Index Evaluations

• Book Review Digest.  New York: H.W. Wilson, 1905-.
  1. Purpose: To compile reviews for adult and juvenile fiction and non-fiction books.
  2. Authority: This source is published by the H.W. Wilson Company.
  3. Scope: This source contains reviews for adult and juvenile fiction and non-fiction books.  It does not contain reviews for textbooks, technical manuals, or government publications.
  4. Format: Type is easy to read.  The summary and citation excerpts are in a smaller font.  The author is listed in bold type.
  5. Arrangement: Books are listed alphabetically by author or title.  This also source contains a subject and title index which includes information on genre.
  6. Entries: Each entry contains the book’s publishing information, a summary, one or more review citations, and a review excerpt.  Entries also contain the ISBN number and Library of Congress control number when that information is available to the publisher.
  7. Special Features: Book Review Digest has an online version with a free trial. 
  8. Use: One question that could be answered using Book Review Digest is, “What kind of reviews did Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men receive?”  Another question it might answer is, “Would my teenage son enjoy reading House of the Scorpion?”
  9. Overall: This source would be helpful for librarians and patrons who want to recommend/choose a book or evaluate a book’s quality. 
  
  
•  The Columbia Granger’s Index to Poetry in Anthologies. New York: Columbia University Press.
  1. Purpose: To help users locate poems in anthologies.
  2. Authority: This resource is published by the Columbia University Press.  It is currently in its thirteenth edition, which was published in 2006.    (Columbia University Press, 2010.)
  3. Scope: “This latest version features 85,000 classic and contemporary poems by 12,000 poets. Also included are works in translation and for the first time poetry in Spanish, Vietnamese, and French.”  (Columbia University Press, 2010.)
  4. Format: Bold print is used for headings.  The author and indexes are set up in three columns. The title, first line, and last line index is set up in two columns.
  5. Arrangement: The book begins with a how-to section, a list of anthologies and a list of abbreviations.  Then the source is divided into three indexes: a title, first line, and last line index; an author index; and a subject index. 
  6. Entries:
  7. Special Features: The Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry Online, a subscription service, has access to 450,000 poem citations and 250,00 full-text poems.
  8. Use: This source is used to find poems in anthologies.  One question it might answer is, “Where can I read Shakespeare’s seventy-seventh sonnet?”  Another question it might answer is, “What poems have been written about cats?”
  9. Overall: This is a helpful source for researching poetry.
  
  
•  Humanities Index.  New York: H.W. Wilson, 1974-.
  1. Purpose: To provide periodical citations for articles in the humanities field.
  2. Authority: This source is published by the H.W. Wilson Company, a reputed publisher of reference materials.
  3. Scope: This index covers articles in the fields of “archeological and classical studies, area studies, folklore, history, language and literature, performing arts, philosophy, religion and theology, and related subjects.”  It covers articles from approximately 450 periodicals.  Furthermore, it also indexes obituaries, reviews, dance and music performances, movies, television shows, and fictional literature. 
  4. Format: Pages are arranged in two columns.  Bold print is used for headings.
  5. Arrangement: This source is arranged by subject.  Within subject headings, there are historical, geographical, and topical subdivisions, each arranged alphabetically.
  6. Entries: Entries contain citation information for each source.  Some entries also contain explanations, book reviews, and explanations of book reviews.
  7. Special Features: Two online versions of Humanities Index are available by subscription: Humanities Index and Humanities Index Full-Text.  (This is not to be confused with EBSCO’s Humanities International Index.)  The online version offers many search criteria, as opposed to the arrangement of the print version.
  8. Use: One question that could be answered by this source is, “What journal articles have been written on the effects of Christianity in Africa?” 
  9. Overall: This index is unique because it covers a wide range of topics and formats.  The online version is a good option because it can be searched in various ways.
  
  
•  Media Review Digest.  Ann Arbor, Mich.: Piernan Press, 1971.
  1. Purpose: To provide citations for reviews of “non-book media.”
  2. Authority: This index is published by Piernian Press. 
  3. Scope: According to the sample on E-Reserves, the Media Review Digest (MRD) indexes films and audio recordings in various formats, “slides, transparencies, illustrations, globes, charts, media kits, games, and other miscellaneous media forms.”  (MRD, 1989.  p. vii)  It covers works in English and other languages. 
  4. Format: A sample page showed two columns of print with bold type used for headings.
  5. Arrangement: The 1989 edition is divided into four sections: film and video, filmstrips, audio, and miscellaneous.  Entries are listed alphabetically by title.
  6. Entries: Each entry contains citation information and a review rating mad by MRD staff.  Entries also contain cross-references where applicable.
  7. Special Features: This index contains a directory of producers and distributors whose products appear within.
  
  
•  New York Times Index. New York: New York Times Company, 1851 - . 
  1. Purpose: To “provide simple access to the contents of the New York Times.”  (New York Times Index.)
  2. Authority: The New York Times is a reputable, long-established newspaper.  The index has been published since 1851. (“New York Times Article Archive,” 2010.)
  3. Scope: Each index lists the “significant” articles published in the New York Times during the covered time period. (New York Times Index.)  The index has been published at different intervals during its history.
  4. Format: A sample page showed three columns of small text.  Bold type is used for subject headings and regular type is used for the rest of the information.
  5. Arrangement: Entries are divided by subject and geography; within those headings, they are arranged chronologically “except in cases where alphabetical arrangement is clearly more helpful (e.g. […] names of the deceased under Deaths).”  (New York Times Index) 
  6. Entries: Entries contain the “date, section, page, and column of the story’s publication.”  Some entries have abstracts of the given news story.  Where applicable, it is indicated if a story was accompanied by a photo, graph, or cartoon.
  7. Special Features: Entries contain cross-references where applicable.  Corrections are published at the end of annual issues.  There is an online archive which allows users to search the entire New York Times backfile, which contains over 13 million articles.  Articles published from 1987 to the present can be read for free; also, articles published between 1851 and 1922 are free because they are part of the Public Domain.  Other articles show the first lines and/or an abstract, and can be purchased for $3.95.  (“New York Times Article Archive,” 2010.)
  8. Use: One question that could be answered using this index is, “What articles did the New York Times publish this year about librarians?”  Another question would be, “Did Marilyn Monroe’s obituary appear in the New York Times?”
  9. Overall: Clearly, this index is a good resource for verifying the existence of New York Times articles, and for finding New York Times articles on various research topics.  In the case of recent or Public Domain research topics, it may be easier to use the online archives because the articles can be evaluated and printed immediately.  On the other hand, using the print index and then physically locating articles on microfilm might be a better option for articles written between 1922 and 1986.  For instance, online searches for “George W. Bush” and “Emancipation Proclamation” yielded many free full-text articles; however, searches for “Marilyn Monroe obituary” and “Marilyn Monroe death notice” found one news story about her death and many results with unclear relevancy – but did not yield anything that looked like an obituary.  (“New York Times Article Archive,” 2010.)
  
  
•  Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature.  New York: H.W. Wilson, 1900-.
  1. Purpose: To index American, English-language periodical articles from.  It is “intended for students and general readers, as well as researchers.”  (H.W. Wilson, 2010.  p. 2)
  2. Authority: This source is published by H.W. Wilson, a reputed publisher of reference materials.
  3. Scope: This resource is published quarterly.  It covers a broad range of topics from “over 300 popular magazines,” including Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated.  In addition to non-fiction articles and reviews, it also includes short fiction and poetry. 
  4. Format: A sample page showed two columns of small print with bold used for headings. 
  5. Arrangement: One part of the index is divided into subject headings, which are further divided into topical, geographical, and chronological subdivisions.  The other part of the index is organized alphabetically by author’s last name.
  6. Entries: Entries include publication information, “title enhancements (which clarify ambiguous article titles), and “notes about the presence of bibliographies, illustrations, portraits, footnotes, or maps, if any.”  (H.W. Wilson, 2010.  p. 2)
  7. Special Features: There is an online version of the Reader’s Guide available by subscription.  Furthermore, H.W. Wilson offers a full-text database called Reader’s Guide Full-text Mega Edition, which contains full-text articles from 1994 to the present.
  8. Use: One question this source would answer is, “What’s the latest news about Kobe Bryant?”  Another question might be, “What articles did Anna Quindlen write in 2007?”
  9. Overall: The Reader’s Guide is an excellent resource for research using popular periodicals.  Because of its full-text feature, the online version is a worthy consideration for libraries.
     
  
  
•  Social Sciences Citation Index.  Philadelphia, PA: Institute for Scientific Information,   1989 - .           
  1. Purpose: To determine when, by whom, and in what publications journal articles about various social sciences have been cited.
  2. Authority: This index is published by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), an organization that was founded in 1960 and publishes several citation indexes in various fields.  ISI is owned by Thomson-Reuters, a large media company.
  3. Scope: This index attempts to list citations for articles from “virtually every discipline of the social sciences.”  It covers information from over 4,700 journals.  “With minor exceptions, each issue of SSCI indexes all issues of journals published and available during the time period covered.”  (SSCI, 2009.  p.5)
  4. Format: Bold, larger type is used for author and title of the cited article.  Smaller, regular type is used for the other information.  All information is in capital letters.  A sample page showed eight dense columns of text.
  5. Arrangement: This index actually contains four separate indexes which arrange information using different criteria: author, corporation, “Permuterm,” and source.  (Furthermore, the corporate index is separated into two sections: geographic and organization.)  Symbols and abbreviations are codes for various pieces of information. For example, a black square represents that “the title words came from an anonymous source item and a journal title abbreviation appears instead of an author name”; the letter M means that the source was cited in a meeting abstract.  (SSCI, 2006)  Also, in the interest of saving space, words in journal titles are truncated after the second independent vowel, and “generally accepted abbreviations and acronyms are used whenever possible for the names of organizations.”
  6. Entries: Each entry contains the author who wrote the cited article, journal (title, year, volume, and page number) in which the cited article appeared, author who cited the article, and journal (title, year, volume, and page number) in which the citation appeared.
  7. Special Features: The Permuterm index is a subject index that uses primary terms and co-terms to refine searches.  For instance, under the primary term ‘aide,’ a user will find the co-terms ‘case,’ ‘course,’ ‘marketings’ (sic), ‘newest,’ ‘partner,’ ‘training,’ and ‘volunteer.’  An online version of SSCI is available by subscription through an online database called Web of Knowledge.
  8. Use: This resource is designed for librarians and social science professionals.  Some questions it can answer include, “Has this paper been cited by other researchers?” and “Has this article been abstracted in primary journals?”  (SSCI, 2009.  p. 6)
  9. Overall: SSCI would be difficult for an inexperienced researcher to use because of the dense text, truncated words, and the use of many symbols, codes, and abbreviations.  However, it would be valuable for those conducting scholarly research in a social science field (for example, someone writing a PhD dissertation) because that type of research would require becoming intimately familiar with the literature on a particular subject area.
  
  
•  Social Sciences Index.  New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 2006.
  1. Purpose: To index periodicals in the social science fields.
  2. Authority: This index is published by H.W. Wilson.  The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) advises H.W. Wilson on which periodicals to include.
  3. Scope: “Social Sciences Index provides cover-to-cover indexing of 500 key English-language periodicals.”  It includes “feature articles, review articles, scholarly replies to the literature, interviews, obituaries, and biographies.”  It does not cover cartoons, editorials, or letters to the editor.  (SSI, 2006.) 
  4. Format: A sample entry showed bold type for subject headings and regular type for citations and annotations.  All type was the same size.
  5. Arrangement: Entries are organized by subject.  These subject headings are determined by H.W. Wilson.
  6. Entries: Entries contain publication information and a short explanation of the article.
  7. Special Features: Cross-references are provided where appropriate.  This resource also contains an index of book review citations after the main index.  A full-text version is available online by subscription.  Among other features, it contains some links to full-text articles, and it also links to online public access catalogs (OPACs) so users can locate material that is not provided in full-text.  (“Social Sciences Full Text,” 2010.)
  8. Use: This resource can be used to find articles about social science topics.  It could be used to answer the question, “What articles were written recently about international relations?”  Another question it could answer is, “Have any book reviews been written about my anthropology textbook?”
  9. Overall: This index would be easy for inexperienced researchers to use because of the clear format.  The online version’s OPAC link is a useful feature.

 

Additional References

 

“How to Use the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature.”  H.W. Wilson.  2010.  11    March 2010.  <http://www.hwwilson.com/Documentation/HowToUseReadersGuide. pdf>.

 

“New York Times Article Archive.”  The New York Times.  2010.  6 March 2010.  <http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/nytarchive.html>.

 

“Readers’ Guide Full Text, Mega-Edition.”  H.W. Wilson.  2010. 11 March 2010. <http://www.hwwilson.com/databases/Readersg.htm>

 

“Social Sciences Full Text.”  H.W. Wilson.  2010.  6 March 2010.  <http://www.hwwilson.com/Databases/socsci.htm>.

 

“The Columbia Granger’s Index to Poetry in Anthologies: Thirteenth Edition.” Columbia University Press. 7 March 2010.   <http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-13988-5/the-columbia-grangers-index-to-poetry-in-anthologies>.

 

Web of Knowledge.  Thomson Reuters.  2010.  6 March 2010.  <http://isiwebofknowledge.com>.