes will ensure you retrieve results with that exact phrase.