Google Books
By typing “books” in the Google search box, the first or second result will be Google Books. Clicking the link will take you to the Google Books website. Google has scanned and digitized millions of books. Use many of the same search strategies discussed above to find books. Not all books retrieved will be available in full text -- meaning you can read the entire book online -- because the copyrights are still held by publishers. If the book is described as having a “snippet view” you will see very little, if anything, of the book. A “preview” will allow you to see a set number of pages in the book, but not the entire book. You can limit your results to free, full-text Google ebooks by clicking the “Search Tools” link, then the “Any books” link, then “Free Google ebooks.” Most books available in full-text are older titles that are out of copyright. However, you may still find valuable book resources in Google Books.
Google Scholar
Type “scholar” in the Google search box and the first or second result will be Google Scholar. Clicking the link will take you to the Google Scholar website. Most of the search strategies discussed above will work in Google Scholar. Here Google has included citations for millions of scholarly articles from academic publishers worldwide. An article citation consists of information about the article (title, author, publisher), but doesn’t include the entire article, or full text. In some instances you will have access to the full text of the articles retrieved. However, most of the time article links will take you to a publisher website requesting login credentials or payment to use the article, so don’t anticipate finding an abundance of free, full text in Google Scholar. As a general rule, if a link is found on the main, left portion of the page, you won’t have access to full text (there are exceptions to this). If the link is on the right side of the page, next to the citation, you will probably have access to the full text – again there are exceptions. You can increase your chances of finding full text by going to the Google Scholar settings, then clicking “Library Links” on the left side of the screen. On the next screen, search for Bakersfield College, make sure the box that appears next to Bakersfield College is checked, then save.
Now when you search, if an article is available in full text in any of the databases that BC subscribes to, you’ll see a link to the right of the article “Full Text@BC.” Click the link and it will take you to the full text article in the correct database. When doing this from off-campus, be prepared to enter your ID number when prompted.