Thing 17: ELM: Easily Loses Mind

The frustration of Thing 17! I was looking forward to learning more about these databases. I quickly lost interest.

I must admit, I've been to a workshop where a person from Gale showed us how it worked. It was helpful in the fact that I had not used the databases before so I got a quick look at how to work them. However, it is daunting to try to figure out which database you should be using for any general topic. Helping a student look for tree information for their reports takes a bit longer than it would if I had better knowledge of it. This is not the thing for research novices! As for setting up an RSS feed, I couldn't find the link. From what I've read, I wasn't the only one. I did watch the video about setting up an RSS feed (TWICE!) but I concluded that they weren't using the same InfoTrac Student Edition that I was. What they were using was the Gale Powersearch. I found the RSS feed there; but like others, my GoogleReader had problems adding that feed to my list. I got the red Oops message at the top of GoogleReader, and another proclaiming a problem setting up that feed, but somewhere along the way I attached it, just don't ask me how! On the plus side, I now know to use the Powersearch when I don't know which specific database to use.

EBSCO was easier to navigate for me, but perhaps the directions for that were a little clearer. Or so it seemed at first. I set up my website only to find that when I clicked on the links it didn't go to a nice HTML page but an abbreviated version of the story, more like the card pulled from the card catalog than the book itself. Some of these cart-catalog pages actually have the article at the bottom, but not the ones I saved. Now I know to save only the HTML pages or PDF full text pages (which are mostly photocopies of printed articles, from what I found.) Lots of time tinkering and I still haven't gotten this EBSCO thing figured out. So far though, I'm less than impressed.

Proquest gave me the least amount of trouble. I followed the directions, and things worked out just the way they were supposed to. Given the choice of all three of these things to use for research, Proquest is the one I will use.

NetLibrary confused me. I didn't understand how I was supposed to do what I was supposed to do. I haven't yet been able to access the video, but perhaps when I do, I will have a better idea of what this part of this Horrible Thing is about.

I haven't had anything negative to say about any of these things, but now I have. This one was confusing, time-consuming, and frustrating!