By guest blogger: Emily  Bush, Instructional Librarian

As librarians we attempt to convince students that subscription databases search as intuitively as Google – “It’s easy just insert ‘AND’ between each word, think of three different ways to say the same thing, make sure to click full text, hit search then weed your way through 300 irrelevant results OR try again.” Though several database services have changed their interfaces to look and act more like Google, students continue to Google their way through Comp I (and beyond) . So why then do we steer students away from Google, the king of searching with no heir apparent? First and foremost, students can’t access the full text of most journals and magazines through Google –– or at least not without digging into their pocketbooks. Enter Google Scholar – Google’s nerdy stepsibling hidden under Google’s “more” menu.

Google Scholar looks and acts just like Google; however, it only searches scholarly journal articles. In fact, you can search articles from the Nashville State databases through Google Scholar. To do so click on “Scholar Preferences:”

Then scroll down and choose Nashville State Community College (make sure to uncheck all the other boxes).  Save your preferences.

Now you can perform your search in Google Scholar (no ANDs, ORs, or NOTs required).The items Nashville State owns will say “Full-Text availability at NSCC.” Clicking the link will bring you to NSCC’s journal finder. Now you can click on any database with full access to the article and you’re there.