ProQuest
As Internet searching has become more popular, many companies offer their electronic databases available online. These databases serve as indexes and feature many full text articles. Such services use the Internet as a path through which they connect to the database. They are, however, only available by subscription, so access from home usually requires a password.
ProQuest is the name of a database service provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. ProQuest provides a collection of databases each of which is focused on different subjects and offers articles taken from a number of national newspapers, magazines, and journals. Each database offers abstracts, full-text articles, and some illustrations. While most of the articles are available in full-text, some are not. The ProQuest databases available through Henderson Community College are:
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Medical Sciences - ProQuest Nursing Journals—indexes articles on nursing, health, and medical subjects taken from over 250 national periodicals focused on nursing and allied health professions.
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News - ProQuest Newspapers - indexes and provides full-text articles from the New York Times. Contains articles from the past three years.
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Technology - ProQuest Computing—indexes articles dealing with computers, computer technologies and new developments in the field. The articles are taken from over 270 national periodicals.
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Education - Career and Technical Education—indexes articles dealing with vocational and technical subjects taken from over 400 national periodicals.
These ProQuest databases are available through any computer that has a Henderson Community College IP address. Off campus computers can also be used to access the ProQuest databases, but a password is required.
In addition to the links provided above, you may access ProQuest through the “Library Services” web page. On this page, move the cursor to the “Select a database” drop-down box. Open the box, move the cursor to “ProQuest” and click on the name. The ProQuest page will display.
To
select a specific database, open up the drop-down box located next to
“Database.” A list of the
three databases available through ProQuest will display. To select a database, determine which database you want, and
then click on the name of that database.
Type
your search term(s) in the search box and begin your search.
Note: ProQuest products are also available for off-campus users. To access ProQuest you need an authorization number and password. Ask at the Reference Desk for these numbers. Please note that for security reasons the UMI Company periodically changes the authorization number/password combinations.
ProQuest uses standard Windows tools.
If you are unfamiliar with these, please ask the library staff for
assistance.
ProQuest allows users to search for articles using two different search types: Basic or Advanced. For the students’ convenience, this section will describe how to use the Basic search. The red “?Help” icon found in the upper right corner of the ProQuest page provides simple, yet comprehensive instructions for each of the search types.
Instructions
for the Basic Search
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ProQuest will automatically search for your topic in all three databases unless you specify otherwise.
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Type search term(s) into the search box and click on the “Search” button. While searching, the lime green and orange line next to the search box will expand to look like a diamond and then shrink. This is to let you know that your search is being processed.
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Search terms can be connected using the Boolean operators “and,” “or,” “not,” but in ProQuest they must be written as AND, OR, AND NOT.
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After the search, ProQuest will display a list of articles found. A series of icons and captions below each citation will show how much of that article is available.
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The icon that looks like a full page means “Full Text” and the article is available.
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The icon that looks like a full page with a superimposed camera means “Text+Graphics.” This indicates the article is available in full-text with photo(s) and/or graphics.
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An icon that looks like the Adobe Acrobat logo with the caption “Page Image—PDF” means that the full article will be displayed as it appeared when published. “Page Image” articles are PDF files and require the Adobe Acrobat software to display, so they will come up on the screen slower than the “Full Text” or “Text + graphics” articles.
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The subject headings that describe an article’s content are listed as “Subjects,” and can be found in the citation to an article. They will be displayed below the title and above the line that reads “Author(s).” Please be aware that not every article in the ProQuest databases contains subject headings. If subject headings are displayed, they are active so that if you click on them, ProQuest will search for every other article in the system with that subject heading. [Please note that the subjects will not display when you chose the “Page Image—PDF” option. The subject headings only show in the other options.]
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Illustrations will display with the “Text+Graphics” option.
How to print or e-mail articles
When the “Abstract,” “Full Text,” or “Text + Graphics”
options of an article are chosen, two yellow buttons will appear in the
upper left corner of the page. These
are: “Email Article” and “Print Article.”
Click on either button as needed.
If a “Page Image—PDF” article is displayed, the normal print icon will not print out the article. You must use the print icon that is located at the top of the tool bar that appears in the PDF window.
When finished, click on the “Home” icon located at the top of your computer screen to disconnect from ProQuest.