Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Lesson 5 - Proquest

Advanced Challenge
1. This lesson had me going in circles, as I tried to follow the guidelines presented above. Using the instructions for this lesson, I entered "Les Miserables by Victor Hugo into the search window, selecting "Full text," then included the "Document Type" & "Subject" limiters. A pop-up window provided the options to include/exclude any subjects, so I excluded the unnecessary categories, limiting it to "Commentary" under the "Documents" category and "Literary Criticism" under "Subject." Because the patron/student was not interested in reviews, I excluded that option under the "Documents" category.  This search resulted in two (2) magazine articles, both of which (after a quick scan of the content) appeared to be more centered on punctuation than a literary criticism of the novel. So, I went back to the drawing board...

I amended the criteria for the "Document" category to include "Reviews" even though the instructions specifically said to exclude them. Under the same category, I opted to include "Reviews, Articles, General Information, Undefined, Feature, Blog, and Commentary." This search provided a total of 167 results (65 General Information, 46 Undefined, 41 Articles, 12 Feature, 8 Review, 5 Blog, & 2 Commentary). Using the detailed view offered, I was able to quickly ascertain whether many of these results complied with the patron's/student's request and then began deleting any that failed to meet the requirements of the patron/student.  Doing this narrowed the field extensively, however, I was unable to locate a "delete" option to rid the results of data that was not desired. I noticed, also, that each time I checked the "Subject" category, it would offer more options (birds, aviation, other really weird choices) to weed out. The 5th time I did so, leaving only the "literary criticism" the "Subject" category completely disappeared from the right column menu.

The final results of this challenge left me with 160 results, some of which were film reviews, announcements for upcoming plays/programs on this campus or that stage. Perhaps I went about the search incorrectly, but given the time spent, I feel my patron might be satisfied with searching for the specific information (literary criticism of Victor Hugo's novel, Les Miserables) within the results located. If I had the time to open every PDF to determine which truly fell into their parameters requested, I could have emailed or printed the results s/he wanted & would. My purpose in including the above options under the "Document" category was to ensure I didn't miss anything pertaining to the search, as some blogs, for example, are written by literary critics, etc. I was unsure of the General Information, Undefined, & Feature options, so included them in my search parameters.



2. This search was far less confusing than the previous search. I entered the phrase, "How libraries helped communities during and after Hurricane Sandy". Out of the 218 results, once I sorted by Publication date (most recent first), the following result answered my quest:


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* TRENDING NOW
Figueroa, MiguelAmerican Libraries46.3/4 (Mar/Apr 2015): 29-31.





Abstract (summary)

In other hospitality sectors, fast casual has advanced the growth of living-room-like flexible spaces (multiple and varied seating arrangements, easy-to-find power outlets) that accommodate social and business needs, cater to upscale tastes, and are technologically savvy. The Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities initiative has worked with cities around the world to develop a road map to resilience, including establishing a chief resilience officer, strategy development; access to private, public, and NGO partners that can help develop solutions; and membership in a network of like-minded cities.

























1 comment:

  1. I'm sorry you had a hard time locating the literary criticism. The quickest way I could figure out how to do it was to do the search for Les Miserables and then on the limits on the right hand side, so go to subject click "more options" and then select "literary criticism"--15 results or so came up. Hope this helps.

    Thanks for your work,
    Julie

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