Using the basic search option on Proquest to learn more about Congenital Hypothyroidism, I found 163 documents. 94 items were from scholarly journals, 3 in magazines, 72 trade publications, and 1 newspaper article. After clicking "show only full text," 105 documents remained. Unlike the other databases I have ventured through so far, Proquest does not differentiate reading level of the sources listed. In fact, some of the articles are quite difficult, especially those in the trade publications, which in this case are scientific journals such as Genomics and Genetics Weekly. Proquest provides additional suggested topics to help the search for information. In addition, this database has an alert system that will send new information to the users email address if the user wishes to sign up. Documents can be marked and saved to My Research where the user can compile the information for a bibliography, email documents, export citations, or create a webpage.
Looking under the Publications tab, I search for librarian and found 4 publications which included a Blog, The Distant Librarian, which I found interesting. I then searched for library science and discovered only one publication, Journal of Education for Library and Information Science. Under library media specialist, nothing appeared. A search for "library media" uncovered Library Media Connection. I suppose this makes sense as there are not many publications concerning library science. Is it wrong to think there should be more?
Hi, MCRC! I'll answer your last question first. Keep in mind that when you type a word or words into the Publications tab search box, you are searching for a publication title. I think if you go back & simply type in "library" or "libraries" you will get more results. I think the beauty of the Publications tab is that it allows you to see what publications are included in ProQuest, for what dates, and whether they are full text. It's also a great way to do professional reading from journals, cover to cover, or to read those periodicals unavailable at your local newsstand. ProQuest searching is pretty simple, yet yields powerful results, as it covers both popular and scholarly material. It is aimed at high school through adult, including adult researchers, so some results may be very advanced in content, such as the medical stuff you found. My Research is a nice feature. Just keep in mind that you can only save things there for the duration of your session. Once you close out, it's gone. For that reason, I recommend emailing the marked results to yourself, but that is a matter of personal preference. We hope you can find ways to use this resource with your students. Thanks for your comments!
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