Q. What is a periodical index?

A periodical index is a list of magazines and journals. A periodical index contains citations for articles in magazines, journals, and newspapers which can be retrieved through searching. Databases are like periodical indexes, except they also contain full text, rather than just citations.

An index will point you to the right periodical, the specific date, volume and issue, and page numbers for the article. A periodical index works like a subject catalog for the articles inside magazines and journals. The process of using an index is similar to the process of doing subject or keyword searches for items in a library catalog. Rasmusson Library has both print indexes in book form and computer-based indexes available through the Internet.