What's the difference between a magazine and a journal ?

• Magazines are aimed at general audiences. Journals are written for the professional working in the field.

• Magazines are issued by major commercial publishers. Often one publisher prints several different magazine titles. Journals are compiled by business & industry groups, trade associations, university schools, etc.

• Magazines are designed to provide news information with minimal documentation. Journals report current research findings and reviews with full source citations

• These key differences can be summarized as:
  1. type of audience
  2. type of publisher
  3. purpose / quality of research

• Remember the "CVS / H.E.B. / Walgreens / Walmart rule of thumb. " If the periodicals can be bought at these retail outlets, they are NOT journals. Journals are normally available through subscription only.

• Beware of "title" = Ladies Home Journal / Wall Street Journal.   Don't be fooled by the word "journal" in the title of a publication.

ACCESSING SAC LIBRARY ARTICLES & REFERENCE SOURCES

1. At the library web site [ www.alamo.edu/sac/library/ ], click the ARTICLES & REFERENCE link.

2. If accessing the sources from the SAC Library itself or other on-campus computer labs, click the desired database and then begin your searching.

3. If connecting from home computers, select the desired database, click the CONTINUE, YES, or OK buttons as prompted.

4. This User Authentication screen will appear:
   

5. To find out your username and password, click the     link at the     prompt shown above.

6. A connection to the database will be made

   
   

   TIPS ABOUT USING THE DATABASES

   
   

7. ALWAYS use the Keyword search mode. Subject searches require the Library of Congress controlled vocabulary.

8. Boolean terms ( and, or , not ) can be used to broaden or narrow the search focus.

9. Sample searches might include:

   
   

   a)   criticism of Shakespeare's poetry

   

   
   

   b)   causes of global warming

   

   
   

   c)   ethics or morality of euthanasia

   

   
   

   d)   criticism / reviews of Michelangelo's art in the Sistine Chapel

   

   
   

   e)   women as business leaders or executives

   

   
   

10. Date ranges and journal titles can usually be specified in order to narrow a search that produces too many hits.

11. Various databases can be limited to full-text articles.  

    
    

    
    

12. Restrict your search to "Scholarly Journals" by checking one of these boxes:

13. When using the SAC Library's WWW computers, database search results [ including full-text articles ] can be:
    • Downloaded and saved to a disk or flash drive

    • Sent to an established email address

    • Printed at library's coin-operated printers
      

    • Check the SAC Library Journal Locator or the SAC Library online catalog to determine if the library owns electronic or "hard copy" versions of the desired magazine or journal.

14. Search the SAC Library Articles & Reference databases

    
    

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    III.   SEARCH   WORLD   WIDE   WEB  SOURCES

    
    

    Since its modest beginnings in 1990, the Internet's World Wide Web (WWW) has expanded to include some 4.3 million sites with 6 billion web pages. These sources are accessible from 56 million host computer systems in 170 countries worldwide. This has led to an information explosion that fits perfectly within the library search strategy. The key issue then became: "How does one locate and evaluate WWW information?"
    

    The World Wide Web uses "hyperlinks" (underlined and bolded words/phrases or images) to "jump" to a particular web site or page. A typical "word" hyperlink would appear like this: CNN Interactive. By clicking the hyperlink with the mouse, the user can gain access to a given site or document without having to enter the URL or web address.

    FINDING   WWW   SEARCH   ENGINES

    • The World Wide Web can be searched through numerous search indexes / engines.

    • The search engines allow "free text" or category searching of the various web sites

    • The following table includes URL addresses and hyperlinks for some of the most popular
      WWW search engines and directories:

    SEARCH ENGINE	UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR
    About.com	www.about.com/
    AlltheWeb.com	www.alltheweb.com/
    AltaVista	www.altavista.com/
    Clusty	clusty.com/
    Dogpile	www.dogpile.com/
    Excite	www.excite.com/
    Go.com	go.com/
    Google	www.google.com/
    HotBot	www.hotbot.com/
    Lycos	www.lycos.com/
    MetaCrawler	www.metacrawler.com/
    WebCrawler	www.webcrawler.com/
    Yahoo!	www.yahoo.com/

    
    

    
    
    TIPS   FOR   USING   SEARCH   ENGINES

    
    

    • Always conduct "free text" (keyword) searches. Category searches ( using pre-defined topics) have the same basic problems as conducting subject searching of the online catalog or periodicals databases.

      
      

    • Use precise search terms and, include all essential words in query. Whenever possible, word phrases. Quotation marks ( " " ) are used to search two words side-by-side as in:   "global warming"

      
      

    • Prior to your search, check for the specialized searching methods shown in "Search Tips" or "Help" hyperlinks. This will indicate if the search engine allows any of the following:
      • Boolean linking of terms =  AND, OR, NOT

      • Truncation

      • + or - signs to include or exclude words

      
      

    • NOTE: Remember the number that usually appears on the left of the web site description is NOT a numerical ranking or evaluation. The number is a percentage figure that shows you how closely the web site matched your specific search terms or phrase. It does not denote the validity, reliability, or quality of the web source.

    
    

    SELECTING   AND   EVALUATING   WEB   SITES

    
    

    Amid the very growing number of web pages, there are some true web site "gems" that provide excellent data and information. However, when considering the relative size of the World Wide Web, it should not be surprising that there is also a tremendous amount of misleading, and often erroneous, information. Perhaps the greatest challenge faced by the Web user is determining the authoritativeness / validity of a given web site.

    These are some points to bear in mind:

    • Identify author / sponsoring agency using the "generic Top Level Domain" abbreviation in the web site's URL address .
      The following authoring agencies are generally considered as safe because there is usually some "screening mechanisms" that insure quality information.
      • Governmental agencies=   .gov

      • Educational institutions=   .edu

      • Publicly-funded foundations / non-profit organizations=   .org

    • Although major corporations or national organizations can provide accurate information, watch for promotional / public relations slants or biases. nbsp Beware of   .com   web sites.

    • Unknown organizations or private individuals should be viewed most critically since their reputations cannot readily be established and the authoritativeness of information often cannot be verified.

    • Note that a tilde   ~   or   .name   in the URL is a marker that the site is a personal web page.

    Consult known "experts" or sources for recommendations / reviews of web sites.

    • College professors can furnish excellent leads to solid web sources in their individual disciplines.

    • Major journals and magazines often publish regular ratings or recommendations of good quality web sites.

    • The WWW itself has two primary types of search engines that index quality web sites: academic and rating search engines:
      
      • ACADEMIC SEARCH ENGINES such as the Ipl2 ( www.ipl2.org ) provide listings of research quality web sites. The indexing editors of these academic search engines pre-select web sources that have been verified for reliability.

        
        

      • SUBJECT SPECIFIC SEARCH ENGINES such as National Center for Complimentary & Alternative Medicine ( nccam.nih.gov/ ) provide listings of web pages on specific topics / subjects. These sources include web sites that also include quality information.

      
      

      
      

    • For a listing of other academic and subject specific search engines, check Search Engines for Quality Web Sites .

      
      

    • Review Subject Directories for Quality Web Sites for additional sources of quality web sites.

    
    SOME   FINAL   CONSIDERATIONS:

    
    In using various web sites, you need to become an educated consumer of web information and look for certain vital elements on a web site's home page.

    
    

    • Check for any awards that may have been given to the web site. These awards are prominently displayed (or linked) on that home page because the WWW sites want users to know that they provide quality information.

      
      

      

    • Look for these key elements that should be included on every web site's homepage:

      
      

      1. EMAIL ADDRESS

         Comments or suggestions on this document may be emailed to
         John Deosdade at jdeosdade@alamo.edu

         
         

      2. REVISION   DATE

         URL:   http://www.alamo.edu/sac/library/faculty/deosdade/lresproc.htm
         Page created: 2000
         Last Modified: Tuesday, January 12, 2010
         

      3. COPYRIGHT / AUTHORSHIP   STATEMENT

         © 2010 John R. Deosdade
         San Antonio College Library
         1001 Howard St.
         San Antonio, TX 78212
         

    
    

    To begin searching the World Wide Web , click this Web Guides link. This will provide a listing of reliable web sites selected by librarians and organized by topic.

    
    

    
    

    
    

    
    Return to Library Research Process home page.