Options for Journal and Article Searching
Using the CSUSM Catalog and Research Databases
| What you want | Where to Look | How to Look | |
| Any Education Journal | Library Catalog | Keyword Search | Example 1 |
| Journal by Subject | Library Catalog | Subject Search | Example 2 |
| Journal by Title | Library Catalog | Title Search | Example 3 |
| Journal by Genre/Format | Library Catalog (CSUSM) | Genre Search | Example 4 |
| Article by Topic | Research Database | Keyword or Subject Search | Example 5 |
| Article by Citation | Catalog→Research Database | Title or Author Search | Example 6 |
#2--Subject Search
for Education Journals in the CSUSM Catalog
Why a subject search? Libraries have expert staff who analyze the topic of a book or journal and apply specialized labels to identify the content of the material, regardless of the publication language or author's text. These labels are called SUBJECT HEADINGS. Examples are:
Education -- Periodicals (all magazines, journals, trade publications)
Education, Bilingual -- California -- Periodicals (a particular educational focus in a specific geographic region)
Education -- Curricula -- Periodicals
Education, Higher -- Study and Teaching -- Periodicals (a particular age group and discussion of pedagogy)
Keep in mind, no single search will retrieve all the useful material you may want, but a few properly structured searches will retrieve the bulk of what is available. There is a point of diminishing returns, so be ready to stop when you keep seeing the same results over and over!
First--Open the Catalog to the Simple Search option
Second--You now have a list of all subject headings beginning with the word "education".
Third--You may have noticed some problems!
Fourth--limit the results to periodicals (next 2 screen shots)
Then...
Click on the LIMIT/Sort button and be patient...
Why did this happen?
The search engine just grabbed any record that had EDUCATION somewhere in the subject heading. This can be a 'good thing' as there can be other subject headings that do not begin their phrase with the word 'education' that you might find useful:
African American children -- Education -- Language arts (a specific group and educational focus)
Educational sociology (a search on 'education' would not retrieve educational without some special tricks.)
Children, Blind -- Education
Children of migrant laborers -- Education -- United States
Christian education
Special education -- California
Try a keyword search (example 1) with additional terms besides EDUCATION. When you get the result list, open and browse some likely-sounding titles to see what subject headings they use. You can then use those subject headings in a subject search and limit to periodicals.
You will find there are plenty of appropriate subject headings that do not use the word 'education' at all:
High school dropouts -- United States -- Prevention
School Integration
Learning disabled teenagers
English language -- Study and teaching
Rural schools -- United States
A continuing problem...
- You can't tell what articles or authors are included, even if you look at the full record.
Either use the index at the top of this page, or close this window and refer to the table in the journals page for other options.