Expanding Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a far-reaching service, one that hasn't yet reached its full potential. Let's look at a number of ways that research professionals can increase access to the Google Scholar database.

Add Google Scholar to Your Website

Any website can add a Google Scholar search box to its web pages. This enables site visitors to search Google Scholar from your website, without exiting and opening the Google Scholar site.

To add Google Scholar to your site, follow these steps:

1.	Go to scholar.google.com/scholar/scholarsearch.html, shown in Figure 7.8. Figure 7.8. Getting ready to add Google Scholar to your web page. [View full size image]
2.	Enter your email address into the first box.
3.	Choose a search box style.
4.	Check the terms of service agreement.
5.	Click the Continue button.
6.	When the resulting page of HTML code appears, as shown in Figure 7.9, copy the code listing. Figure 7.9. Copy the HTML code into the code for your web page. [View full size image]
7.	Move to your HTML editing program, and paste the copied code into the code for your web page.

Google Scholar for Libraries

As you might have gathered from reading through this chapter, Google Scholar is particularly useful for school libraries. There are two ways that a library can participate in Google Scholarby offering Google Scholar access to library users, and by making library materials available to the Google Scholar database.

To make Google Scholar available to a library's patrons, the library needs to contact their link resolver vendor. In some instances, Google Scholar is now an option on the vendor's configuration pages; in other instances, you may need to set up specific procedures. When you've joined the Library Links program, all on-campus users will see FindIt @ links to library materials within the standard Google Scholar search results.

To include your library's materials in the Google Scholar database (so that they appear when a user clicks the Library Search link next to a search result), the library has to join the OCLC Open WorldCat program. You can also contact Google directly for more information at scholar-library@google.com.

And here's something all libraries will appreciate. Both the Library Links and Library Search programs are completely free! No budget demands, here.

Google Scholar for Publishers

If you're a publisher of scholarly content and would like to see your works included in the Google Scholar database, you should contact Google at scholar-publisher@google.com. You can opt to provide full-text articles, abstracts, or even subscription-controlled contentit's your choice.