What are Periodicals?
Periodicals are any publication produced periodically (daily, weekly, quarterly, etc.). Magazines, journals, and newspapers are all periodicals. For more information on determining the difference between journals and magazines please see the Grace Library Research Guide entitled Magazine vs. Journal: What’s the Difference?

How to Find Periodical Articles
To find a periodical article you need to use an index to find a citation.

A citation is the information (such as the author, title, periodical title, date and page numbers) needed to find the full text of a periodical article.

An index is a tool that you can use to search for citations. For historical research (articles published before the mid 1980s) you will want to use a printed index to find citations. For most of your research however, you will use an electronic (online) index to find citations. These are also called databases. Indexes can either be general or subject specific.

General Periodical Indexes
These types of indexes contain citations to articles on all kinds of different subject areas. A general index often has the full text articles available for you. Searching a general index is a good place to start your research; two examples of general indexes are:

EBSCOhost Academic Search Elite and Wilson Omnifile - Both of these are available via the library’s web page http://library.carlow.edu by clicking on the Find Articles link. Both of these have the full text of many periodical articles.

Subject Specific Periodical Indexes
These indexes limit their citations to periodicals in a certain subject area (such as Education or Science) and offer limited full text articles. Subject specific indexes include articles written for professionals practicing in the field and are essential for in-depth research. Grace Library offers over 50 subject specific indexes, below are just a few examples:

• EBSCOhost Sociological Collection and EBSCOhost CINAHL (nursing) - Both of these are available via the library’s web page http://library.carlow.edu by clicking on the Find Articles link.
• FirstSearch BasicBIOSIS (biology and other life sciences)- This database is available on the “Yellow” PC on the second level of Grace Library
• Philosopher's Index - This index is available in print on the second level of Grace Library.

Where are the Periodicals?
Once you have found a citation to a periodical article you will then need to find the location (either in the printed form or the electronic form) of that periodical.

Journal Title List
If your article was not available as full text within the index you will need to search the Journal Title List for the periodical title. This list indicates the years available as well as the format (print, electronic) of the periodical. You should search this list by periodical title to see which periodical titles the library owns in the print format and/or the electronic format. The Journal Title List will indicate the years that are available.

Grace Library has also compiled a list of the periodicals owned in print into Rolodexes located on the 2nd and 4th levels of the Library. They will tell you the years owned and location in which the periodicals are shelved.

Electronic Periodicals
If the article is listed in the Journal Title List as an electronic periodical you can access the database indicated in the Journal Title List and print the article.

Print Periodicals
For periodicals that are owned as a print periodical, here are the locations:

• Journals and Magazines
  Most current issue 2nd Level by the reference collection
  Back issues 4th Level; some older issues may be on microfilm
  in the Newspaper Room or in storage in room 425

• Newspapers
  Most current issue 2nd Level in the lounge
  Back issues 4th Level Newspaper Room and back issues of the
  New York Times are available on microfilm

What if Grace Library Does not own a Periodical?
A librarian can help you to determine the easiest way to obtain an article from a periodical not owned by Grace Library. You can check the holdings of the libraries at Pitt, Chatham, Duquesne, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and others through the Search Other Libraries link on the Library web page. If one of these libraries owns a periodical you can go to that library and copy the article. You can also try to obtain the article through Interlibrary Loan or one of Grace Library’s Document Delivery Services. Ask a librarian to help you with borrowing from another library.

07/08

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