Nationwide Glitch Affects Google Scholar


Recently the “Library Links” settings used by Google Scholar researchers across North America inexplicably disappeared.  To understand the issue at hand, a brief explanation of this customizable search feature is in order.

Google Scholar indexes articles, theses, books, conference proceedings and technical reports that Google considers to be scholarly.  Some materials are available in full-text; others are not.  On the Google Scholar search page https://scholar.google.com/ in “Settings,” users can search and save the name of their home institution library and consortium under “Library Links.” This customization triggers a “Find It” link to appear on the search results page and allows users to determine if free, full-text is provided by their home library such as The University of Akron or OhioLINK.

If you had these options set previously, be sure to reset them according to the steps below.  If you would like to start using this feature, follow these same steps.

  1. https://scholar.google.com/
  2. Settings
  3. Library Links
  4. Search for University of Akron and OhioLINK and add them to your links
  5. Select Save button

Note:  Some browsers require cookies to be enabled for this feature to work.

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