Novice User Scenario - Basic Search form
| Who |
Jonathan, a sophomore at State University |
| Class |
Introductory Environmental Policy Analysis |
| Assignment |
Write a paper on the establishment of a national park or monument |
| Objective |
Jonathan is interested in a scenic spot in Utah which he visited during the previous summer, so he decides to find out about its establishment. Unfortunately, he can't remember the name and he isn't sure if it was a national park or a monument. |
| Starting Info |
Someplace in Utah |
- Selects the Basic Search form from the ProQuest® Congressional options for Congressional Publications searches.
- Types Utah into the box and hits the Search button; gets a message saying Try again -- too many results returned.
- Clicks Edit Search to return to the Basic Search form.
- Enters Utah AND national park OR national monument.
- Retrieves a results set that includes information on Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and he remembers that is the name of the place he visited. He notices that one of the facet options is publication type categories, including hearings, legislative histories, prints, and reports.
- Having no idea what these document type labels mean, clicks on the Help link in the upper right-hand corner.
- Looks at the Help topics listed, and notices that there is a Types of Publications (Pub Types) topic.
- Clicks About Types of Publications and sees that it describes hearings, legislative histories, prints, reports, and other types of publications. After reading about legislative histories, he decides to look for the history of the law which established Grand Staircase-Escalante as a national monument.
- Looks at the legislative histories in his results set, but cannot find one that describes a law in which Grand Staircase-Escalante is established as a national monument.
- Puzzled, types establish in the search box and clicks search within results, then executes the search.
- Chooses Expanded List to review his results set and looks for phrases in any of the publication types included in his results that might explain how Grand Staircase-Escalante became a national monument.
- Hones in on results from a hearing that refer to the establishment of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, views the hearing in Full View and learns that the monument was established under: "President Clinton's Sept. 1996 decision to bypass State and local consultation procedures under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, and exercise Presidential authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to establish the national monument."
- Notices a link in the hearing record in the DOC-TYPE segment, and clicks to retrieve the text of selected witness testimony on the establishment of the monument. (Note that users whose institutions purchase access to the appropriate Congressional Hearings Digital Collection will find a link to a PDF at the bottom of the record page, and will click that link to access the full text.)
- Checks results in the print and report categories and determines that they also provide interesting background material on the topic.
- Decides that he has what he needs to begin writing his paper.
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