Simply put, Google Scholar is the academic version of Google. The types of materials indexed include: "articles, theses, books, abstracts, and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites." It will link you to materials available through libraries with which you are affiliated, and it provides features for organizing and maintaining your research. (Source)
Located in the top-left corner, the main menu is your primary point of navigation to make changes to your account or settings, and to access some of Google Scholar’s tools and features. My profile allows you to set up a researcher profile in order to appear as a verified person in Google Scholar and to track citations to your published research. My library refers to your saved articles and records.
Customize your search and result settings, but most importantly set your Library Links to indicate when access is available via SAIT Library. If you're on the SAIT network, the Library will automatically appear in the "Library Links" section. If you're affiliated with any other institutions, type the institution name into the search bar to add access links for these schools.
Find info on classic articles and top rated publications across disciplines and in different languages. Browse publications and articles within them to see which are considered the best in your field!
Want to know if the Library subscribes to a certain publication? Search here to see if it's in our collection.
Use the facets in the left sidebar to narrow your results. The date range allows you to view publications created since a particular date or within a certain time frame, and you can adjust your results to be sorted by date as opposed to relevance. Found something that's not available through SAIT? Submit a request here to borrow from another library.
Want to refine your results even further? Use Library Search for even more facets/limiters, or explore the Library's subject specific databases.
Found the elusive "perfect article"? Click the "Cited by" link below the record to view articles and books which cite that one. The "Related Articles" link will show results similar to the given search result.
Tip: search for any book or article in Google Scholar (even if you found it elsewhere) to see who's cited it!
Use the "Cite" link to generate citations in selected styles or export to a citation management tool. Be sure to "Save" any documents that you'd like to revisit or find easily. Once you've saved any articles/documents, you can view "My library" and create labels to organize saved articles by theme, topic, use, etc.
Want to stay up to date on a particular search? Use the "Create alert" function (located at the bottom of the facets on the left side of your results page) to set up email alerts for newly published articles/books matching your search criteria. Manage or delete your alerts at any time on the "Alerts" page of your profile.
For more information on using Google Scholar, visit the Google Scholar About page.
Want to search for a specific author or title? Use the "author" and "title" operators, followed by a colon:
Or open the "Advanced Scholar Search" function by clicking the down arrow in the search bar.