The Basileiad Library at Manor College. Information Literacy course.  Periodicals.

The term 'periodical' simply refers to any publication that is produced on a reoccurring basis. They can be produced regularly or irregularly. Periodicals can be also called serials, and both terms cover journals, magazines, and newspapers.

There are two types of periodicals: scholarly periodicals and popular periodicals. Scholarly periodicals (sometimes called journals) have the following characteristics:
        t They are considered authoritative by the experts in that field
        t Articles are reviewed by authorities in the field before they are published
        t Articles are written for specialists by specialists and so will have a specialized vocabulary
        t Each article will have a bibliography
        t Generally, there will be no advertising.
Popular periodicals (sometimes called magazines) have the following characteristics:
        t The articles may not be written by an expert
        t Articles will generally be short
        t There are no bibliographies
        t Generally, there will be advertising.
Although teachers will always prefer that students use scholarly periodicals, you might want to also read a popular periodical article first to get an overview of your subject, and some ideas for different keywords, particularly at the beginning of your research.

There are three ways to find a periodical article on a particular subject:
     a with a printed index,
     a by browsing through issues of a particular periodical, and
     a using EBSCOhost. Each of these are explained below.

To find an article using a printed index, go to the indexes on the first shelves you come to on your left as you enter the library. The Humanities Index is held in the Manor College library.
You look up your subject and under each is a list of the journal articles recently published on that subject. Even if you don't use indexes for locating articles, they are still useful as a starting point for suggesting alternate keywords for your subject. Simply look up your search term and see if alternate suggestions are listed under that term.

Browsing through the journals in the library might seem like a slow method of research. However, you can find relevant items much more quickly than you think. Walk around the shelves on the right of the library as you enter. Select the journal/s most appropriate for your assignment and scan the contents. Lift the metal shelf to find earlier issues, and go to the Fox Chase Road end of the library to find even earlier issues. You will be surprised how little time this takes.

The electronic (online) index in the library is called EBSCOhost. This database of thousands of full-text journal articles can be found on the library web page, by clicking on 'EBSCO journal articles' which can be found under the Journal Articles heading. (A handout can be found here.) On the first page, there is a 'language' option on the right hand side which you can use to select a language that makes searching faster for you. This first page provides a list of databases that will be searched. You can choose a select few or check all of them. After clicking 'Continue', you can enter your search term and then check the box marked 'full text' if you want to receive the whole article and not just an abstract. At this stage you can view and print them off individually, or click on 'Add' to add them to a folder. You can email the folder to yourself for later viewing of all of the articles in full text mode. Note that some articles are available in either PDF or HTML format. PDF is as it appears in the journal. HTML is a more easily printable format, but may not include photographs.

Another way to access EBSCOhost is to start from the first page and click on 'Title List' of any database. Then you can search for a particular periodical, and browse the latest issue.

Information on how to refer to an article found using EBSCOhost on your 'Works Cited' page can be found in Section 10: Citations.

Apart from using the electronic resources available from Manor College Library's web site, you should also check if there are any services offered by your local public library. Find their web site, and use your library card bar code to access additional electronic resources.

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