Through eLibrary, users can find images, video, eBooks, and 100% full-text articles from newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals. They can also find maps, transcripts, audio files, graphics, interactives, dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, almanacs, atlases, timelines, slideshows, editorially created research pages, and hand-selected websites. Publications are updated promptly, and thousands of new images are added every day.
You can always do
basic searches from eLibrary's default landing page,
which can be accessed by clicking on the "Search" tab (immediately below the
eLibrary logo). For more details on basic and other kinds of searches, click on
the links below:
When results lists appear, items will usually (though not always) be ordered by relevance. You can re-sort the list by several other criteria, including date, reading level, and keyword frequency. You can also narrow the date range or push particular content types (e.g., images) to the top. These options appear to the left of the results.
To see brief videos on organizing your results page, click here and here.
In addition to searching by keyword, eLibrary users can browse by topic, publication, or reference type. For more details on browsing, click on the links below:
Essential pages are
unique to eLibrary. They are editorially created units tied to popular research
topics such as global warming, Martin Luther King, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Each provides critical background information on a topic, while highlighting
some of the most compelling photographs, articles, and video clips in eLibrary.
Essential pages
appear, where relevant, in semi-contracted form at the top of a results list or
as the first item in a topics results page. A list of all essential pages can
be viewed in ProQuest Essentials under the letter P in a Publications browse.
To view a document containing a list of Essential Pages organized by subject area, click here. (PDF).
To see a brief video demonstrating essential pages, click here.
There are two kinds
of "My eLibrary" account: student and teacher. You can register for either here, but only teachers should check the admin box at the bottom of the
registration screen (after which they will be prompted for an administrative
username, which can be obtained from Customer Service). For more details on what you can do with
a teacher account, click here.
Whether you are a
teacher or a student, you can use My eLibrary to save
lists of images, articles, video clips, or any other kind of content in
eLibrary. You can also take notes on documents, tag what you want, and create
timelines and slideshows. Anything you annotate, tag, or create in My eLibrary can be shared—simply set up a "My eLibrary"
account (e.g., MsSmith'sClass) and distribute
username and password to everyone in your group. (There is another way for
teachers to share timelines and slideshows—click on the relevant links below to
learn more.)
You can always
enter My eLibrary by clicking on the "My eLibrary"
link at the very top of the page. For more details on using My
eLibrary, click on the links below:
For even more detailed information on "My eLibrary" accounts, click here. Or to see a brief video illustrating what you can do in My eLibrary, click here.
Widgets are portable search boxes, things that give you easy access to reliable content from the sites you visit most. The eLibrary widget lets eLibrary users search eLibrary from Facebook, iGoogle, or their library's home page. For instructions on installing the eLibrary widget, click on the links below:
Bookcarts are like enhanced reading lists. They allow teachers the opportunity to provide topic overviews or instructions for assignments and to direct students to relevant photos, articles, books, videos, maps, essential pages, transcripts, and hand-selected websites. Quizzes provide a way to test students' understanding of different topics and their comprehension of teacher-selected eLibrary content. For instructions on creating bookcarts and quizzes, click on the links below:
For even more detailed information on creating bookcarts and quizzes, click here. Or to see a video explaining the bookcarts and quizzes tools, click here.
Beneath every item in eLibrary, you will find citations in both MLA and APA format. You can edit any citation by clicking on the "Edit" link. All citations can be copied and pasted into your own documents or presentations.
ProQuest does not own the copyright to most of what is in eLibrary. To obtain permission to use copyrighted materials in ways not authorized by the educational exemption or "fair use" sections of the 1976 Copyright Act, you will have to contact the publishers directly.
In very general terms, here's what's included in the exemption and "fair use" exceptions. The exemption states that legal copies of copyrighted materials—even entire feature-length movies—may be used in the course of face-to-face instruction. "Fair use" gives consumers the right to use copyrighted materials—or portions of them—in certain other cases. The law does not spell out what these cases are but, instead, delegates that power to the courts. In weighing whether a particular case constitutes "fair use," a court would consider the following four factors:
1.
the "purpose and character of the use"
of a copyrighted work, with educational uses safer (i.e., more likely to be
considered "fair use") than commercial uses;
2.
the "nature of the copyrighted work,"
with fact-based works safer to use than highly creative works;
3.
the "amount and substantiality" of the
copyrighted work used, with small amounts safer to use than large amounts and
low proportions safer than high ones; and
4.
the
"effect of the use upon the potential market" of the copyrighted work, with
uses that have no market impact safer than uses that do.
If something is not clear to you or if you have questions on topics not addressed here, please contact our Support Center.
The basic
search in eLibrary works just as you'd probably expect it to: you type words into
the search box, and you get results containing those words. As with most other
applications, search terms are not case-sensitive, and punctuation and common
words such as "a," "the," and "in" are ignored.
Search results are returned either by Relevance or by Keyword Score, depending upon the query.
Relevance is a measure of how 'good' the search result is. It is a ranking of the retrieved documents returned by the search engine. Relevance takes into account how physically proximate the query terms are within the document, the density of appearance of the terms, the appearance of morphological variants of the word (catch, catches), and semantic equivalents of the search terms.
Keyword Score, on the other hand, is a simple measurement of how many of the keywords in the search term appear in the document. For example, if you performed a search for "twenty thousand leagues under the sea", the search engine drops the definite article "the" and measures the five words in the query. A document that contains the text "twenty thousand", but none of the other terms in the query, would have a keyword score of 2/5 or 40% and would be ranked below documents with more query terms and higher keyword scores.
Default results sorting can be modified after the search is completed by using the Sort results by pull-down menu on the results screen.
You can
generally increase the relevance of your results by using specific search terms
(e.g., [hurricanes] instead of [weather]) and selecting only those content
types you're interested in (e.g., if you just want photos, check only the
Pictures box).
To see a
brief video demonstration of eLibrary's basic search,
click here.
The
advanced search allows for more sophisticated searches by increasing the number
of parameters users can define. For example, you can choose to search only
scholarly journals or to limit search results by language, reading level, or
date. You can also restrict your search to a particular topic or publication.
When
performing an advanced search, you can use either natural language or Boolean
search terms. With natural language searches, you simply type in your search words—individually
or as a phrase or question. With Boolean searches, you must use Boolean operators—words such as AND, NOT, and
OR—to specify how your search words are related. The reason for these different
requirements is that natural language searches will take the words you enter
and make educated guesses about what you're looking for, whereas Boolean
searches will not.
For
example, if you do a natural language search for [Big Bang], eLibrary will
assume you are referring to the explosion that created the universe and give
you items, including an essential page, on the
Big Bang. However, if you do a Boolean search for [big AND
bang], eLibrary will simply provide items containing the words "big" and
"bang." These will includes articles on sports, music, reality TV, and
numerous other subjects that have nothing to do with the origins of the
universe.
In
a limited number of cases, you may find Boolean searching more useful. For
example, if you were researching the Native American groups that immigrated to
Florida in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, you could probably shorten
your search time by typing in a Boolean phrase like [seminoles NOT football]. Doing so would filter out
any articles containing the word football
and thereby reduce the chance you'd have to wade through reports of Florida
State football games.
As
a general rule, use Boolean searches only when you are researching something
that could easily be confused with something else or when you want to make
absolutely certain that particular words do (or do not) appear in all your
results. You can enter Boolean operators manually or by clicking on buttons via
the "Create Your Query" link.
From
the "advanced search" screen, you may also limit your results by reading
level—either by school type (e.g., elementary, middle, and high) or by Lexile score. Lexiles are numbers
reflecting degrees of difficulty: the higher the Lexile
score, the more difficult the article. Although there is no precise match
between Lexile score and grade level, this chart indicates some rough correlations.
To
see a brief video demonstration of eLibrary's
advanced search, click here.
Reference search is valuable when you are seeking a quick definition or overview and do not feel like sifting through long lists of articles, websites, and videos. To limit your search primarily to dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, almanacs, and atlases, click on the "Reference" tab. Then do a normal keyword search, ensuring that you have checked all the sources from which you want results.
To see a brief video demonstrating eLibrary's reference search, click here.
The "Popular Searches" link opens a
small window, in which the previous week's 10 most popular search words or
phrases appear. Click on one to perform a search.
Topics,
which can be accessed via the "Topics" tab, are a rich source of information
and a useful complement to keyword searching.
From the
"Topics" page, you can find a topic by entering what you're looking for in the
"Search Topic" box or by choosing a topic link from categories such as arts,
history, or mathematics. Once you click on a topic link, you can drill down to
increasingly specific subtopics, each of which is associated with a results
page. A star indicates that the first item on the results page is an essential
page.
To see a
brief video demonstrating eLibrary's topic browse,
click here.
The "Publications" browse, which you can access via the "Publications" tab, makes it easy to find items from particular issues or releases of eLibrary's publications and multimedia collections. You can find a title by entering the name in the "Find Publication" box, selecting—where helpful—a content type in the pull-down menu between the box and the search button. You can also find titles by selecting them from alphabetized lists broken out by name; by type (e.g., Pictures or Magazines); or by subject (e.g., Computers or Ethnic Interests).
Once you have found a title, click on the "+" symbol to drill down to a particular issue or release. Click on the "-" symbol to hide the issues or releases you're not interested in. Clicking on the title itself will produce a list of articles, images, or other kinds of content.
You can browse all of eLibrary's dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, almanacs, and atlases. From the "Reference" page (which you can access via the "Reference" tab), click on "View Reference Desk Sources." Then select the source you want from the list, which is broken out by type and alphabetized by title. Click on the source to see a table of contents. Contents generally appear in alphabetical order, though sometimes they will be displayed chronologically or thematically.
To see a brief video demonstrating eLibrary's reference browse, click here (starts at 41 seconds).
With a teacher account, you can create an unlimited number of reading lists, or bookcarts, and quizzes. You can also approve student-generated timelines and slideshows for viewing at the school or district level.
You do not need to sign into My eLibrary to save items to My List, but unless you are in My eLibrary, you will lose your list when you exit eLibrary. Save to My List by checking the "Add to MyList" box that appears under every item in a results list. Click on the "My List" link to view your list, and save it by entering a name in the "Save as a new list" box. You can then view that list (and all your other saved lists) every time you go into My eLibrary.
To see a brief video explaining how to use My List, click here.
Whenever you are signed into My eLibrary, you have the option of annotating, or taking notes in, documents. Simply click on the "Take Notes" link (identified with a small thumbtack icon), and select "Summary Note" or "Note Taking Mode." The former will allow you to write one note referring to the entire document, while the latter will allow you to take as many notes as you want in the text itself.
From now on, any time you view annotated documents while signed into My eLibrary, you will see your notes. The summary note can be read by clicking on the "S" icon or the "Your Summary Note" link. In-line notes can be viewed by clicking on the small red thumbtacks. You can also find a record of every article you've ever taken notes on by clicking on the "Saved Notes" link. From there, you can email, print, and export your notes.
To see a brief video demonstrating the note taking tool, click here.
Within My eLibrary, you can use tagging to label and organize content however you want. To tag an item, click on a "Tag" link (identified with a small tag icon), and enter an alphanumeric description (e.g., "slavery," "AP history," "2 thumbs up," or "read me later"). Your tag is now associated with that item—and will remain so unless you delete or edit it.
Any time a tagged item appears in a results list, there will be a box indicating it has been tagged. Items can have any number of tags, all of which will display when you mouse over or click on the "Tag" box. You can see a record of all the tags you have created in the "My Tags" section of the "My eLibrary" home page. Clicking on a tag link—here or at the bottom of a tagged item—will display all the items (articles, multimedia, books, etc.) associated with that tag.
In eLibrary, all tags are visible to all users. Although you can see tags outside My eLibrary, to edit or add new ones, you must be signed into My eLibrary. From My eLibrary, you will always be able to distinguish the tags you, yourself, have added from those added by other eLibrary users (see the "My Tags" and "All Tags" tabs).
You can find specific tags from the "Tag Search" box, which can be accessed via the "Search for Tags" link on the advanced search screen. Where tagged items appear in a results list, a "Common Tags" option on the left allows you to push them to the top.
To create your own timeline, make sure you are signed into My eLibrary. Click on the "Timelines" link and then on "Create a Timeline." Now add an event (e.g., MLK assassination), specify a date or a date range, and add the URL of one or more eLibrary items or select them from one of your saved My Lists. Hit create, and repeat these steps until you're done.
You can then preview your work or save it. If, after you've saved it, you think you might want to go back and edit it, leave the status as "Work in progress." If you're happy with it, you can change the status to "Final." You can view all your finished and unfinished timelines from the "My Timelines" section of your "My eLibrary" home page. Remember, if you create a group "My eLibrary" account, you can share your timeline with everyone in your group.
Another way to make timelines available to a large group is for a teacher, or a user with administrative rights, to "promote" them. From My eLibrary, click on the "Saved Timelines" link, then the green "Create and administer timelines" button, and then the "Timeline Administration" tab. By changing the status of timelines to "Approved by Admin," you make them visible at the school or district level. You can change promoted timelines back to "Ready for Approval" or "Work in Progress" status at any time.
To see a brief video demonstrating the timeline generator, click here.
To create your own slideshow, you basically do the things you'd do to create a timeline. There are two differences: first, you will have to decide whether your slide is an "Image Slide" (i.e., a picture from eLibrary) or a "Text Slide" (just words); second, instead of specifying a date, you write a caption.
As with timelines, there are two ways of sharing slideshows. Users can create a group "My eLibrary" account, each group member signing into My eLibrary with the same username and password. Or a teacher can "promote" a slideshow so that it is visible at the school or district level. From My eLibrary, a user with administrative rights may click on the "Saved Slideshows" link, then the green "Create and Administer Slideshows" button, and then the "Slideshows Administration" tab. From this page, the status of any slideshow can be adjusted to "Approved by Admin," thereby making it visible to everyone on the account. Promoted slideshows can be changed back to "Ready for Approval" or "Work in Progress" status at any time.
To see a brief video demonstrating the slideshow generator, click here.
To create a new bookcart, do the following:
1. Sign into My eLibrary (you must have a teacher account)
2. Add to My List all the items you want to appear in your bookcart
3. Click on the "My List" link
4. Before saving these items as a new list, click on the "Add to a new bookcart" link (once a new bookcart window has opened, you may safely save a new list to your "My eLibrary" account)
5. On the bookcart page that has opened up, enter all required information (e.g., title and grade) and any optional information you'd like to include (e.g., Description/Notes—this is where you can provide a topic overview or assignment instructions)
6. Note that on the bookcart page itself you have options to add links to publications (under "Selected publication"), websites (under "Weblinks"), and more documents (under "Readings")
7. When you have finished, click on the "Save this Bookcart" button at the bottom of the page
Your bookcarts can now be viewed by anyone on your eLibrary (note: not just your "My eLibrary") account.
To add "My List" items to an existing bookcart, click the "Append MyList" link on the bookcart page under "Readings."
Creating a quiz is like creating a bookcart, except you will need to select "Quizzes" (not the default "Bookcarts") from the "Product" menu, and you will have to fill out the "Questions" section at the bottom of the page. As with regular bookcarts, once you save a quiz, it can be viewed by anyone on your account. When someone takes one of your quizzes, you will be notified by email and informed of their score.
To add "My List" items to an existing bookcart, click the "Append MyList" link on the bookcart page under "Readings."