Google and library tools do different things in different ways.
Content
- Google indexes public websites - content that doesn't require a login or subscription. This can be anything from major websites like Wikipedia or the New York Times to personal websites or blogs.
- Library tools (the library catalog and databases) index scholarly material accessed through library subscriptions. This generally includes academic books, articles, and videos, as well as theses and dissertations. This content is mostly peer reviewed and written by scholars. Because access is limited to subscribers, much of this content is not discoverable or accessible through Google.
Searching
- Google makes lots of assumptions and guesses about what you're looking for. These are based on what other people have clicked, as well as what Google thinks it knows about you based on location and prior behavior. Sometimes theses guesses are helpful; other times they are not. The most popular or frequently-visited sites tend to show up toward the top of the page, which can limit your access to less influential ideas or sources.
- Library tools don't make a lot of guesses or assumptions - they usually look for the keywords you enter (some also include synonyms) and display all the results, sorted by either relevance (how often the words you enter show up) or currency (most recent sources first). Library search tools often include powerful filtering options, allowing you to specify specific types of materials, date ranges, subject categories - even, in some databases, things like the methodology or population involved in a particular study.
As a Research Tool
- Library tools - the catalog and research databases - are the best place to find:
- Scholarly articles
- Scholarly books
- Dissertations and theses
- Scholarly videos
- Google can be useful for research in a few ways:
- Finding information on particular authors
- Looking up background information in Wikipedia or from news sources
- Finding gray literature, which are sources produced by reputable scholars but that aren't published thorugh traditional channels. These can include conference presentations, preprints (early versions of papers), reports or policy papers from organizations or research groups, and blogs or social media posts from scholars.
