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English Composition 1

Using ProQuest and FirstSearch

ProQuest and FirstSearch are subscription databases that allow you to access articles from thousands of credible sources that originally appeared in print form. Both databases are valuable research resources. The instructions below outline how to use the databases. There are other ways to search the databases, but these instructions should help lead you to relevant full-text sources.

Both ProQuest and FirstSearch sometimes change the search procedure slightly as they upgrade their services, so the actual process of searching for sources might vary slightly from the steps provided below.

To access the databases, your web browser should be set to accept cookies. If you do not know what cookies are or how to enable or disable cookies, then your web browser is probably set correctly.

You will need logins and passwords, which you can find in a message posted in WebBoard, to access both databases.

To use ProQuest

1. Go to ProQuest's home page at http://www.umi.com/proquest/.
2. Click "Connect to ProQuest."
3. Enter "Account name" and "Password" and then click "Connect."
4. Enter your search word or phrase.

• Choose the "Date range" (if you do not find what you need, try searching with a different date range).
• Choose "All" for "Publication type."
• Choose to search in "Citations and Abstracts" (to search for your word or phrase only in summaries of articles and in the bibliographic information for articles) or "Full texts of articles" (to search for your word or phrase in the full texts of articles).
• Check "Show results with full text availability only."
• Click "Search."

5. Once you see a list of matches, click the title of an article or one of the icons at the left of the title.

• Click the title of the article to read the full text.
• Click the small index card icon to read a summary of the article and the bibliographic information for it.
• Click the page icon to read the full text (the page icon with a camera indicates that the article includes images).
• Click the camera icon to read an Adobe Acrobat version of the article (You will need the Adobe Acrobat reader to view these articles).

Notes: When you view articles in which your search word or phrase was found, the search word or phrase will appear in red fonts. Of course, you will find different search results in the two "date ranges" offered by ProQuest.

To use FirstSearch

1. Go to FirstSearch's home page at http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org/.
2. Type your "Authorization" and "Password" and then click "Start."
3. Type your search word or phrase after "Search for."
4. After "In," choose "WilsonSelectPlus," near the bottom of the list (You might also search the other databases in FirstSearch, but WilsonSelectPlus will probably be most useful for locating full-text articles on your subject).
5. Click "Search."
6. Click the title of the article or "View HTML Full Text" after the article title. 

• Clicking on the title of the article will give you a summary of the article and bibliographic information for it.
• Clicking on "View HTML Full Text" will give you the full text of the article.

Using a variety of search words will help you locate information on your subject, as will entering some words or phrases differently ("e-mail" and "email," for instance).

You can print or e-mail articles to yourself from both ProQuest and FirstSearch. Just follow the instructions provided at the web sites.