Proquest Help (Basic Search)
When you select "Research Library" you will end up at a page that looks much like this picture. The numbers correspond to explanations of various features of the page.
Any words you type in the search box (see 5 below) will be treated as a phrase unless you connect them with Boolean Operators such as "and" or "or" (without the quotes). This is Proquest's default setting.
1 - The orange tab indicates what type of search you are using (Here we are using Basic Search). Click on the tabs to change from one type of search to another.
2 - Click on this tab and you will go to Proquest's Advanced Search. There is a separate Advanced Search help page. Some people find Proquest's Advanced Search easier to use than the Basic Search.
3 – If you are looking for a particular magazine or newspaper, Publication Search is a good way to see if the Proquest database you are searching even carries that publication. See tip 4 for information on selecting databases.
4 - Databases selected indicates which databases you are searching within Proquest. Right now, you will search "AMA Titles: Abstracts & Indexing" (which has journals published by the American Medical Association) and "Research Library" (which has a wide range of publications covering a multitude of topics). If you click on the Databases selected link, you will be taken to a page that allows you to select a multitude of databases in the Proquest family. On that page there is a "select all [Proquest] databases" option. This will search all the Proquest databases except the Historical New York Times.
5 - Type your search words here. Unlike Google, unless you separate the words with a Boolean operator such as "and," "not," or "or" (without the quotes), it will treat your search words as a phrase. Also, only the citation and the abstract will be searched for the terms. See the Advanced Search help page for tips on how to broaden the search.
6 - Use Date range to narrow your search. Click on the arrow and a drop-down menu will open with several choices. Also, the databases do not go back in time forever, so you won't be able to find the original reviews of "Gone with the Wind" or even "Star Wars," except perhaps in the Historic New York Times database.
7 - Select this box to limit your search results to full text articles. Keep in mind that you might be able to find the full text in a different online resource, such as Ebsco. Also, reference librarians will be happy to get items that are not available through the databases.
8 - Select this box to limit your search to Scholarly Journals. This will filter out newspaper articles and the like.
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