Discipline Case Study Resources - EN 204 - Professional & Technical Writing

BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook

The Occupational Outlook Handbook

The OOH features hundreds of occupations and describe What They Do, Work Environment, How to Become One, Pay, and more. Each profile also includes BLS employment projections for the 2010–20 decade.

Find Journals & Newspapers by Title

Browse Periodical Titles

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Handbooks

You may be able to find some handbooks for your field by searching in the Library Catalog for the word "handbook" or "guide" and some words about your discipline (e.g., "engineering handbook"). Books available here at the library will show up at the top of your result list, though the others available from "WorldCat Libraries" (i.e., not here) may be useful as well.

Search the Library Catalog:

Periodicals

Magazines for Libraries
This book in our Reference collection contains entries on the best periodicals in each discipline. Each entry contains contact, publication and indexing information, as well as a paragraph describing the type of articles published in the magazine. The discipline-level entries (e.g., "Nursing", "Engineering & Technology") will also include a brief introduction and a listing of the "Basic Abstracts & Indexes" for that discipline.
Serials Directory

Database that you can search to find basic information on periodicals, journals and magazines. Start with a keyword search and then add more specific terms or use the Subject links on the left to narrow your search. The information here may give you some masthead information, but you'll want to find either the main website of the journal or the paper copy on our 2nd floor (if we have it) to get the full masthead.

Indexes and Databases

An Index is a guide to the literature in a specific discipline, usually specifically the periodical/journal/magazine literature. A discipline-specific index will be an index to the articles published in the periodicals of that discipline. These formerly paper indexes are now mostly online and we usually call them databases.

Some databases cover many different disciplines (example: Academic Search Premier).

Others are discipline-specific (example: Biological Abstracts).

Once you find a good periodical for your discipline, the Serials Directory database should list the databases where that periodical is indexed. These Indexes or Databases will contain information on all the articles published in that periodical. Once you start seeing a Database or Index mentioned for many different periodicals in Serials Directory, you can assume it's a quality one for that discipline.

Links to browse the library's entire collection of databases:

All databases by Subject

All databases by Title

Professional Organizations

In many cases, the key periodicals or journals in your field may be actually published by one of the main professional organizations in your field. You could also do a web search for some key terms related to your discipline and the word "association" or "organization".

Encyclopedia of Associations

This searchable online resource contains entries on various associations and organizations, organized by discipline. Each entry has contact information as well as a description of the activities or purpose of the association.