USING SU LIBRARY RESOURCES TO RESEARCH THE CONTEXT AND CONTENT OF A MAGAZINE

Originally created by Michael Pasqualoni, Reference Librarian

Contact: Abby Kasowitz-Scheer, Head of Instructional Programs
443-1943
askasowi@syr.edu

Locating:

• Background Information (Reference Books)
• Books About Magazine
• Back Issues of Magazine
• Articles About Magazine

Reference Books for Background on your Magazine

These books can help you select a magazine(s) of interest, and track down background information on that publication(s), such as the corporate history of the publishing company behind the magazine or profiles of the magazines themselves. Sometimes these reference sources focus on certain time periods (e.g., the 1980s) or audiences (e.g., Women's magazines). All of these reference books are located in the general reference stacks, first floor--E.S. Bird Library

American Humor Magazines and Comic Periodicals Bird Ref PN 4880 A46 1987

American Literary Magazines: The Twentieth Century Bird Ref PS 221 P45 A44 1992

American Magazines for the 1980s Bird Ref PN 4877 T26 1982

American Mass Market Magazines Bird Ref PN 4877 A48 1990

American Women's Magazines: An Annotated Historical Guide Bird Ref PN 4879 H85 1989

Bacon's Magazine Directory Bird Ref HD 59 B31

Directory of Humor Magazines and Humor Organizations in America Bird Ref PN 4877 E45 1992

Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media Bird Ref Z 6951 A9731

History of American Magazines Bird Ref PN 4877 M63 vols. 1-5

International Directory of Company Histories Bird Ref HD 2721 I57 Vols 1-22

Magazines: A Bibliography for their Analysis Bird Ref PN 4734 P24 1987

Sources on the History of Women's Magazines, 1792-1960 Bird Ref PN 4879 Z82 1991

Women's Periodicals in the United States Bird Ref PN 4879 W6 1995

Locating Books that Discuss your Magazine

This task is a bit easier if your magazine is a very well known publication. But some of the most interesting publications are not. If that is the case, you will have better luck if you search for newspaper and periodical articles about your publication.

• Use the SUMMIT Library Catalog
  • Search the title of your magazine as a "subject heading" or as a "keyword anywhere" (e.g., National Geographic)
  • For additional books that discuss the United States Magazine industry, including individual publications,
    search the following "Subject Heading" in SUMMIT: American Periodicals (select from the various book titles under that heading and under related sub headings, such as American Periodicals History 20th Century)
    *one example of a title you might find this way is: The Classic Era of American Pulp Magazines by Peter Haining (Chicago Review Press).
  • It is rare for some magazine titles to have entire books devoted to them--but look for chapters or sections within books that you think are likely to discuss magazines similar to yours.
• You can also search the title of your magazine as a "keyword" in the online union catalog known as WorldCat
  
  • This will identify book titles about the magazine held by hundreds of other academic and public libraries.
  • Next, consider obtaining book titles of interest about your magazine via SU Library's ILLIAD interlibrary loan system.

Locating Back Issues of the Actual Magazine

• Use the SUMMIT Library Catalog
  Search the magazine's title using a "journal title" search (SU Library's back issues of magazines will be bound in book form, or on microfilm, on microfiche, available as an electonic journal, or sometimes a combination of above)
• To see if your magazine is available as an electronic journal--search its name using SU Library's E-Journal Locator
• If SU Library does not own a magazine of interest--you can use WorldCat to identify other libraries that do. But BEWARE: interlibrary loan of entire issues (or multiple issues) of a magazine is rarely permitted because of copyright laws. Your only option in such case may be a trip to the library that owns the journal, OR you can request interlibrary loan of a small selection of articles from different issues of the magazine.
• Recent issues of the magazines SU Library receives in print are always shelved on the 2nd floor of E.S. Bird--and are arranged in alphabetical order.

Locating Periodical Articles about your Magazine

These databases can help you locate specific articles *about* your magazine(s). Try searching your magazine title within several of them, searching the title as a "keyword" or "subject" or "descriptor" (the preferred method varies slightly depending on the databases you select).

In addition to the following general databases, you may wish to search databases that specialized in the subject of your magazine (e.g., ERIC for educational magazines or SPORTDiscus for sports magazines). See the Database Main Menu for a listing of topics.

America: History and Life - References to articles written by historians. Use SUMMIT to determine if SU Library owns the sources you retrieve here.

Communication Abstracts - References to articles written by scholars in the field of communication studies and related disciplines. Use SUMMIT to determine if SU Library owns the sources you retrieve here.

Expanded Academic ASAP - Excellent, user friendly interdisciplinary database with numerous articles available online in fulltext. Includes popular magazines and newspapers as well as academic sources.

Lexis/Nexis Academic - The is the leading database for general interest magazines and major newspapers in the US and internationally. Most articles are available in fulltext online.

MLA Bibliography - A database that focuses on English and world literature. Use SUMMIT to determine if SU Library owns the sources you retrieve here. Some articles are availabe in fulltext online.

Nineteenth Century Masterfile - A database that can be used to locate references to magazine and newspaper articles published in the 19th century. Use SUMMIT to determine if SU Library owns the sources you retrieve here.

Periodical Abstracts Research II - An interdisciplinary database with both popular and scholarly sources. Many articles are available in fulltext online.

Readers Guide Abstracts - Provides references to articles from a wide variety of major popular magazines. Sometimes articles are available in fulltext online. Coverage begins in 1983.

Readers Guide Retrospective - Provides references to articles from older issues of a wide variety of popular magazines. Use SUMMIT to determine if SU Library owns the sources you retrieve here. Coverage is 1983 and prior, with references to some articles published as long ago as the late 19th century.

...and for more about the business aspects of your title or the publishing company that produces the title, consider searching:

ABI Inform - A leading database with coverage of hundreds of business journals.

Business and Company Resource Center - An excellent database for providing background on a company, that company's financial statements, company history, articles about the company, etc.