Slide 1
At the end of Part 1 of ProQuest Dialog: Introduction to Basic Searching, we had completed a search in the Engineering & Technology Industry category. Now, we'll choose one database to search and continue in the same online session. Remember, we had selected records to keep from the earlier search.
Slide 2
We've just conducted a cross-file search across all the databases available in the Engineering & technology industry in part 1 of Basic Search. Now, we'll search in one database. By clicking "Databases" at the top of the page, we're presented with a list of databases. We'll clear all by selecting and deselecting Select all and then scroll down and check the box for EI Compendex®. To get started in Ei Compendex, we'll click "Use selected databases."
To get database details and descriptions, we'll go to database details.
We can navigate through the database list viewing by database name in alphabetical order or viewing by industry.
Slide 3
Now in this search form specific to Ei Compendex, we'll type in our topic of interest: high definition TV. To be comprehensive we'll OR in high definition television and click on the magnifying glass.
Slide 4
On the Results page we see our search query and the number of records retrieved that fit the search criteria. Below the query box we can hyperlink to modify the search or to get search tips.
I can set up an Alert, create an RSS feed or save and store the search strategy for later or periodic use. In order to save a search strategy I will need a My Research account. To learn about My Research view the My Research module.
On the right-hand side, I can Sort results by relevance or by date, and I can narrow results by choosing ranked publication titles, document types, subjects, classification names and more.
Let's search within to find articles having to do with medical imagery in high definition TV.
Slide 5
When we click on "Search within" ProQuest Dialog takes us to the Search within results query box at the bottom of the screen. We'll enter terms using truncation with the asterisk and click Search. This time we'll control how many characters we will allow after the root stem by entering bracket, asterisk, a number for allowable characters and a closing bracket.
Slide 6
The Results page displays our search statement and shows the number of hits. We've clicked Detailed view in the title list and we can see our highlighted search terms and an icon for document type. The book indicates the record is an abstract from a book. The person in front of a paper is the icon for conference paper.
We have also sorted our results by publication date in descending order. Now, we can further refine our search by qualifying to Document type in the Narrow results by panel. We clicked the plus sign to the left of Document type to see a ranked list of document types found in our retrieved records. Now we'll click More options to browse the list.
Slide 7
Here we'll check the boxes for terms we wish to include, and we'll click Narrow my results.
Slide 8
Through this powerful tool, we have honed down to just the results we want to see. We can see what we've done and how we narrowed by document type. This criterion appears just above the titles and to the right in the Narrow results by panel under Document type.
Slide 9
ProQuest Dialog gives us an easy way to select records we wish to keep for later and view together with other records of interest we have found during the same online session. We can select records by checking boxes to the left of the titles. We see that we still have our records from the earlier search in the Engineering and Technology industry category and the five records we've selected now. The selected records remain until we logoff by clicking Exit.
Slide 10
We're ready to view our selected records so we'll click the hyperlink for Selected items and we'll choose how much of the records we wish to view.
Slide 11
If we are transactional customers, we will see an estimated cost to view the records. We'll click Continue to proceed.
Slide 12
These are our selected records. We can scroll down and read them, jump to specific records and decide what we want to do with them. ProQuest Dialog holds them for the duration of the session.
Slide 13
We can email these records to a colleague, or print, cite, export, save as file or save them to My Research, our own personal knowledge-management space in ProQuest Dialog. Let's save these records in PDF.
Slide 14
We've chosen output to PDF, the full records, and we want to include a Table of contents, our search strategy, a cover page and document numbering. We'll click Continue to proceed.
Slide 15
It's so easy to produce a highly professional record of our research work.
Slide 16
At the end of the session we'll click Exit to log off.
Slide 17
To sum up, Basic search is an easy way to get quick and relevant answers. We chose our industry and subsequently a particular database. We entered a search query and then used Search Within and Narrow results by facets.
For open truncation, we used an asterisk and we could have used a question mark to specify allowing only one more character.
We learned to control our truncation by specifying how many characters we would allow by using bracket, asterisk, a number, close bracket.
We browsed and selected records of choice to work with during the session.
We saw how easy it is to email, print out, save or export records.
Thank you for your interest in ProQuest Dialog.
