Searching for Sources : The Senior Research Paper

**Needs to be updated to reflect new online resources**

An Introduction to ProQuest

Where can I find sources? The WCHS Library Media Center, any local public libraries, local university libraries, and local book stores. Remember the sources won’t come to you; “seek and ye shall find”.

At our Library Media Center you will find a variety of useful sources including

• OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) – access to circulating and reference books
• The Internet – access to a ridiculous amount of various types of resources (your sources must be reputable)
• ProQuest – over 2000 scholarly journals, magazines, trade publications, newspapers, and reference/reports
• NewsBank – over 2000 newspapers, periodicals, wire services, broadcast transcripts, and digested science journals 

On-campus ProQuest Access

STEP 1: Log into a library computer using your User Name (usually firstname.lastname.05) and Password (usually your ID number).

STEP 2: Click the ProQuest icon on the Desktop. Once the ProQuest Login Page opens it will prompt you for an Account Name and Password and Select Language. Enter the following information:

Account Name: Available at Circ Desk

Password: Available at Circ. Desk

Selected Language: English

On the Basic Search page you will find tabs at the top of the page: Basic Search (which is where you are), Advanced Search, Topic Guide, Publication Search, and a small tab called “Marked Articles : 0”. Below Marked Articles, you will find two Tools links: Search Tips and Browse Topics. These can be very helpful when you are having problems wording your searches. Some Quick Search Tips are listed below:

Search Tips

·    Use "quotation marks" to search for exact phrases.

·    2 word queries (such as circus elephant ) are searched as an exact phrase by default.

·    3 word queries (such as new york orchestra ) are searched as words that need to appear in proximity to each other by default.  Which means it will search for words that appear close together n in the document.

·    Use special operators (below) to focus your query.

Boolean Operators - Boolean operators are words that are used to broaden and narrow your search. Here are a few:

AND                    Find all the words. Example: internet AND education

AND NOT          Find articles which have the first word, but not the second word. Example:Internet AND NOT  html

OR                       Find any of the words. Example: Internet OR intranet

WITHIN             Find articles where the first word appears some number of words before or after the second word.    Example: computer W/3 careers

WITHIN DOC Find articles where all the words appear within either the indexing or the article text.  Example : Internet W/DOC education

STEP 3: The Basic Search page is where you will begin your search. You may also choose to use the Advanced Search, Topic Guide or Publication Search tabs to narrow your search. In both the Basic and Advanced Searches you can check the boxes for Full text articles only or Scholarly journals, including peer-reviewed. Click About to find out what these mean. Scholarly journals or peer-review articles are generally more reputable.