Research
Basics | Library
Home Page
The Library subscribes to two sets of databases that contain articles OR citations from articles from thousands of magazines and journals. You can access these databases from any computer that has Internet access. If you wish to search off-campus AND you are currently enrolled in ECTC classes, you may obtain the needed passwords at the circulation desk. Bring your library card so that we may verify enrollment!
When you search these databases, bear in mind that not all articles will be full-text. In other words, only some articles will be available for viewing and printing. If an article is NOT full-text, click here to see if the library carries the magazine or journal. If the library does not carry that title, you may still obtain the article via Interlibrary Loan. Ask at the circulation desk for an ILL form!
Instructions for using InfoTrac
Instructions for using EBSCO
The Reader's Guide is a magazine index. Volumes are organized according to year. Issues go back to 1963.
Each volume contains lists of topics and subtopics, arranged alphabetically. The topics or subtopics are followed by citations or entries for specific articles. Each citation consists of the following:
If you see an entry for an article that might be useful for your paper, do the following:
Write down the citation! The information listed above is needed in order to locate the magazine article.
Look in one of the blue notebooks to see if the Media Center carries the magazine. These are kept near the Reader's Guide volumes. They contain alphabetical listings of all the magazines subscribed to by the Media Center.
If the Media Center does carry the magazine, check to see if the blue notebook indicates that the magazine goes to microfilm after one year. If it does, and the issue you want was not published during the current year, you will need to go to the microfilm drawers in order to locate the issue that contains your article. If the blue notebook does not list the word microfilm under the magazine title, all of the issues for that magazine are located on the periodical shelves.
Natural Health
Issues: 1996
New Republic
- Bound issues: 1965-1968
- Microfilm: 1968-
- Issues: Current Year-
The magazine Natural Health is kept on the periodical shelves. In contrast, the only issues of the magazine New Republic that are kept on the periodical shelves are those published in the current year AND those published between 1965 and 1968. Issues published between 1968 and the current year, however, are located in the microfilm drawers.
If you want information on the spanking of children, look up Spanking in one of the volumes of the Reader's Guide. The entry for Spanking in the 1998 volume states simply SEE CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. This is a cross-reference; it does not provide listings or citations. It simply tells you what topic to look under in order to find citations for articles.
In this example, you would then turn to the C's to look for Corporal Punishment. If you use the 1998 volume of the Reader's Guide, you will find three citations. The last one provides the following information:
Why spanking doesn't work. N. Samalin and C. Whitney. il. Parents. v73 no8. p67-8 Ag' 98
Remember...
Research Basics | Library Home Page