Three Underutilized But Useful Search Tools

There are times when our students will conduct a good Google search with carefully selected terms but still not find what they’re looking for. They could go back and search again with other terms or they might try using a different search tool. Sometimes using a different search tool and looking in those results can lead students to the new information that they need. Here are three useful search tools that students often overlook.

Google Books

Google Books is a fantastic tool for students to use to locate books and search within those books. As is demonstrated in this video even if a book isn’t available to download in its entirety, students can still search within the book to determine if the book contains enough references to make it worth their time and effort to buy or borrow a copy of the book.

Your School Library

Most school libraries have access to subscription databases that students can’t access without the assistance of your school librarian. Those databases often contain resources that students won’t find through a Google search.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar can be a good search tool for high school students. Google Scholar is a great place to find articles from academic journals. Articles from academic journals aren’t the only things that students can search for on Google Scholar. Google Scholar provides search tools for locating court decisions and tools for locating patent filings. In this video I provide an overview of how to create Google Scholar alerts and in this one I demonstrate tracing the evolution of technology with Google Scholar.

Learn more about teaching search strategies.

I have a popular webinar titled Search Strategies Students Need to Know that you can watch on-demand. The Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp always includes a section on teaching search strategies. Registration is open now.