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Getting Connected: Graduate Students and the WSU Libraries

Setting Up Your Google Scholar and Using It with WSU Libraries Off-Campus Access Options

Go to scholar.google.com and select the hamburger menu (three short parallel lines) in the upper left:

Screenshot of Google Scholar home page

Then select  Settings, and then select Library links and do a search for Washington State University and select all options (except the ones for WSU campuses other than your own if you see any ;-) Note that I have also selected Open WorldCat; this will offer you the chance to move from the freely available Open WorldCat to the WSU Libraries WorldCat Discovery catalog (this is a great resource for locating books not available in Search It or via Summit and is linked in the Libraries Search It catalog). Open WorldCat should be there by default, but if it is not just search and add the links for the WSU Libraries, then do another search for Open WorldCat and add it then.

Example:

screenshot of Google Scholar settings with Library Links options open

While you are on the Settings page, why not change your Search Results settings to show 20 results instead of the default ten. Also, if you click on the Account link you will see a checked option for "Signed-in off-campus access links." This is provided by Google Scholar, not the WSU Libraries, and basically remembers your WSU log-on credentials in certain circumstances even if you are off-campus.

Every so often you may need to re-do these settings if you are not seeing the FindIt@WSU button in your results (sometimes a browser update or history/cookies flush erases your settings) - note also that if you flush your cookies automatically your setting won't be saved. Also note that the Find It @ WSU button will not show up for every result.

Example Search

  • The Find It @ WSU link circled in red (there are other examples) will take you to the item in the WSU Libraries catalog, Search It (not all results have one). Note that if you are not on campus you will need to sign in via your WSU network ID to get access to the article if you are not already using the WSU VPN (GlobalConnect) or The Libraries proxy bookmarklet or LibKey Nomad services
  • The link circled in blue is a link to an open access (no cost, no sign-in) version of the article, housed in an institutional or disciplinary repository, or sometimes available on its original journal platform.
  • The blue article title links in the result list are direct links to the articles via their publisher platforms. If you are off-campus and want to access an article, use one of our three off-campus access options (see above) to get access to the article. Note: if the WSU Libraries does not have access to an article our off-campus access options will not work and you will need to use Interlibrary Loan.
  • The link circled in silver is freely available; note that it is not a link to the book itself, but to a review published in the Wilson Quarterly.
  • The links circled in way-too-dark green vary - links in those positions can be free access (like the silver and blue circled examples) or links from publisher platforms (the dark green circled examples), or links from academic networking sites like ResearchGate or Academia.edu.

Google Scholar search results for "voter turnout" with access links circled

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