Bomhold_CH8_Scan.docx

INTRODUCTION Serials are publications that are issued on a continuing basis at regularly stated intervals. They include periodicals, newspapers, annuals and yearbooks, and the proceedings, transactions, and memoirs of societies and associations. The term periodical is usually used to refer to magazi...

INTRODUCTION Serials are publications that are issued on a continuing basis at regularly stated intervals. They include periodicals, newspapers, annuals and yearbooks, and the proceedings, transactions, and memoirs of societies and associations. The term periodical is usually used to refer to magazines and journals. Since newspapers appear periodically, for ease of discussion, this chapter will discuss magazines, journals and newspapers under the broad definition of periodicals. Just as you may think of the library catalog as an index to its holdings, a large variety of indexes and databases serve the same purpose for the contents of individual periodical titles. Effective and critical use of information sources often depends on a mastery of these access tools for finding articles in newspapers, magazines and journals. It is the goal of this chapter to demystify this subject by describing and analyzing the major types of periodical indexes and databases and their use. WHY USE PERIODICALS FOR RESEARCH? Information found in periodicals is valuable in research for several reasons: 0 Information appearing in periodicals constitutes the bulk of published information; there are thousands of periodicals published regularly, each containing an abundance of articles on different topics. The material found in newspapers, magazines, and journals is the most recent printed information you can find outside of the Internet. Information in periodicals, particularly newspapers, reflects contemporary opinion. Articles written shortly after an event occurred, whether it was in the nineteenth century, the 1930s, or the 1990s, convey what people thought of the event at the time it occurred. 0 Periodical literature reflects the constantly evolving nature of information. No matter when an event occurred, the facts surrounding it and the event's significance are constantly being reinterpreted. o Periodical literature provides comparative information for different periods. Compare, for example, the role of women in the workplace in the 1920s with those of the 1990s. Figure 8.1 C) Characteristics of three major types of periodical literature. journal, you can search the online catalog in your library. Many libraries catalog individual titles of e-journals, even those included in aggregated databases and collections. The record includes the URL (Internet address) for the joumal. The user can click on the link and go directly to the journal or the Web site containing the journal. This type of direct link is called a hot link. FINDING INFORMATION IN PERIODICALS Finding appropriate information in periodicals is a multistep process that begins by determining a topic and deciding which subjects or keywords might be used to find articles about the topic. The second step is to determine the type of information needed—whether popular or scholarly publications would be most relevant to the topic. Next you must decide what is to be the focus of your research and which subject discipline might be most appropriate. Then you must determine which indexes or databases to use to find the information. It is a good idea in doing a thorough search of the literature to use both general and subject indexes, abstracts, and databases. Figure 8.2 outlines the steps for finding information in periodicals. to additional information should you decide to pursue the "History of Television" or the broadcasting of children 's programs. Since newspaper indexes usually cover only one newspaper, the year and title of the newspaper is located only on the front cover of the index, rather than listed in each individual citation. You must be careful to record the exact year and title of the newspaper index as part of the note-taking process. Once you select an article, you will need to search the online catalog to determine whether or not the library subscribes to the publication. Remember to check the holdings record to determine the exact location of this issue. Older issues of newspapers will most likely be kept on microfilm in the library. Following are some representative indexes to major newspapers. Many of the large city newspapers are indexed, either in print or electronic format; they will not be listed here. You should check your online catalog to ascertain whether the newspaper in your city or another major newspaper that interests you is indexed. Databases have a distinct advantage over print sources in that they can be searched more quickly and more effectively. There are generally two types of databases, bibliographic and full text. 0 Bibliographic databases are those that provide only citations to information in other sources. Currently the lines between bibliographic and full-text databases (described below) are blurred in that many databases provide both full-text and bibliographic information in a single database. o Full-text databases, in the context of periodical literature, are those that provide, as the term implies, the full text of periodical articles along with citations and abstracts. Subscription services such as LexisNexis Academic, InfoTrac, EBSCOhost, WilsonWeb, ProQuest, and E-Library include both fulltext and bibliographic information. Some of the full-text articles have charts, graphs, photographs, and other images. Many full-text databases are multidisciplinary—they cover a broad spectrum of articles. Others, such as ABI/Inform and EBSCO Business Source Elite, are limited to specific subject areas. Figure 8.11 shows how to prepare a guided search in WilsonWeb. The results are shown in Figure 8.12. While some of these titles may also appear in other databases, a number of the journals indexed in WilsonWeb are unique to that database. If more information were needed after a general search, this would be a good choice. Note that articles from both popular magazines and scholarly journals are included in the list. (Refer to Figure 8.1.) Since no limitors were used in this search, you will need to separate "popular" articles from the "scholarly" ones (refer to Figure 8.1). Only entry number 4 in Figure 8.12 would be considered a scholarly article. Use of the special features of the different databases will help you refine your search. Consider your search criteria in terms of whether or not you need peer-reviewed (scholarly) articles and what time frame (if any) you need. To ascertain the education concerns related to the topic, a search in the ERIC database would prove useful. The ERIC database, administered by the National Library of Education, contains more than a million records of journal articles, research reports, curriculum and teaching guides, conference papers, and books in the field of education. In the database, the symbol "EJ" is used to indicate journal literature. Other ERIC documents are indicated by the symbol "ED." Use the advanced features of the ERIC database to limit your search to joumal articles within the last 5 years. The results will provide the most recent professional articles on your topic. While ERIC does not provide the full-text articles in most cases, it does provide the citations and abstracts. This infon-nation can then be used to complete an interlibrary loan form if necessary, or to check in your library's full-text databases for the articles you need. EBSCO Academic Search Premier and WilsonWeb both contain many professional educational joumal articles in full-text format. Many ED documents are now available full-text from 1992 forward. Figure 8.13 illustrates the results of an advanced keyword search in the ERIC database, limiting publications to the years 2000—2005. Since no publication limitors were used, both journal (EJ) and other publications (ED) are included on the list. Figure 8.13 is shown in the "table" format. This is an efficient way to view multiple records at the same time and highlight full-text publications.