Proquest:
Basic Discovery Exercise
1.a.  When reading through others' postings I learned a little about the pollution of the shipping industry and its effects on global warming from Mike's blog, and about prediabetes from another posting.  Both of these topics were enlightening to me.  Its fun to see what others are discovering and the issues that interest them!  I probably turn to Proquest more than any of the other databases since I've been using it for years.  It's been around a long time and using it is one of my favorite things to do at work!

2.  I have used the "publications" search many times in Proquest.  For example, I use it for Argus Leader articles when I don't know the date of the issue and also when I do know the date but we no longer have the print issue at the library.  We keep our print issues for 3 months at our branches.  I also use it for Consumer Reports and refer it to patrons when they use our print issues in the library.  I let them know that they can retrieve this publication and others online.  Its a great way to search for articles when I know the publication and not much more.