Learn How to "Read" an Article Index Record
The article index record contains information which you can use to help decide if you want to get the article. You can also use this information to improve your search by using terms you find in the record for further searching. Articles appear in both popular and in scholarly periodicals. Both have their place in research. You should be able to tell the difference between a popular and a scholarly article. AuthorYou may recognize the author as someone associated with your topic. You may have seen the author's name in a bibliography, a book, or another article. The more research you do, the more likely this becomes.
Look for other articles, or books, by that author.Title
Look for titles that mention words used in your search strategy. Periodical titles tend to be more specific than book titles because articles tend to be about an aspect of a topic ratner than the whole topic. BUT, remember, your topic may be part of something bigger. So, just because the title doesn't look "right on" doesn't mean that the article won't be useful. If the index gives abstracts and descriptors, check them out.
The article abstractAre there words in the title that might be better than the ones you used in your search?
The purpose of an article abstract is to give you enough information so that you can decide whether or not you want to read the article. The abstract summarizes the article - read it.
Are there words in the abstract that might be better than the ones you used in your search?Descriptors/Subject headings
Descriptors/subject headings are the words or phrases that are used to describe the subject(s) covered by an article in a standard way.
Use the descriptors/subject headings to do new searches.URL
There may be a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or Web address which indicates that the periodical is available on the Internet.
Use the base of the URL to see if there is other useful information at that site. For example, if http://www.filmsite.org/references.html is a good site, then go to http://www.filmsite.org/ and find out what else is at that site.July 15, 2008
