May/June 2008

ProQuest Historical and Political Databases in Review

John Royce

This review investigates four titles in the ProQuest stable of databases which deal with aspects of national and international issues. Several of these databases provide different editions for different ages, and some have editions which look more closely at North American issues. A fifth database, eLibrary Science, is also reviewed in a separate article. The quality and usefulness of these databases varies. Some are strongly recommended for purchase by any and every school, while others have yet to prove their worth.

ProQuest Historical and Political Databases in Review

ProQuest offers several resources suitable for advanced research, and is especially useful for those students researching national and international issues. This review focuses on ProQuest databases concerned with historical or political issues. (Note: See the chart below for a quick comparison of all four of the databases reviewed in this article.)

SIRS Researcher (http://www.proquestk12.com/productinfo/sirs_researcher.shtml) "is a highly-acclaimed general reference database containing thousands of full-text articles exploring social, scientific, health, historic, business, economic, political and global issues. Articles and graphics are carefully selected from 1,600 domestic and international publications according to strict criteria with regard to content and age appropriateness." (WiLS: ProQuest

SIRS Researcher is a collection of newspaper and magazine articles, government documents, primary source materials, selected web sites, and other resources, all carefully chosen by ProQuest's editorial team to provide comprehensive coverage for investigation and research. SIRS concentrates on controversial social issues. To foster greater appreciation and understanding by students, each of the "leading issues" includes a short overview, a pro and con look at the controversies, MyAnalysis study guides of key questions, plus links to the collection of articles and resources related to that issue. A list of suggested keywords guides the student for additional research.

Throughout, emphasis is on research, study skills, and on providing guidance in researching and structuring papers and presentations. However, there is no spoon-feeding – the burden is always on the student to do the work. Help is provided for the teacher too. An Educator's Resources page leads to information literacy training materials, curricular support materials, and activities for student inquiry. Additionally, advice on citation, outlining, writing of research papers, PowerPoint presentations, and debates is included.

SIRS Researcher provides many ways into its database. The front page includes tabs, a quick search box, and a three-columned entry of approaches. The first column is an alphabetical listing of the leading issues covered in the database. The second provides quick links to the SIRS top ten leading issues (Election 2008, Alternative Energy, Immigration, Global warming, Iraq War, Gun control, Obesity, Capital punishment, Abortion, and Smoking at the time of this writing – but the list does change). A third column, topped by "That's Debatable" inviting students to vote on an issue, provides links to database features such as the World Almanac & Maps, Today's News, and Spotlighted issues.

One can perform simple searches by subject headings or by keyword/natural language, with added options of relevance or date, and there are special options if searching for images, maps, news items, or the pros and cons of issues. More options are available using the advanced search feature, which includes Boolean and proximity operators, as well as search by author, title, subject and keyword limiters. Results can be sorted by relevance, date or Lexile level. However, it is not possible to search by the title of specific sources, a limitation which may hamper those who wish to use SIRS to locate an article in a particular journal. It is possible for the database administrator to customize the default options for the search screen – choosing for instance to change the default search from simple to advanced, or the sorting of the display of results by relevance rather than date order.

The hits displayed sometimes include extensive quotations from the article, along with a sentence or two summarizing the article – helping searchers decide the relevance. Searchers can tag hits and compile a collection of articles which can then be printed or emailed. Alternatively, tagged hits can be saved for a later session. The information needed to compile a bibliography accompanies each resource. The database resources include templates for APA and MLA citation formats.

The "That's Debatable" section is a monthly opinion poll on a contemporary issue. The results page does state, "This poll is not scientific and reflects the opinions of only those users who have chosen to participate. The results are not authoritative and should not be cited as a source in your research" (SIRS Researcher). The number of those voting varies: more than 150,000 votes were recorded for "Is capital punishment a significant deterrent to crime?" (70% responding YES) and more than 308,000 on "Should marijuana be legalized in the United States?" (52% YES) – but only 760 voted on "Are humans responsible for global warming or is it the result of a cyclical change in weather?" (34% humans, 28% cyclical, 38% both) and only 485 voted on "Would limiting the use of Social Security numbers reduce the threat of identity theft?" (58% NO) (SIRS Researcher That's Debatable Results). Some results may be worrying – and certainly have class discussion potential. One example is the question, "Does the use of performance-enhancing drugs undermine the integrity of the sport and athlete who uses them?" which showed that 56% of nearly 200,000 voters said NO. Such striking results should elicit debate among students.

SIRS Researcher makes research interesting and enjoyable. It reduces much of the chore of finding relevant information. The database's approach focuses on developing understanding information that is found, encouraging thoughtful selection and rejection from that information, and the building of a personal viewpoint. In all, the responsibility is placed upon the student. The research remains personal, and so does the work.

There are quibbles. A list of sources shows that the vast majority of the material sources available are American, in the form of periodicals, newspapers, and publications by U.S. government departments and agencies. A much smaller number of international periodicals and newspapers are represented, and two-thirds of these are Canadian or British. The remainder appear to be English language publications. For a resource which claims to present "a diversity of viewpoints on controversial issues" and "comprehensive coverage of significant issues" (SIRS Source List: Selection Criteria), this may be a drawback.

A note with the list of print resources states: "This source list contains only a representative selection of the publications and sources used by SIRS staff." (SIRS Researcher) Only seven books are listed, and these are hardly mainstream reference sources: Perspectives on Garden Histories, for instance, or A Forest Journey: The Role of Wood in the Development of Civilization hardly strike one as key works in social issues of local and global importance. Similarly the list of "famous authors," seems more political than literary, with some interesting inclusions and some questionable omissions: why Stephen Hawking but not Richard Dawkins? Why Ralph Nader but not Rachel Carson? There are a number of errors too, such as "Asimove, Isaac" for "Asimov, Isaac" while "DeKlerk, F.N." should surely read "de Klerk, F.W." Searches for these authors as correctly listed find no hits. Most names are listed last name first, but why "Pope John Paul II" and "Prince Charles" when it's "Clarke, Sir Arthur C."?

Do not let these quibbles detract. SIRS Researcher remains impressive. ProQuest's pre-selection process eliminates irrelevant articles, reduces duplication, and enables users to concentrate on using the information rather than searching. SIRS has long been invaluable for high school research into social issues, and it continues to improve. This database is highly recommended.

World Conflicts Today (http://www.proquestk12.com/productinfo/cg_world_conflicts.shtml)

In World Conflicts Today (WCT), the editors of CultureGrams aim to offer reports that provide "insight into the human, political, and physical landscapes that shape our world." The database takes a close look at ten of the world's current conflicts: Afghanistan, Basque Countries, Chechnya, Colombia, Darfur (Sudan), Iraq, Jammu and Kashmir, Korean Peninsula, Northern Ireland, Palestinian Territories. Many of these have lasted decades and sometimes centuries.

For each conflict, there is a short overview, a detailed history including details of fairly recent events, a note of the obstacles to settlement, an assessment of the regional and global implications, and a wide selection of resources (key groups, key individuals, statistics, primary sources, glossary, and works cited). Classroom ideas, review questions, and a PowerPoint slideshow comprise the supplementary Teaching Tools. Ideas for use in the classroom range from straightforward questions to elicit the key facts and test recall, through advanced activities demanding higher order thinking skills.

For each conflict, a side-bar provides direct navigation to the "chapter" headings, or the reader can navigate through the conflict page by page using the forward and backward arrows at the foot of each page. However, the section headings and the arrows do not always provide clear navigation.

The search function is awkward and unhelpful. A simple search leads to paragraphs in which the search term is used. Each of these paragraphs is accompanied by notation of the Conflict, the Page, and the Section title for that search result. The search results lack useful clarity. For instance, a search for [rice AND iraq] brought up over 300 hits. Without working one's way through all 300 (with 20 displayed at a time), it was impossible to learn if all related to the Conflict: Iraq. There was no way to quickly jump through the results. Also, without going to the actual page context, it was frustrating to determine whether the "rice" was Condoleezza Rice, the grain rice, or contained within a word such as "price." The database did not allow for modification of search results. In addition, the database tends to encourage searching within a specific conflict, eliminating the ease of researching the interconnections of the conflicts.

The documents used in the database appear solid, but it seems that the record of events may not be as up-to-date as might be needed by students. Nor does the arrangement of the documents allow for understanding of the global connections of these conflicts.

Clearly many of the world's major conflicts are not included. A FAQ provides these bullets as the criteria for inclusion of a conflict: customer demand, timeliness, relevance to high school subjects, level of interest, and overall geographic coverage (http://www.worldconflictstoday.com/index.php?page=FAQ). This fails to explain whether such conflicts as those in Sri Lanka or Algeria, Indonesia or Nagorno-Karabakh will be included in future editions.

The World Conflicts Today database is good for what it covers, but it could become more useful by covering a wider variety of global conflicts in greater depth, and with more powerful search abilities.

SIRS Decades: 20th Century American Sources (http://www.proquestk12.com/productinfo/sirs_decades.shtml) is an electronic subscription resource containing primary source and reference content that documents life and events in 20th-century America. Primary source types include: advertisements, editorial cartoons, letters, memos, messages, maps and charts, original documents, original works of art, photographs, poems and literary works, posters, published articles, speeches and addresses. Many of these sources are drawn from the Library of Congress collection and historical periodicals.

The front page of SIRS Decades offers an upper navigation bar, with links to each decade in the 1900s. The main search area offers a number of search options and restrictors. Subject heading, keyword/natural language, or search by decade with date limiters are all possible. Searches can be executed by sources, and results ranked by relevance or date order. Unfortunately, these restrictors do not always seem to work. Icons link to useful classroom learning tools, including: document-based questions, national standards, and timelines.

The document-based questions are advanced, with links to perhaps ten or a dozen references and primary sources for use in compiling an advanced essay question or debate material. Source documents are often facsimiles in .pdf format or photographs with handwritten notes, along with a paragraph of introduction and context. Sources can be printed or e-mailed. The citation link provides information on where the document is stored as well as its SIRS Knowledge Source provenance.

SIRS Decades provides an impressive range of photographs, newspaper clippings, and memoranda, often classified as "Secret" at the time. The biographies from American Social Leaders contain useful background material on some perhaps lesser-known characters; however, access to these materials is not obvious to those with limited knowledge of the key figures involved.

Links to specific decades from the upper navigation bar lead to a summary of historical events along with links to suggested topics. Thus, the 1940s page leads to an introductory overview. One of the links for World War II is "Returning Soldiers," a page which in turn has four paragraphs on the topic, along with links to solid source and reference materials. The researcher with good background knowledge of the subject will find a wealth of material to support an essay. The SIRS Decades: 20th Century American Sources is an excellent and highly recommended database for use in the study of American History.

CultureGrams Online edition (http://www.proquestk12.com/productinfo/culturegrams.shtml) [World Edition, Kids Edition, States & Provinces Edition]

CultureGrams Online World edition offers "concise, reliable and up-to-date country reports ... of every country recognized by the United Nations – from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe." The database aims to provide a perspective on world events, daily life, and culture through "country reports that go beyond mere facts and figures..." (http://www.proquestk12.com/pic/pdfs/CGCata.pdf).

Country reports included in ProQuest's CultureGrams Online World edition are written by native or long-term residents of each nation, before being reviewed and revised by a panel of diverse background. While the aim is to include every country in the world, it is difficult to find qualified writers and reviewers, especially in totalitarian countries or countries in a state of war or civil war. Secondary sources are not used. Statistics and details of current events are updated annually, and all reports are reviewed at least once every five years.

Each country's report includes quick facts and basic statistics, a selection of interesting cultural facts, the national flag, official name of the country, the national anthem, some famous people, a recipe collection, and a photo gallery. The left-hand navigation bar provides links to the headings and subheadings. The reports can be viewed page-by-page in an Internet browser or viewed as a single, four-page .pdf file.

The reports are as comprehensive as might be expected for a brief article that includes the following subject categories: Background information (Land and Climate, History), the People (Population, Language, Religion, General Attitudes, Personal Appearance), Customs and Courtesies (Greetings, Gestures, Visiting, Eating), Lifestyle (Family, Dating and Marriage, Diet, Recreation, The Arts, Holidays, Commerce), Society (Government, Economy, Transportation and Communications, Education, Health) and an At a Glance section (Events and Trends, Contact Information). Country reports are the main feature of CultureGrams and have been from its earliest print inception in 1974. They provide a strong basis for research on individual countries and for international comparisons.

That said, the search feature is not helpful. A student must first decide whether to search the World, Kids, States, Provinces Edition, Famous People or Recipe Collection. A search for Che Guevara brought up two hits in the World Edition, neither remotely related to Che Guevara. Searching in the Famous People subdivision resulted in a single hit, one about the athlete Ana Guevara. Reference to the Searching Rules shows that a multi-word search without quotation marks will result in an OR default, (for Che OR Guevara) – but neither word is evident on the page. A search for "Che Guevara" found no hits. The database distinguishes between the two "Congo" countries in Africa by the names of their capitals. This approach might mislead a student to believe that the names of the countries are Congo-Brazzaville and Congo-Kinshasa.

Many of the Additional Features seem less useful. The Famous People sections, for instance, include some very subjective choices. The United States entry has details of Abraham Lincoln, Cesar Chavez, Elvis Presley, Henry Ford, Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorn Clemens), Martin Luther King, Jr., Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Sacagawea, and Walt Disney. This will not be every user's top ten famous Americans, and the alphabetical order (by first name) is not helpful – especially when the first name is a title, such as Pope or Sir. Photo Galleries provide an equally esoteric collection of images and, in slideshow mode, the location is not always mentioned. Similarly subjective, the Recipe Collection for each country is not kid-friendly nor designed for children to cook the dishes. Pictures of the prepared foods would greatly enhance the appeal of this database feature.

Another Additional Feature is a currency converter, available on the front page of each country report. This might be more useful if it automatically highlighted the currency of the country being investigated, with a means to convert that currency to or from other world currencies. As it is, it opens a pop-up window courtesy of OANDA.com and offers the opportunity to convert any currency in the OANDA list to any other currency in their list – where not all countries are represented. For countries such as Antigua and Barbados, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, or the Marshall Islands, which employ international currencies, you need to know what currencies they use to be able to look them up in the currency converter. Since this information is not found on the front page of each country, it ends up as a frustrating experience.

Data tables are useful; here one can find top tens under a variety of headings, or select countries and data, and produce comparison tables which can be sorted high-to-low or low-to-high. The data can be exported in .csv mode to an Excel spreadsheet.

The database is highly recommended for the country profiles. The famous people and the recipe collections may be helpful but are too inconsistent to be very useful. Where CultureGrams really scores is in the behind-the-statistics trivia, the accounts of culture, customs, and lifestyle which make country research interesting, and help individualize student reports. As long as readers are aware that practices may be common but are not necessarily practised by all groups or cultures within the country, this becomes the area which makes CultureGrams worth buying and distinguishes it from so many other quick reference country profiles available in print or online.

The CultureGrams Kids edition is a simplified version of the World edition and is appropriate for junior high and middle school students. Entries are written by CultureGrams editors and reviewed. At present only 82 countries are represented, but more are being added. The recipe collection, the famous people, and the photo gallery link to the same pages used in the World Edition.

Each country's page opens with some interesting facts entitled "Did you know?" As well as highlighting customs and cultural practices, many of the profiles include a "Can You Say It?" section, for instance: Can You Say It in Aussie English?...in Afrikaans?... in French? As with the main edition, not every cultural practice applies throughout the country. Many Britons might say, for instance, "rubbish" (for garbage) or "biscuits" (for cookies), but it has been a long time since the term "bobby" (for police officer) was widely used.

CultureGrams States and Provinces edition is very similar to the Kids edition, but limited to the United States. The timelines tend to be Euro-centric. There are no recipe collections, and the famous people are different from those found in the World and the Kids editions -- still, irritatingly arranged alphabetically by first name. The data tables are U.S. specific and again allow for customized compilations and comparisons.

All in all, there are features which make the CultureGrams series stand out and worth considering for purchase, but there is much which irritates and detracts from its usefulness. It is good, but it could be so much better, more useful, more helpful. If there is a weak link in this ProQuest series of databases, this is it.

Works Cited

CultureGrams Online edition [World Edition, Kids Edition, States & Provinces Edition].
     http://www.proquestk12.com/productinfo/culturegrams.shtml Accessed 20 February 2008.

SIRS Researcher. http://www.proquestk12.com/productinfo/sirs_researcher.shtml
     Accessed 20 February 2008.

SIRS Researcher Source List.
     http://www.proquestk12.com/productinfo/pdfs/SIRSResearcher_Sources.pdf
     Accessed 20 February 2008.

WiLS Cooperative Purchasing and Licensing. ProQuest For K-12 Libraries Cross Curricular
     SIRS Researcher. http://www.wils.wisc.edu/coop/vendor/proquest2.html 
      Accessed 15 February 2008.

World Conflicts Today. http://www.proquestk12.com/productinfo/cg_world_conflicts.shtml
     Accessed 20 February 2008.

Comparison Chart

   John Royce is Library Director of Robert College of Istanbul. He has also worked in schools in Zambia, England, Malawi and Germany. He is the current Chairman of the ECIS Committee on Library and Information Services, and at various times has been a member of IASL and IBO committees and boards.

He believes that reading is fundamental, even for the millennium generation, and is committed to the principle of lifelong learning, declaring "You don't have to be ill to get better." He is active in the field of plagiarism detection and prevention, and (natural cynic that he is) teaches the need to go to the source: the more you want to believe that something is true, the more necessary it is that you seek verification.            

His work in International Baccalaureate schools has led to strong interest in international affairs and in internationalism. An article "Walking Two Moons: Crossing Borders with International Literature" was published in Knowledge Quest for November/ December 2006. He has also worked as faculty advisor for his school's Model United Nations and European Youth Parliament clubs.