Library Catalog: How to Find Journal Titles

You have found a great citation to a journal article in a book chapter OR you have just completed a database search and have a list of citations from a variety of journals. How do you take the next step to find out whether the journal is located in any of the Case Western Reserve University libraries?

FIRST: Make sure you are correctly identifying the title of the journal in the citation. In the majority of citations, the journal title (in italics in the example below) will be followed by the volume, issue and page numbers of the article. The article title (non-italicized in the example below) will appear directly after the author’s name.

Example: Lindsey, E. W. (1998). Service providers’ perception of factors that help or hinder homeless
families. Families in Society, 79(2): 160-172.

If you have a citation from a database, there is almost always a field code in front of the journal title. The codes will vary depending on the database.

For example:

Record 1 of 1 – Social Work Abstracts 1977-3/98

SECOND: Since there are no printed lists of the journals owned by the Harris Library or other Case libraries, you will need to use the Library Catalog to find out whether a journal is on campus. You can do a search by entering the journal title or by entering the ISSN number. (For Harris Library journals you can now also check the Journals in the Harris Library webpage.) Following are instructions for doing both kinds of searches:

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Searching the Library Catalog by Journal Title

To find out whether Case owns a particular journal, choose the Title Search option on the main
Library Catalog screen. Type in the exact journal title you are looking for beginning with the first word of the title. Omit initial articles from the titles (a, an, and the) and any dashes between words (as shown in the Affilia example above). The system will retrieve all items which have the same words that you have typed.

If you are unsure of the exact title of the journal, search by keyword using major words in the title.
Refer to the Harris library tutorial on searching by keyword for more details.

If the journal title that you are trying to locate is very specific (like Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal), you will go directly to the journal record.

The name of the campus library or libraries owning the journal will appear on the first line followed by a “LIB HAS” statement containing information on the volumes owned.

If the dates are closed — for instance “1986-1990″ — then the library has not received any issues since the year after the hyphen.

If the date is open — for instance, “1975- ” — then the library still receives the journal. You can click on Latest Received for more detailed information such as whether a particular volume is bound, at the bindery, missing, or not yet received.

If the name of the journal is very common or is identical to a book title or titles (such as Social Work), you will get a list of entries matching your title. This image shows an example.

Generally, the journal title will be in the first group of titles. You can click on the first entry and browse through the titles until you see a screen identifying that the title is a journal. This image gives an example.

Another option is to limit your search by material type. You can do this by clicking on the Limit/Sort button at the top of the screen. Choose Material Type and then scroll through the options until you get to Serial. Select “Serial” and then hit the “Limit/sort items retrieved” button. The resulting smaller list of titles will be those that are identified as serials (meaning they are received on a regular basis by the libraries). The journal title will generally be the first one on the list.

If the journal is available online through Case the word “electronic resource” or”online” or “computer file” will be written after the journal title.This catalog record shows an example.

This means that you have access to the full text of specific volumes of that journal online. Click on the title and you will be given more detailed information on the journal. Click here for an example. From this screen you can connect directly to the online resource by following the onscreen instructions.

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Searching the Library Catalog by ISSN

The second way to see if a Case library has a particular journal title is to search by ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) in the Library Catalog. The ISSN is a unique eight-digit number, which is assigned to a particular journal and remains the same for each issue of the publication. In some cases the ISSN number will be found in the database citation (for example, in Psyclit it is coded as IS). The journal itself will also have the ISSN number displayed on the cover or on the first page.

To search for an ISSN, choose the
“Call Number/Other Number Search” option from the menu of catalog search options on the main Library Catalog screen.

Under Other Number click on ISBN/ISSN.

Enter the ISSN Number including hyphens (For example, the ISSN for the journal titled Social Work is 0037-8046). This should take you directly to the journal entry in the online catalog. Click here for an example.

If You Have Tried All Above Methods

If you have tried all of the above methods to locate the journal title in the Library Catalog and you continue to get a “Your entry would be here” message, then it means that Case does not have the journal. You can then use OhioLINK to find out if any other local libraries own the title and go to that library in person, or you can submit an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request. Allow a minimum of ten business days to receive an article requested through the ILL Department. Articles also may be available electronically through one of the OhioLINK or Case Research Databases. If you cannot find the location of a journal please ask for assistance at the Reference
Desk.

As more and more journals become available electronically you should check the Journals at the Harris Library web page and the Case E-Journal Portal.

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Journal Locations

NOTE: Journals have different locations in each of the Case libraries. In the Harris Library, the bound journals are on the upper level of the library (the Mezzanine) arranged alphabetically by title. Current journals are on the racks under the stairs on the lower level. Periodically loose issues of journals are sent to the bindery. During that period (usually about one month), those journal issues are unavailable. If you cannot locate a journal issue that is supposed to be in the library please ask for assistance at either the Reference Desk or the Circulation Desk.