Bertha Smith Library
Learning to Use
ProQuest
In this tutorial, you will learn . . .
What ProQuest is,
How to access ProQuest,
How to quickly and efficiently
search Proquest, and
How to read, e-mail, print, and
download articles from ProQuest
Been through the tutorial before? Click the links to go directly to the corresponding
sections.
What is ProQuest?
ProQuest is a fully searchable online
information service that provides
access to thousands of periodicals
covering a wide variety of subjects to
meet your research needs.
ABI/INFORM
AMA Titles
Several major databases are
available through ProQuest
including:
Hoover’s Company Records
ProQuest Dissertations and Thesis - Abstracts
National Newspaper Abstracts
ProQuest Religion
Research Library
ProQuest Newspapers
Accessing ProQuest
There are two ways to access ProQuest :
On Campus
1. Find any available Library or
Computer Lab terminal,
2. Go to the desktop,
3. Double-click the “ProQuest” icon.
OR
Online
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Go to the LRS website
Click “student-login”
Type in your student ID and Password
Go to “Library Online”
Click the “ProQuest” link*
Select language and click “login”
1. Access the wireless internet on
campus through your personal
computer,
2. In the address bar of internet
explorer, type in:
http://proquest.umi.com/login
*You may have to hold CTRL while clicking if you have Internet Explorer Popup Blocker enabled
Searching ProQuest
There are several ways to search ProQuest
Basic Search
Advanced Search
Topical Search
Publication Search
Been through the tutorial before? Click the links to go directly to the corresponding
sections.
Basic Search
SearchtoBox
Databases
Dates
type
beto
searched
be Searched
Click ayour
Enter
Limits
searches
tab search
to select
to terms
a aparticular
search
here type.
database
range
The
of highlighted
dates
tab tells you
which mode you are currently in.
Basic Search
Moreresults
Document
Look
Author
Publication
Sort
for
Search
terms
type
title
by
in
type
Options
Limits searches
search to to a
Displays
results
by
specific
particular
type
author
publication
of
Citation
Limits
Click
tosearch
display
and abstract
tomore
date
or
relevance
to
document
(book,
news,
(recommended)
specific
search
options
type
of
keyword
editorial,
etc.)
Limits
search letter,
to bibliographic
publication
information and document
(magazine, journal,
summary
dissertation, etc.)
Citation and
document text
Applies search to full text of
document
Basic Search
Your results will
appear in just a
few moments.
To run a basic search of the ProQuest
databases, simply enter your search
term(s) into the search box and click “Search”
Basic Search
Limit your search in
several ways to
narrow your results:
Select the database that is
most likely to have the
material you are searching
for
Specify a range of dates to
find information from a
particular day, month, year,
decade . . . You decide!
Limit your searches to full
text articles only if you
can’t afford to wait for an
interlibrary loan or
purchase order
Narrow your searches to scholarly journals for
in-depth discussions of your topic
With all these search options,
and more, it’s easy to find
exactly what you need.
Advanced Search
Use the advanced
search to narrow your
results even more.
Now enter
Enter
your search term
in the search
“Theology”
into
box
the–
“Martin
third
lineLuther”
to limit
search results to
papers
discussing
If you don’t
want articles
Luther’s
on Martintheology.
Luther King,
Jr., change the AND
operatorselect
to AND
Finally,
a NOT
database to limit the
results to scholarly
and enter the word “King” into the
journals to find
second line. This will find all articles
professional research
with the words “Martin Luther” but
on the subject.
without “King” in them
Then search for your results . . .
Also, change the document type to
“Person” so that the name search will be
more focused
Basic and Advanced Search Tips
• Use specific terms: Entering the term “Paul” will yield thousands of articles on every subject imaginable. Try
instead “Paul the Apostle” to bring up articles referring just to him.
• Combine terms with Boolean operators: Boolean operators are a great way to refine any search. Make sure
you know how to use:
AND
OR
AND NOT
W/#
PRE/#
AND searches for the terms in the same paragraph (250 words)
• environment AND cancer
• Congress AND Iraq
Either the search words before or after OR can appear in the article
• gold OR silver
AND NOT finds articles containing the term before AND NOT, but not
the terms after AND NOT
• surfing AND NOT internet
• skiing AND NOT cross-country
Searches for terms within the specified number of words from each other.
• airport W/20 security
• export W/50 Japan*
The first search word must precede the second by the # of words to match
• U.S. PRE/20 Economic Policy
• Add phrases: Combine key words with phrases to get information efficiently. Make sure to surround phrases
with quotation marks if they are three words or longer. For example, to find articles on first amendment issues
in the music industry, you might search:
“First Amendment rights” AND music industry
Basic and Advanced Search Tips
• Some words can be truncated to broaden a search to find more information on a subject. There are two
truncation characters:
*
The symbol * is used as a right-handed truncation character only; it will find all forms of a word.
For example, searching for econom* will find "economy", "economics", economical", etc.
?
The symbol ? is used to replace any single character, either inside the word or the right end of the
word. ? cannot be used to begin a word. For example, searching for "wom?n" will find "woman" and
“women.” Searching for “t?re” will find “tire”, “tyre”, “tore”, etc.
• Search terms can also be limited to certain tags. For example, you can search for articles authored by Bruce
Ware by using the AU field as follows:
AU(Bruce Ware)
AU(Ware, Bruce) yields the same results
There are dozens of tags available including company names (CO), document languages (TX), document title
(TI), image caption (CP), etc. For a complete list of tags and their proper syntax, click the “Search Tips”
hyperlink on the ProQuest search page.
• Target your database: instead of searching all databases, limit your search to those databases that will most
likely contain the information you are looking for.
• Use date limits: if you know when an event occurred, or want information from a specific period, enter a date
range to find articles published during that time period.
• Focus your search with the “More search options” feature. By limiting the data searched, you can tightly
focus your search. For example, enter a Publication Title to limit your search to articles appearing in a specific
publication.
Topical Search
If you aren’t sure
exactly what
keywords you need to
use, try ProQuest’s
topical search. It’s a
great tool to find
material on your
research subject.
Just enter broad search term into the search box and click search.
ProQuest will suggest similar topics to the term you entered.
For example, if we enter “theology” into the search box . . .
and click “Search,” then ProQuest will suggest a variety of related fields.
Topical Search
Click “View documents”
to see all the articles
related to the subject of
theology.
Or, narrow the
subject further by
clicking “Narrow by
topic.” If we want
articles that relate
specifically to
Christian theology,
we might click
“Narrow” under
“Theology AND
Christianity.”
Narrow the search again
by selecting another
topic – try “History.”
Now click “View
Documents” to see
what articles are
available.
Topical Search
You find 75 articles
relating to Christian
theology, history,
and interpretation.
That’s a good start
for a paper on the
history of Christian
interpretation of the
Bible!
Of course, you
can narrow the
search even
more by
continuing to
click “Narrow by
topic.”
Topical Search
You can also
narrow your
search using the
Smart Search
box above
document list.
You can sort by
Topic,
by Date,
or by Publication.
Simply click the link that describes how you want to narrow your search, and
then see what documents are available.
Publication Search
If you have a particular
publication in mind you
want to search for,
Publication Search lets
you do just that.
Simply
You cantype
alsothe
browse
title in
the
publication
search box,
titles.click
“Search” and
ProQuest
willthe
attempt
Simply
click
first
to
locate
the requested
letter
of the
publication.you are
publication
looking for and
ProQuest will list all
available titles in
alphabetical order.
• Use "quotation marks" to search for an exact title
match. If you search for Science you will find all
publications with Science in the title. If you search
for "Science" you will find only the publication
titled Science.
• AND is assumed between each word. Do not
enter AND. If you search for American AND
medical, ProQuest will search for titles containing
all three words.
• Searches are not case sensitive. A search for
new york times will find the same results as a
search for New York Times.
Accessing and working with Search Results
In this last section,
we will deal with how
to access the
documents found in
your searches and
what you can do with
them.
First, we’ll do a
basic search on the
foreknowledge of
God. We only want
full-text, recent,
scholarly articles, so
our search might
look like this:
And our results
like this:
Accessing and working with Search Results
Articles can be
viewed in several
formats, depending
on your need.
Some
To
view the
document
articles
arein
its entirety,
only
click the title.
available
in
If the full
.PDF
format
text
is available,
(make
sure
the complete
you
have
article will
Adobe
come up as
Acrobat
well.
Reader)
Clicking
You can “Full
also
text”,
view only
if available,
an
will
article’s
give citation
the
same
or abstract
results
Accessing and working with Search Results
Here you can print or
email the document.
Search for other articles
Other view
Make sure to use this
by the same author or
function rather thanoptions are
by clicking
availablepublication
here
your explorer’s
these links
functions to insure a
proper layout!
The full text of the
article, if available,
begins here (including
a word-count)
The document view screen is the primary way to access your article. All relevant
information can be found here.
Topical and Publication Search Tips
• When doing a topical search, start with a broad topic word. If you are doing a
study on the resurrection of Jesus, it doesn’t do any good to try to search
“historicity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Just type in “Jesus Christ” or
“Resurrection” and begin to narrow your search from there.
• Use filters on the topic page to limit your topics to people, subjects, companies,
etc. to help narrow your focus.
• When searching for publications, partial title searches can be useful. Entering
“New York”, for example, could yield New York Times, New York Post, etc.
• Use likely key words to be in the title, and truncate them if necessary. If you are
interested in articles on history, type “history” in the search bar. Or, type “hist*” to
find other words like “historicity” or “historical.”
• The only Boolean operator that works in the publication search is OR. AND is
assumed, so if you type “God AND Theology,” ProQuest will attempt to find a title
with all three words. Use your operators carefully!
• Quotation marks search an exact title match. Use them if you know right what
you are looking for.
For further help . . .
Congratulations! You’ve completed the Bertha
Smith ProQuest Tutorial. If you have any
further questions, you can:
See the search tips section on the ProQuest search page,
 See the Guide to Searching Library Databases at any of the
on-campus computer terminals,
 Request assistance from a Library staff assitant, or
 Send questions to library@lrs.edu or call 770-484-1204
ext. 247.

Happy searching!