Introduction to Periodicals and Periodical Databases

What are periodicals?
A periodical is a publication (such as a magazine, scholarly journal, or newspaper) that is published at regular intervals or "periods."

They are excellent sources of information that you may need or want to investigate during your academic career.

Learning to find information efficiently in periodicals is a valuable skill not only for students, but for any library user.

When are periodicals useful?
Since magazines and newspapers are published more frequently than books, they provide more current information and differing viewpoints. They may also include the most recent research results, financial data, or other timely information on many topics that you may want to investigate. Examples of periodicals are Time, the Journal of the American Medical Association, The New York Times, and The Tennessean.

How do I find information in periodicals?
Since it would be difficult and time-consuming to look at the contents of hundreds of periodicals to find information on a specific topic, you need to use an index or periodical database to make your search efficient and effective.

What is a periodical database?
A periodical database is a frequently updated collection of articles from a variety of magazines, newspapers, or journals. Some databases collect a variety of sources, and others focus on a specific type of source or area of interest.

The orderly arrangement of materials in the database makes it possible to quickly search a large number of articles for specific topics, titles, authors, etc.

Databases generally provide information about the original article and access to the article if available in electronic, bound, or microfiche format.

• There is a citation so you can find the article (if the library doesn’t subscribe to the periodical), and so you can properly document the source.

• The database also frequently has an abstract of the article that will let you know the major ideas discussed in the article (so you can decide whether you should read the full text of the article).

• The database may also have the full text of the article available for you to read or print. If an article is not full text, click on the button “search other databases for full text.” This will tell you if the article is available in another database or if it can be found in the NSCC periodicals collection.

Click Next to learn which periodical databases are available through the Nashville State library.