Google Scholar is a search engine that specifically searches scholarly literature and academic resources.
There is overlap between the content in Google Scholar and the library's individual databases. Also, many citations in Google Scholar will link to full text in the library's databases or in publicly available databases. But Google Scholar will not contain everything that is in the library's databases.
Google Scholar is useful as a jumping off point for your research, but to do in-depth research, you'll need to use a subject specific database provided by the library. If you are not sure which resource to use, use our databases by subject list or take a look at a research guide on your topic.
Using Advanced Search will help you get better results. You can be more specific with keywords, dates, authors, etc.
Click the menu (3 lines) in the upper left corner to access the Advanced Search form.
In order for Google Scholar to work best you must set your Google Scholar settings to access the VPCC library collections. This allows access to some of our databases through Scholar. If you don't add our resources, you'll have access to many fewer articles.
See the document below for instructions on how to add our resources to your settings.
Look for one of the following on the title line on the search results list.
and click on one of them to access and view the article.
If you do not see any of these links try clicking on the article title in the citation. You may gain access to the article here, but if not, don't despair and don't pay for it! In many cases, a librarian may be able to find it for you. Use Ask a Librarian to send us the citation or submit a request through interlibrary loan.