Olivia Marcus
Reporter
ProQuest, the online database that many students use has recently been threatened with removal next year from our available resources next year. The issue is a result of the tough economy and the school’s money choices. “It’s not set in stone, it all depends on the budget,” said Michelle Luhtala, the Library Media Specialist.
Ms. Luhtala, despite the budget, hopes to keep the website available to students, despite budget restrictions. “As everyone knows, I’m the biggest fan of ProQuest,” she said.
The website offers an enormous number of articles from newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals, but has drop down menus on the search page to narrow down the results. “I love the delimiters, I think it encourages kids to think hard about their research,” said Ms. Luhtala.
However, ProQuest has always received mixed reviews from students. “It’s useful, because it has everything you need,” said sophomore Lauren Jansen. “It’s just difficult to find that information.”
Sophomore Aubrey Kenefick agreed. “I don’t like how it searches things, it’s kind of disorganized,” she said. “For projects, I like Access World News, and ABC-CLIO is really good.”
ProQuest Platinum, the version most used by students, has a relatively simple interface, but when a search word is entered, one is still bombarded with an overwhelming amount of information. Still, NCHS is recognized as the only high school in the area to provide our students with the expensive program.
The plethora of resources on the NCHS library website provides students with lots of options for research – and some aren’t high school students. “College kids still use the [NCHS Library Media Center] page,” Ms. Luhtala said. “They rely on the setup; it’s comfortable for them.”
According to Ms. Luhtala, there is still another option. The state has offered NCHS a program that promises to combine thousands of periodicals, called the Gale Power Search. The best part: the school would be get it free of charge. “It’s continuing spending money for a program we love, or using something we might not love for thousands of dollars less,” she said.
“In a perfect world we wouldn’t get rid of [ProQuest] at all,” said Ms. Luhtala. “It would be a hardship to lose, but we’re in tough times.”
NCHSLMC.org is currently hosting a survey on the homepage about the possible removal of ProQuest. Anyone who has an opinion on the subject is welcome to share their views.
wow! what a great writer
As of December 22, 2009, with 220 responses in, 58% of poll participants said that we should get rid of ProQuest next year. Whereas 36% of respondents said we should keep it.
In the “Other” category, comments included the following:
“If the selection of sources is the same or better on PowerSearch, then I am fine with giving up ProQuest.”
“I understand the value of saving money and purchasing books but am concerned that PowerSearch does not have the same quality/variety of sources–it seems to be missing some of the “big ones.” Just for the record, PowerSearch doesn’t have the Wall Street Journal.
“yes, it saves money and you get more books out of it”
“NO ONE CARES” – Thanks, Josh! That was helpful. NOT. And apparently, this is not entirely correct, as 217 NCHS poll takers say otherwise.
“proquest is easy to use and much more current than textbooks, it would be more helpful to keep proquest”
“This is the best Database in the whole system. There’s no doubt that ProQuest should be kept”
Just for the record, there were two other comments along the lines of Josh’s, only not so irritating.
A few kids said they couldn’t answer without better understanding how PowerSearch worked.
Dylan suggested we give up ProQuest and spend the saved money on chessboards. Ha ha. Not a chance, Dyl!