UpFront with NGS: Google Scholar

Showing posts with label Google Scholar. Show all posts

04 September 2015

Don't Overlook Academic/Scholarly Publications As You Research Your Family

Resources, Resources, Resources ... there can never be too many online ones that we know about and use!

We’ve often written about WorldCat, Google Books & Scholar and I just re-read The Best Websites for Finding Academic Books and Journals (July 2014) and was reminded of a few old friends and also several websites that I have never used, including Jurn. Whereas some of the mentioned best websites have a scientific slant to them, Jurn encompasses arts and humanities articles, chapters and theses.

Which reminds me to remind y’all to not overlook theses (aka dissertations) when doing your research. Masters and doctoral dissertations can be a wonderful resource for social context. For example, I searched on “North Carolina” + “Slavery” + “Dissertations” and there were many finds. A similar search where I substituted Baptist for Slavery was equally successful. I also searched on “Finnish” + “Essex County” + Massachusetts. Do put quotes about terms that might be interpreted otherwise. For example, when I searched on Finnish, it also brought up Finish and that went away when I searched on “Finnish” (using quotes).

Because theses are often focused on a very specific topic and/or location, you can get great historical context for who, what, when, where and why!

Do you have a favorite academic or scholarly-related resource for material that has greatly enhanced your family history research?

Editor’s Note: Select related Upfront with NGS posts ...

+ ProQuest Content Now Discoverable in Google Scholar (2015)

+ Internet Archive -- a FREE gem that just keeps getting better! (2015)

+ FREE Resources for Online Digitized Genealogy & Family History Books (2015)

+ OCLC & Worldcat + FamilySearch Catalog = Very Happy Genealogists! (2014)

+ NGS 2014 Family History Conference – Session T260 – Diving into Archives: Uncovering ArchiveFinder and ArchiveGrid (2014)

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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31 August 2015

ProQuest Content Now Discoverable in Google Scholar

We are often greatly challenged to determine where information of interest to us can be found! Because of this, websites or services that aggregate data from several sources can be quite useful to us.

A new and recent version of this where ProQuest content is available through Google Scholar is now alive. Back in April, it was announced ProQuest to Open Content Through Google Scholar.

Earlier this month, this effort went live, ProQuest Scholarly Content Now Discoverable in Google Scholar.

... The full text of its scholarly content – including journals and working papers – is now indexed in Google Scholar, enabling Google Scholar users to seamlessly discover and access their library’s ProQuest collections. Efficiency and productivity for both ProQuest and Google Scholar users is improved, while libraries benefit from increased usage for their subscribed collections...

Do know that in order to access any Proquest Content found in Google Scholar, you still will need to have access, typically via a University Library, to the appropriate ProQuest collection.

Did you make any neat finds?

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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12 March 2015

FREE Resources for Online Digitized Genealogy & Family History Books

Blog post about The Midwest Genealogy Center's involvement with the Family History Books Book Digitization Project, http://www.mymcpl.org/blog/family-history-library-digitization-project

As genealogists and family historians, we love to access older published books – family histories, local histories, church records, and more.

In the past we have talked about some of these projects, many of which are focused on pre-1923 books due to copyright law [see How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work -- “Therefore, the U.S. copyright in any work published or copyrighted prior to January 1, 1923, has expired by operation of law, and the work has permanently fallen into the public domain in the United States”).

+ Family History Books

+ Project Gutenburg

+ Internet Archive

+ Hathi Trust

+ Google Books

Recently, Dick Eastman (EOGN) has published two posts that seem to expand our access to digitized historical books.

+ The Majority of Books Published Before 1964 Are Free of Copyrights

+ A New Genealogy Website went Online Today: Genealogy Gophers -- More Than 40,000 Digital Genealogy Books Now Fully Searchable and Downloadable for Free

The first piece talks about the requirement to renew copyrights for materials between 1923 and 1964 when copyright renewal was required for a work to not fall into the public domain. A reader’s comment directs us to Copyright Registration and Renewal Records page at the University of Pennsylvania as a great place to check whether the copyright has been renewed for a work created in this time frame.

Additionally, the University of Pennsylvania also has a wonderfully helpful page, The Online Books Page which encompasses what its title suggests – resources for locating sources and indexes/search aids for online books.

The second piece talks about a new website, Genealogy Gophers, though, when I checked out the FAQs page, the list of “current” sources for the out-of-copyright works is the exact same as those digitized by FamilySearch (see Family History Books link above). So, at this point in time you decide which website to use. The website states that they will be adding over 60,000 additional books in the next month. It will be interesting to see what the “source” for those works is.

Regardless, such a blog post by Dick Eastman is always a good reminder to make sure that you regularly see what historical books have been digitized and placed online – hidden gems of information are often what our family history research breakthroughs rely on!

Do you know of great online digitized genealogical book collections not mentioned?

Editor’s Note: Some related Upfront with NGS posts ...

+ Internet Archive -- a FREE gem that just keeps getting better!

+ Genealogy Book Links

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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Follow NGS via Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Twitter