Indexes: What are Indexes and what do they tell you?

INDEXES are Guides to the literature of an academic field or discipline.

There are many kinds of INDEXES including those found in hardcopy, in back of books, on the internet, or in databases.

Some examples of INDEXES by specific discipline include: 

• Philosopher's Index 
• Biography Index 
• Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature 
• New York Times Index 
• CINHAL® print index (CUMULATIVE INDEX TO NURSING AND ALLIED HEALTH) 
• RCL (Resources for College Libraries) 

Indexes are just another way of finding citations (that is the title, author, publisher, city & date of publication) on a specific subject. Some citations also include volume and issue numbers especially if the source is an academic journal. 

Once you find a citation of the article you want, how do you go about getting the article in full-text? The article may come in hard copy, in an online database or on microfilm and may be available either at your or another library. Try finding the article on your own or ask a librarian for help in locating it. 
  
Not all libraries own the same Indexes. Search the online catalog to find out which indexes are available at your library.