Union Technologist #32
November 1998

Instant Access to Newspapers and Magazines

Do you need to update text book information that is out-of-date? Are you in a graduate course that requires a research paper? Are you looking for new ideas pertaining to your subject area and student needs? Searching a free, but unstructured resource such as the Web can be time consuming and difficult to assess in quality. Edited periodicals provide a more authoritative means of getting current information. Now you can find, read and print these articles without leaving your computer.

The school district has purchased UMI's ProQuest Direct access to more than 800 magazines, newspapers and educational journals. You can search for words in the text of every article, search the predefined subject headings or browse the contents of a specific publication. All this from any computer that can browse the Internet, no matter where it is located.

Getting access

  1. Go to the Educational Resources Library Web Resources page on the Internet at:
    http://www.chuh.org/edresources/links.lasso
  2. The first time you use ProQuest Direct you must setup the account. Your account information is then stored in a special browser file called a cookie. If you are directly connected to the school network or have dialed in using HeightsNET your password information will be automatically entered. If you are connected through another internet provider you will be asked for a password. The password is provided by the building media specialist.
  3. You can choose to limit your searches to a periodical collection chosen for elementary, middle or high school students. For professional searches, currently use the high school collection. We have not yet resolved a problem with the breadth of the professional collection.
  4. You can further limit your searches to specific types of resources on the next screen. You can start by searching all resource types, but return to limit the types later if you are getting too many irrelevant articles.

Searching by Word

The initial screen allows you to search by the full text of every article in the selected databases. The default search is for a single word or phrase. You can search for words that are not phrases by separating the words with AND or OR. These are called boolean operators. AND allows you to require that both words be somewhere on the page (but not necessariy next to each other as a phrase would require). OR allows you to search for a article that has either word anywhere in the article.

The advanced search allows you to further limit how and where the words will match. For example you can limit your search to a specific periodical.

Searching by Topic

Choosing Search by Topic provides a predefined list of topics that lead to specific subject headings that UMI have assigned to each article. This allows you to quickly locate articles that are deal with the topic of interest to you without having to come up with the words that match what is contained in the article.

The Teacher Topics heading leads to current articles for many predefined educational topics. You can keep up with current research in your professional interests by checking the topic every few weeks. The most recent articles will display at the top of the list. New articles are added daily, although not to every topic.

Searching by Publication

Type in all or part of the title of a publication to get a list of publication that match. Selecting a publication name will provide a list of all issues that are available. Some older issues may be annotated but not available as full text. Be careful of the exact wording of a publication title. For example, Cleveland's newspaper is the "Plain Dealer" not the "Cleveland Plain Dealer". The Plain Dealer is currently searchable back to 1995.

If you type a question mark "?" you will get a list of all the publications in the databases you have currently selected.

Classroom Uses

As a registered user of ProQuest you can print out or e-mail articles for other staff members and/or your students. Even without a computer in your classroom, you can provide printouts. Encourage your students to share current information related to your curriculum that they have found at home or in the Library. There is a new web page on HeightsNET that lists student resources including ProQuest (http://www.chuh.org/Students/). The password is available from their school Media Specialist.

Encourage your students to value authoritative, up-to-date resources as they investigate the course issues and solve classroom problems. One useful framework is the Big Six Information Problem Solving Skills developed by Michael B. Eisenberg and Robert E. Berkowitz. The skills include defining the task, evaluating information search strategies, finding the information, using the information, organizing and presenting the information and evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the process. You can find more information at the Big Six web site (http://big6.com/) including sample lessons and instructional resources. Your building Media Specialist can help you design an appropriate lesson for your students.