Slide 1
Use the ProQuest Dialog™ free practice demo to become familiar with all that ProQuest Dialog has to offer.
Slide 2
What is ProQuest Dialog free practice and how will it help you? This demo gives you an opportunity to learn how to navigate the site and become familiar with all its features and advantages. It's a chance for you to hone your searching skills and be ready to take advantage of this innovative service when you start using it for real. You will be able to move quickly and get the answers you need. This module shows the four demo databases, Basic and Advanced searches in Education databases and Medicine databases and also provides practice exercises.
Slide 3
Test-drive ProQuest Dialog and find out why it puts you at an advantage to spend more time on answers than on constructing search strategies. Hone your searching skills. Try amazing features such as the date slider, and Narrow results by options. See how easy it is to select appropriate records and print out or save results. The demo site is free, so try topics of interest to you in the fields of education and medicine.
Slide 4
There are three education files and one biomedical file. These practice files contain slices of information covering data published between 2005 and 2010.
Slide 5
To log on to free practice, go to ProQuest Dialog Customer Information and click the GO button.
Slide 6
This is the ProQuest Dialog Customer Information site. Under ProQuest Dialog Demonstration, click GO to go to the Home page screen.
Slide 7
When you login you go to the Home Page. You can search all four demo databases using ProQuest Dialog Demonstration or click the title of the database to search one. Click the Information icon to see a description of each database.
Slide 8
This module is divided into sections, click the one you want to view.
Slide 9
There are three education files, Australian Education Index, British Education Index and ERIC. These practice files contain slices of information covering data published between 2005 and 2010.
Slide 10
In this first search we'll use the three education databases. Click the +sign next to Education to see all databases in the category. You can click Search Education industry to search all databases in the category or check the databases you want to search and click Use selected databases at the top of the screen. Now you're ready to start a search in these three databases.
Slide 11
On the Basic Search screen enter your search terms. We'll search for web-based training. Note that train and base are followed by the asterisk to pick up all forms of the word. See too that we're searching for web hyphen base and web base as two
words.
Slide 12
ProQuest Dialog returns with results, in this case some six thousand of them. There are several ways you can narrow your search. One is Search within. Click Search within. ProQuest Dialog takes you to the Search within box at the bottom of the screen where you may enter term(s). We'll add corporate to search for corporate web-based training.
Slide 13
The Results page provides several ways you can narrow your search. You can also narrow results by Source type, publication title, document type, subject terms, companies and more. Narrowed results by terms appear in RANKed order by field, and you can browse terms just to look for more vocabulary. You can also narrow by date using the date slider or by entering a specific date range. Just drag the handles at the bottom of the slider to the date range you want — here 2009-2010 — and click Update.
Slide 14
On the Results page you can also change the way the records are sorted. Currently they are sorted by relevance, but you can change that to most recent first or oldest first. Note the source types listed in ranked order. Click one of them to narrow further. Click the Preview button to get a quick view of a record, with some indexing shown. Or click a hyperlinked title to view a record in full or choose to look at just its citation/abstract.
Slide 15
Click the Preview button to get a quick view of a record, with some indexing shown. Or click a hyperlinked title to view a record in full.
Slide 16
This is a full record from one of the abstract and indexed records. The bottom of the record shows the indexing. Click See similar items in the sidebar for more like this record.
Slide 17
At the top of the screen you see the number of searches you have created. Let's modify the first search we did. Click the Recent searches link and check the one you want to modify.
Slide 18
Your original search displays and you can add new terms in this example effective.
Slide 19
Now you have a new search, also saved in recent searches. You can then continue to narrow your search from here.
Slide 20
In this next example we'll search the Advanced Search form in ERIC. This database comes from the United States Department of Education and covers the entire field of education. The practice database covers data between 2005 and 2010.
Slide 21
From the previous search, click change to return to the list of databases. Click the database you want to search, here ERIC.
Slide 22
From the previous search, click change to return to the list of databases. Click the title of the database you want to search, here ERIC To start an Advanced Search.
Slide 23
To start an Advanced Search, click Advanced and then from the dropdown box, click Advanced Search. You can also click Advanced Search above the Basic Search box.
Slide 24
The Advanced Search form contains query boxes along with the option to qualify to fields in the drop-down menus. You can also use dropdown boxes to AND or OR more terms. Notice Limit to check boxes and date range drop-down menus, followed by Document Type and Education Level.
Enter search terms in the first Advanced Search box. In this example use self pace with an asterisk, the OR connector and self-pace with a hyphen. Narrow to the document title by selecting it from the drop-down box. Enter your next terms learn OR instruct with asterisks to retrieve all forms of the words. Notice these terms are connected to box 1 with the AND connector. From the drop-down box, you will look for these terms in all fields. Next select a date range from the drop-down box—the last 3 years. Now Preview Record Counts.
Slide 25
You can see the number of records retrieved under the Recent searches tab. To limit to adults, type adult in row 3. You do not need an asterisk if you just want adult or adults as ProQuest Dialog looks for both singular and plural. Click Search to go to the results screen.
Slide 26
To see the complete record, click the title of the record. To see multiple records, check the box next to each title and click Selected terms.
Slide 27
A nice feature is the ability to translate the abstracts into other languages. Click Translate and select the language to translate from in this example, English and translate to German.
Slide 28
The abstract is now translated into German. To undo the translation, dick the Undo Translation link. You can Save the records to My Research, email, print, cite, export or save as file. You can also add tags.
Slide 29
There is one checked item at the top of the screen. Click Save to My Research to save your records in one place. Put your username and password in and click sign in to save your record.
Slide 30
You now have some options. Click the Medicine button to review Basic and Advanced searches in the medicine databases. Click Education to review the education searches. Click Wrap Up to review what you've learned and try the sample exercises.
Slide 31
The following example shows the use of the Basic Search form in MEDLINE. This database comes from the United States National Library of Medicine and covers the entire field of medicine. The practice database covers data between 2005 and 2010.
Slide 32
From the Select Databases page, click MEDLINE Demo to search this database or check its title. You can search all four demo databases by checking All Databases.
Slide 33
The Basic Search form allows you to enter a one-line search query in the query box. As you type in words, ProQuest Dialog suggests terms. In phrases, the logical operator AND is assumed, so ProQuest Dialog interprets the statement entered here as multiple and sclerosis, somewhat broader than if you entered the phrase in quotation marks. Click the magnifying glass or hit <Enter> to run the search.
Slide 34
ProQuest Dialog returns with results, in this case some 14 thousand of them. There are several ways you can narrow your search. One is Search within. Click Search within. ProQuest Dialog takes you to the Search within box at the bottom of the screen where you may enter term(s). Quotation marks around the search terms will search them as a phrase.
Slide 35
The Results page provides additional ways you can narrow your search. You can narrow results by publication title, document type, MeSH subjects, authors and more. Narrow results by terms appear in RANKed order by field, and you can browse terms just to look for more vocabulary. You can also narrow by date using the date slider or by entering a specific date range. Just drag the handles at the bottom of the slider to the date range you want, in this example, 2010, and click Update.
Slide 36
From your results list, click the Preview button to get a quick view of a record, with some indexing shown. Or click a hyperlinked title to view a record in full or choose to look at just its citation.
Slide 37
Click the title and the entire record displays. Click show all to see the rest of the abstract. The indexing including other terms that might be useful and links to authors are available.
Slide 38
This example shows the use of the Advanced Search form in MEDLINE. This database comes from the United States National Library of Medicine and covers the entire field of medicine. The practice database covers data between 2005 and 2010.
Slide 39
To search in one database, click Change at the top of the screen. Click MEDLINE demo to search this database.
Slide 40
In MEDLINE, clicked Advanced search from the dropdown box or above the search box.
Slide 41
The Advanced Search form contains query boxes along with the option to qualify to fields in the drop-down menus. There is a top line along with additional query boxes to AND or OR more terms. Notice Limit to check boxes and date range drop-down menus, followed by More options below for Medical Subject Heading (MeSH), CAS® Registry Number, Authors and Author affiliation query and look-up features. Press Preview Result Counts.
Slide 42
You have created your first search set. Press Clear Form , enter terms to create search set 2 and press Preview result counts.
Slide 43
The Recent searches tab shows search sets 1 and 2. Enter S1 and S2 to combine the concepts and press Search.
Slide 44
Results return. You can sort results or search within or narrow results by criteria on the right panel.
Slide 45
Back on the Advanced Search page you'll find additional Limits you can apply. Enter search terms and scroll down to Age Group and check off boxes for Aged.
Slide 46
From the Results page you can narrow results by choosing terms from ranked lists. Check the plus sign for Major MeSH.
Slide 47
A ranked list of Major MeSH descriptors opens. Check boxes to include or exclude terms and press Apply.
Slide 48
Retrieval has been narrowed by the criteria shown above the first title and on the right panel under Major MeSH. Select records to store to view later. ProQuest Dialog holds the records selected for the duration of the session. You have selected six records and now you want to look at them. Click Selected items.
Slide 49
Display options appear. Click the radio button for the view you wish to see and press Display.
Slide 50
Finally, ProQuest Dialog gives you the option to save certain records permanently to your own My Research account. This will come in handy when you are doing actual searches in your own ProQuest Dialog account.
Slide 51
Again you have more options Click the one that best meets your needs.
Slide 52
To sum up what you learned about ProQuest Dialog free practice: it is important to try out searches on the demo site so you can get familiar with Basic and Advance Search options. Remember that the demo site is not the whole ProQuest Dialog, but a portion of three education databases and one biomedical file. Test out the sort option and try narrowing results using "Narrow results by." Finally, have a go at the practice exercises.
Slide 53
Click the link below to go to sample exercises to try in ProQuest Dialog demo databases. Once you have completed the searches, check your answers.
