Google Scholar has a lot to offer. It offers a familiar interface, searches all sorts of scholarly content including journal articles, dissertations, academic books, and conference proceedings.
While Google Scholar can be a useful tool, it should be used with some caution. Some low quality, questionable publishers appear in Google Scholar and/or Google along with high quality journals. Beall's List, WAS a list of "potential, possible, or probably predatory scholarly open-access publishers," but it is no longer maintained by Jeffrey Beall, the librarian who founded it. It can be found on the internet archive, however.
Contact the library if you have questions about the validity of a publisher.