Saturday, September 18, 2010

Journal Finder

Lately, I've noticed the Reference Librarians helping lots of students find articles online. Students often have questions about using Journal Finder. You can link to Journal Finder either from the Hofstra University website or from the Law Library website's main page, under Research. Journal Finder will tell you if a specific journal or newspaper (it works for newspapers, too!) is available on one of the Hofstra University databases.

To use Journal Finder, just type in the name of your journal, not the title of the article. The search results will list the databases, with dates of coverage for each, that contain your journal. Once you click on a database, you can browse to find the year and issue, or specific date, of your article, and then link to the article in full text. If there are no databases listed for your journal, try Lexicat, Hofstra's online catalog, to see if your journal or newspaper is available in Axinn Library or the Law Library in either print or microform. If it is not, it may be in Lexis, Westlaw, a BNA database, or another Law School subscription database accessible only to law students and faculty. Journal Finder does not locate publications in these databases. If you need help finding articles online, just ask a Reference Librarian.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

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