Monday, January 30, 2012

Proquest

I am reading a biography, Margaret Mitchell and John Marsh: the Love Story Behind Gone With the Wind so as I began to investigate Proquest I thought I would research what I could find on Margaret Mitchell. What I found after just a little research were all book reviews on books about Margaret Mitchell. This was somewhat disappointing. As I researched more I found an article about Gone With the Wind--"The Book Belongs to All of Us": Gone With the Wind as Postcultural Product. This was a little more to what I was expecting. Perhaps with time and practice Proquest would provide more. I have not had much luck with it in the past and like the students I get frustrated and revert back to google. This particular site would require patience and perseverance. I do like the way the site is organized with icons indicating trade journals, scholarly journals and even wire feeds. I think this site requires more time to learn but the results are more in line with what a scholarly researcher would need.

2 comments:

Jane Heitman Healy said...

You're right, Denise. This is more for serious research, although ProQuest does contain general periodicals such as Good Housekeeping. I do like that it suggests topics, because often I don't use the same search terminology as ProQuest does. Thanks for your comments.

Nancy E said...

I agree with you that Proquest is more scholarly. I have a pretty decent vocabulary, and I needed a dictionary to understand the article I read about Charles Dickens and his views on slavery!

"Gone With the Wind" has always been one of my favorites (I read the book before I ever saw the movie...) I'll have to read the book you mentioned. Thanks!