Lesson 4 - Proquest

1.  When I logged into Proquest, I was immediately drawn to the "search subject areas" portion of the page. The graphics are dynamic, the presentation is simple and the overall effect is inviting.  That said, I selected "literature" and conducted a basic search for Edith Wharton. Proquest quickly turned up 2442 results. Below this overwhelming number, however, was a list of suggested subjects including "Wharton, Edith (Person)" ; "Wharton, Edith (Person) AND American literature" and several other combinations including biography, novels and literary criticism. I selected "Wharton, Edith (Person) AND American literature" and was happy to find only 17 results. This is a fantastic feature. Not only did it make my work for this course easier, it seamlessly guided me through the process of narrowing results -- a feat often difficult to master. This feature alone (outside of the sheer depth of the Proquest archive) makes it a superior tool for public library users, students and researchers. From those 17 results, I selected an article titled Salvaging History: Modern Philosophies of Memory and Time in The Age of Innocence. 

I have always been fascinated with concepts of memory and its creation in both history and literature. I am especially interested in the way in which memory creates a pathway to identity for women and other traditionally subjugated groups. I explored the abstract of the article, which makes reference to modernity, Albert Einstein and Wharton's use of new concepts of memory and time in The Age of Innocence.  The abstract was brief and accessible, and given the refernces to other literary genres and Wharton's contemporary thinkers, is a sound tool for deciding whether or not the full text would meet a person's research needs.

Bottom line: I love Proquest. It is my favorite of the databases that I have explored thus far.

1a.  See what your challenge cohort is discovering. I reviewed the blog of a cohort doing research on black lab dogs for her son. While our searches could not have been more different, our findings and overall impressions of Proquest were quite similiar. We both did basic searches that turned up a tremendous number of results and were both able to easily narrow our results to find what we really looking to research.  Additionally, we both commented on the manner in which Proquest encourages you to narrow your results. I do plan to continue checking other students' blogs throughout this course -- it is interesting to see what other students are learning and the way that each student identifies the application of a specific database for their library's specific needs.

2.  Click the publications tab at the top of the page.  Within the publication search, I first searched youth programs. When Proquest turned up zero results, I looked closer and realized that I had only searched within the title of the publication. When I changed my search to "in publication summary" Proquest came back with zero results. So. I tried "kids." Nothing. I tried "kids" "in subject." Nothing. Slightly frustrated, I returned to the alpahabetical list, selected "L" and scrolled until I stumbled upon several library journals. I selected Library Resouces & Technical Services, selected the most recent issue and skimmed a short article titled "No Shelf Required: E-Books in Libraries."

I found this search to be as difficult as the first search was easy.  My goal was to find an article about youth programs in libraries. I was hoping that when my four searches returned zero results that Proquest would gallantly offer me support, as it had with my Edith Wharton search. No such luck. Browsing found me a general library article and a bit of deflation caused me to stop digging for such a specific query. The upside, however, is that I can now help a patron (or myself!) through the initially frustrating issue of searching with no results. I still love you, Proquest, but you're not quite the e-resource knight I had hoped for.