Skip to Main Content

Faculty Toolkit for Teaching Information Literacy: 2. Accessing information

Accessing information

Standard two:

The information literate student accesses information effectively and efficiently.

  • develops a research plan
  • identifies search words
  • uses appropriate commands for online searching (Boolean operators, truncation, and proximity)
  • understands citation elements for different types of sources
  • uses various search systems (library catalog, library databases, search engines, interlibrary loan, etc.) to retrieve a variety of formats
  • uses various classification schemes and other systems for organizing information (call numbers, indexes, tables of contents, cross references)

Activity with assessment

Accessing and Using ProQuest 


A short (8-10 min.) tutorial (Introduction to Using the ProQuest Database) followed by a short quiz


Students need to be able to (outcomes)

Use the ProQuest database appropriately in order to find periodical articles


Students need to know (curriculum)

  • What ProQuest is
  • What periodical articles are
  • How to access ProQuest
  • How to search ProQuest
  • How to determine search terms
  • What to do with the results


Learning activities (pedagogy)

PowerPoint tutorial - Introduction to Using the ProQuest Database: Students will be asked to go through this tutorial on their own.


Assignment (assessment)

Students will take a short quiz after completing the tutorial. (Linked in box below: ProQuest QUIZ)


Grading/Scoring (criteria)

Basic scoring rubric:

90-100%   Student has a good understanding of the basic elements needed for accessing and using ProQuest.
80-89%   Student has a moderate understanding of the basic elements needed for accessing and using ProQuest.
70-79%   Student has a poor understanding of the basic elements needed for accessing and using ProQuest.
Less than 70%     Student has an inadequate understanding of the basic elements needed for accessing and using ProQuest.

ProQuest QUIZ