You can find any university’s library by googling , and somewhere on that page will be their search engine—which searches every service they have a subscription to. For example, Iowa State’s library page has the search box front and center on the main page.
The main point is that you can typically use the search engine as a non-student, but the results will just be the citations instead of the full article. If you want the full articles, you can often just go to the library and use a computer there to get access (true of WUSTL for sure).
As a side note, I think most libraries (at least Iowa State) will tell you if they have the full article in their search results for nonstudents so you can avoid making unnecessary trips.
No, that is not what the principal search box at most university libraries does.
Thanks for the condescending first paragraph, but the reason that I didn’t look myself was that I doubted that I would recognize the search feature when I saw it, because your original description sounded much, much worse than google scholar. Yes, there would be some value in only searching items that you can access, but only searching items that you subscribe to sounds like a terrible trade-off. Once you’ve found the article, checking the subscription status before going to campus is useful.
No, that is not what the principal search box at most university libraries does.
Assuming you select “articles” instead of “all” or “books” in the dropdown menu, this is how it’s always worked for me—admittedly small sample size.
Thanks for the condescending first paragraph...
I wan’t trying to be condescending. My time is scarce, and I didn’t want to waste it doing something you could easily do for yourself (though I did meet you halfway and give one link). Please don’t assume that I’m intentionally being mean, especially when I’m offering help.
Yes, there would be some value in only searching items that you can access, but only searching items that you subscribe to sounds like a terrible trade-off.
In practice, searching through a university service has found me more relevant results quicker than using google scholar, which is the reason I prefer it. Searching through less items is often a feature rather than a bug when less items means less irrelevant items—which is often the issue I have with google scholar’s results (full disclosure, I don’t use scholar often so it may have improved). The key is that the library subscribes to enough services so that you aren’t really limited in any way—which is at least the case at WUSTL and ISU in my experience.
I don’t follow your first paragraph. Could you point to the search engines at ISU and WUStL?
You can find any university’s library by googling , and somewhere on that page will be their search engine—which searches every service they have a subscription to. For example, Iowa State’s library page has the search box front and center on the main page.
The main point is that you can typically use the search engine as a non-student, but the results will just be the citations instead of the full article. If you want the full articles, you can often just go to the library and use a computer there to get access (true of WUSTL for sure).
As a side note, I think most libraries (at least Iowa State) will tell you if they have the full article in their search results for nonstudents so you can avoid making unnecessary trips.
No, that is not what the principal search box at most university libraries does.
Thanks for the condescending first paragraph, but the reason that I didn’t look myself was that I doubted that I would recognize the search feature when I saw it, because your original description sounded much, much worse than google scholar. Yes, there would be some value in only searching items that you can access, but only searching items that you subscribe to sounds like a terrible trade-off. Once you’ve found the article, checking the subscription status before going to campus is useful.
Assuming you select “articles” instead of “all” or “books” in the dropdown menu, this is how it’s always worked for me—admittedly small sample size.
I wan’t trying to be condescending. My time is scarce, and I didn’t want to waste it doing something you could easily do for yourself (though I did meet you halfway and give one link). Please don’t assume that I’m intentionally being mean, especially when I’m offering help.
In practice, searching through a university service has found me more relevant results quicker than using google scholar, which is the reason I prefer it. Searching through less items is often a feature rather than a bug when less items means less irrelevant items—which is often the issue I have with google scholar’s results (full disclosure, I don’t use scholar often so it may have improved). The key is that the library subscribes to enough services so that you aren’t really limited in any way—which is at least the case at WUSTL and ISU in my experience.