Readers Guide is an index to general interest/popular magazines and journals from 1890-1982/1993. It is available in two formats: print and electronic. The electronic version, Readers Guide Retrospective, covers the years 1890-1982; the print version, The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, covers the years 1890-1993.
Some examples of magazine titles are Atlantic Monthly, Time, Newsweek, Black Enterprise, Christian Science Monitor Magazine Section, Esquire, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and Ladies Home Journal. It is very useful for finding primary sources - information about events of the time written at the time
Print *** Online ** More Information
Online Version: Readers' Guide Retrospective UW restricted 1890-1982.
Searching tips
The Advanced Search screen is probably the best method for focusing search results. It provides a variety of text entry boxes, dropdown boxes, and radio buttons to help the user focus the search for information, including the option of limiting by year.
The Subject Index is one way to find effective search terms. Both broader and narrower terms, plus "Used for:" terms will be displayed, if available.
For example, typing african americans into the thesaurus search box will tell you to use the term blacks:
Blacks (Approximately 1625 records)
Used for: African Americans; Afro-Americans; NegroesThis entry also includes related terms, narrower terms and broader terms, such as:
Advertising and blacks
Black chief executive officers
Black youth
Labor unions/blacks
Blacks/employmentThat said, the subject index is somewhat limited - you may need to brainstorm additional search terms on your own. You might want to consult a print thesaurus, or mine your course texts or reference books for additional keywords, personal names, organizations, events, etc. You can also use the Browse feature of the database to find additional terms.
Keyword searching can also be very effective, for example:
black* and trade unions [note: the asterisk tells the database to look for black and blacks]
Here is an example of a citation this search retrieved:
| Title: | Labor-Negro division widens |
|---|---|
| Journal Name: | Business Week |
| Source: | Business Week (July 9 1960) p. 79 |
| Publication Year: | 1960 |
| ISSN: | 0007-7135 |
| Subject(s): | Labor unions/Blacks; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Black American Labor Council |
| Historical Subject(s): | Trade unions/Negro membership |
| Document Type: | Feature |
| Accession Number: | 196019104065015 |
| Link to Index Pages |
Note the subject heading "Labor unions/Blacks" - if you click on this subject heading you'll see more articles on this topic.
See also the Historical Subject "Trade unions/Negro membership." The use of the word "negro" reflects terminology in use when this article was written, and indexed in Readers' Guide - 1960.
The "Link to Index Pages" will take you to a scanned image of the print version of Readers' Guide, organized according to the Historical Subject "Trade unions/Negro membership." This display allows you to scan other items listed under this subject heading for 1959-61.
How to get the full text of the article? Click on the CHECK UW HOLDINGS link to see if the UW Libraries has a copy of the article in print or online. You could could also do a search in the UW Libraries Catalog to see if the UW has a subscription to this magazine - Business Week - for the year 1960, in print or electronically:
If the record indicates that the Bothell/CCC Campus Library does not have a the title, but the UW Seattle or Tacoma campus libraries do, you can order a copy of the article using our Document Delivery Service. For further instructions on how to order articles, please see http://www.uwb.edu/library/docdel/about.html In many cases, no author is listed for these articles; enter NA into the "Order Articles" request form. You can also use this form to request materials from outside the UW Libraries system.
Print
Version: The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature
1890-1993
AI3 .R48 Bothell/CCC Indexes
Located in the Campus Library reference stacks/1st floor
The print version consists of a single index combining authors and subjects. This means you would search for the author Sartre-Jean-Paul in the same index as the subject Existentialism. You can only search for subjects and authors. A subject heading is the word or phrase chosen by the Readers' Guide indexers to describe the contents of particular article, in order to make it easier to find. Only one word or phrase will be chosen to describe something that could be described by different words or phrases.
See cross-references help you find useful subject headings. For example, if you looked up Dicynodants you would find Dicynodants. See Animals Extinct. You would find articles about dicynodants under the subject heading Animals Extinct.
Subject headings also have See Also references, which direct you to related subjects. For example the subject heading Vietnam has a cross-reference of Communism in the March 1957-February 1959 volume. Other See Also references for Vietnam for this time period include Americans in Viet Nam, Chinese in Vietnam and Economic Assistance in Vietnam; Vietnam is also a subheading under other subjects, for example: Land Tenure, Police, United Nations, Woman and Economic Assistance.
Subject headings and subheadings can be useful not just as finding aids, but also as artifacts or signposts of the media's concerns, opinions, and biases. This is useful because the language of the time might not be the same as the language used today, which makes guessing subject headings tricky. It is also useful to get a sense of how the American popular media has changed over time, or perhaps even how American culture has changed over time.
Each volume represents one span of time: e.g., March 1957- February 59. This means you have to search the same authors/subjects across several volumes, depending on which years interest you.
Check the front inside cover for the correct title of the magazine. For example, in the March 1957-February 1959 volume, where a citation reads For Policy Bul, it refers to Foreign Policy Bulletin, and Good H stands for Good Housekeeping. Scan titles to get a sense of which magazines/journals comprised the popular media. Check the key to abbreviations at the front of the book for accurate reading of the citation. For example il = illustrated, illustration or illustrator.
You can find book reviews in the Readers Guide, but not consistently in the Readers Guide Retrospective. For further information, please see Finding Book Reviews.
The full-text of the articles will not be in either version of the Readers' Guide, so check the Catalog to see if we subscribe to the print or electronic version of the journal or magazine. If the record indicates that the Bothell/CCC Campus Library does not have the journal, but either Seattle or Tacoma does, you can order a copy of the article using our Document Delivery Service. For further instructions on how to order articles, please see http://www.uwb.edu/library/docdel/about.html In many cases, no author is listed for these articles; enter NA into the form.
Advantages and Disadvantages
The print version may facilitate the kind of browsing that gives a sense of the era and culture. As long as you are satisfied with searching within a certain time period (i.e., within one volume), and as long as you are satisfied with searching for author and subject, the print version is useful and convenient. If you are interested in searching for certain formats (i.e., you want articles with illustrations or maps), or you want to limit by document type (i.e., short stories only), or you want to search one subject across a longer stretch of time, you will want to use the electronic version.
The electronic version has more access points than the print version. You can use keyword searching, you can limit by year, or a range of years. You can limit to a certain document type (although they only include three choices). If you are willing to spend some time getting used to searching Readers' Guide Retrospective, it may ultimately yield better results. Try both and compare your results.
More Information
For more help on doing research in history, please see the subject guide for U.S. history
Connecting from Home - how to access UW restricted databases from home.
Ordering Articles from UW Seattle or UW Tacoma (Document Delivery)
Critical Reading Questions for Evaluating Sources
Style Guides for Citing Electronic Sources (APA, Chicago, CBE and MLA)
Ask Us a Question Reference Service