The library has lots of journals. Some of them are in print, sitting on our shelves. Some of them are digital, stored in our databases. Sometimes we have old issues of a journal we no longer subscribe to. Some journals are available via microfiche. And sometimes, they're available online for free, but might not be indexed in the library's collection.
It can take a few steps to learn how to access a particular journal. This guide will walk you through the process.
This is the easiest place to start when you are searching for library materials. It is particularly helpful if you are looking for a specific article. Summon contains an index of both our library's catalog (the items we own, mostly in physical format) as well as the items we license via our many databases.
First, go to the Summon advanced search page. (Go to Summon and click "Options".) There, you'll see a number of form fields and check boxes.
Type the title of the journal into the first search box, and select "Publication Title" in the drop down menu to the left. Under "Content type", check off "Journal/eJournal". Click Search.
If we have the journal you're looking for in print, you should see a result that looks something like this. I can click "Check Availability" to get more details about what issues we have on our shelves. Locate the item on shelves using the call number.
If you're looking for a specific article, use Advanced Search to search for the article itself. We suggest searching using the title and at least one author's last name. Using the publication title as well may help if you're getting too many results. Searching by article title/author for a specific article will work if we have digital access to the article.
If Summon doesn't get you where you want to go, you may have better luck tracking down a journal using E-Resources A-Z. It's particularly useful if you already have the bibliographic details of an article you're looking for.
This tool gives more detailed information about the databases a journal may be listed in, the date range of coverage, and more.
Within E-Resources A-Z, select "Journals Only" and type the name of the journal you're looking for. Click Search.
If we have the journal you're looking for, you may see details like this. In this example, Library Journal is available in a number of databases. Some databases have issues going back to 1976; others only have it as far back as 1996. If I am looking for an article published between those dates, I would need to select one of the first five databases. If I'm looking for something more recent, however, I should be able to find it in any of these databases. Click the name of a database to browse that journal on the database.
Every database is different, but it's likely you'll see a menu to browse issues by year. This is why this method of searching is most helpful if you already have an article in mind you're looking for. However, you can casually browse issues this way as well if you like.
At any point, librarians will be happy to help you out! Ask a librarian in the library for help finding a particular journal or article. Or, contact us at (414) 277-7180 or library@msoe.edu.
If you have suggestions for how to make this page better, please contact Elizabeth Jerow, Assistant Library Director (jerow@msoe.edu).
