This year, our faculty assign and student use the Learning Information Resources Network (LIRN) successfully. LIRN, Inc. became a gateway to information from anywhere and anytime, 24/7.
Among the major digital databases of various eResources are full-text eBooks provided by eBook Central: Academic Complete and eBooks from Made Incredibly Easy Books series from OVID vendor. Set of digital encyclopedias from Gale Virtual Reference Library; Statista database that gives immediate access to over one million statistics and facts (it became the most popular database to use for Business academic programs); and SIRS Knowledge Source that provides domestic and international sources on opposing viewpoint topics in Social issues, Sciences, History, US Government, Arts and Humanities.
A 2018 peer-reviewed journal article highlights a preference for ProQuest’s eBook platform: “Academic E-book usability from the student’s perspective” said they expected students to prefer publisher platforms to aggregator platforms because “they rarely impose limits on printing and downloading.” The best think is that there are no download, print and copy restrictions to these eBooks.
ProQuest Central is a database of academic education resources committed to supporting the important work happening in the world’s research and learning communities. ProQuest Central is the largest single periodical resource available, bringing together complete databases across all major subject areas, including Business, Health and Medical, Language and Literature, Social Sciences, Education, Science and Technology, as well as core titles in the Performing and Visual Arts, History, Religion, Philosophy, and includes thousands of full-text journals, magazines, and newspapers from around the world.
The ProQuest company curates content that matters to the advancement of knowledge, assembling an archive of billions of vetted, full-text cited documents. It simplifies workflows so that people and institutions use time effectively. And because ProQuest connects information communities, complex networks of systems and processes work together efficiently. With ProQuest, finding answers and deriving insights is straightforward and leads to extraordinary outcomes.
ProQuest’s collections span six centuries, all disciplines and the diverse content types needed by researchers, providing the world’s largest collection of dissertations and theses; three centuries of newspapers; more than 450,000 academic eBooks; collections of important scholarly journals and other content researchers need such as data; and unique digital vaults of primary source materials. ProQuest’s renowned abstracting and indexing enables researchers, especially the distance learning scholars to find sources in their area of study.
“Using ProQuest is way better than just doing random searches online.” (Thank you @hllibray, 2019) Why? The search is faster and more accurate, the information is academic and peer-reviewed, also it cited for users automatically. Users may email the information to their email accounts, save it on the USB drive, and use it at the most convenient time, at any time, and at any place, with access to the Wi-Fi and Internet account.
For students who study online and take courses on distance learning, the LIRN databases are the most usable source of education. For any student, to have access to electronic library with digital resources is not a luxury anymore, but a necessity of learning lifelong information literacy skills and digital proficiency. Do not wait! Hands-on and login to http://www.fnu.edu/current-students/library/ and look for the balloon where it says LIRN. Together with our partnership with faculty, we are helping more students learn well and finish strong. Our services and resources make the most of the Florida National University’s learning data. We deliver solutions and support services to help educators measurably improve student success outcomes.
Ida Tomshinsky, Florida National University Library Director itomshinsky@fnu.edu
