Indexes vs. Electronic Journal Collections: Why aren’t any articles from this journal showing up?
On occasion, I get asked why no articles from certain journals show up when a patron does a search in one of the databases. Usually the reason is because the patron is searching an electronic journal collection rather than an index. Indexes list articles from journals (and sometimes books and conferences) with their bibliographic information and add extras such as subject information and abstracts. Usually the abstracts are those provided by the authors, but some indexes actually have professionals read every article and write a summary. When you run a keyword search in an index, you generally are searching...
Cited Reference Search
In my last entry, I talked about cited reference searches. What are these exactly? Most people realize that when they find an article that really fits their topic looking at the references listed at the end of article will lead them to more articles which are related to the original topic. This is a great way to research, but there’s only one problem: the reference list of a paper will only list other references that are older than the paper itself. If the paper was published within the last year, then probably the most up-to-date resources are listed, but...
Ahh, Summer & Leisure Reading
So, your last final is taken or graded, grades are in, you’re headed “home” and maybe, just maybe, you’re thinking about what you are going to do with yourself this summer. Think about those “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer” (a #6 hit for Nat King Cole in 1963, when the world was a little bit slower than it is now, perhaps) and all the time you’ll have. If you’d like to continue the improvement of your mind, I have two library resources to suggest that are right up your alley. Fiction Connection – an online “reader’s advisor” resource. ...