PRINTED PERIODICAL INDEXES AND ABSTRACTS
IN THE E.J. PRATT LIBRARY

INTRODUCTION

Library of Congress Call Number List  >> Title List  >> Subject List

Journal literature has had a history of being notoriously difficult to control in terms of access and retrieval. Librarians, scholarly associations, publishers and journal distributors have, since the nineteenth century, published periodical indexes, abstracts and bulletins to help researchers and libraries provide access to the contents of periodicals. In 1928, the Windsor Public Library began to index "important" articles from twenty-one English language, Canadian journals and magazines. This was the first, type-script edition of The Canadian Periodical Index. A number of those periodicals including The Canadian Forum, Dalhousie Review, MacLean's and Queen's Quarterly continue to be published today. Over the years different associations and publishers have taken on the responsibility of publishing the reference tool. It has evolved in its scope, coverage, and format. Today's electronic version of The Canadian Periodical Index ( CPI.Q) is a bilingual database of over 400 Canadian and international journals, magazines. It publishes full text articles from 160 periodicals as well as selected sections of The Globe and Mail.

This finding aid is a listing of the periodical indexes and abstracts in the Reference collection of the E.J. Pratt Library at the Victoria University Library. In many instances, the hard copy paper subscriptions to Periodical Indexes are complemented or superseded by electronic subscriptions; all of these cases have been noted in the bibliographic entries for each work. This listing will be of interest to researchers looking for retrospective publications or publications in those subject areas where electronic databases are not currently available.

The finding aid is in three sections. The first part is a bibliographical listing by Library of Congress classification number. It is followed by a title listing of the Indexes and Abstracts, and a listing of these works arranged by broad subject headings.

For further information, please consult a member of the library staff.


Compiled by Alison Girling
E.J. Pratt Library
February 1999
Updated August, 2002