Discipline Case Study Resources

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

Check for library access to a specific journal, magazine or newspaper.

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.

Magazines for Libraries example entry First page of entry for Accounting and Taxation

Serials Directory This link opens in a new window
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Bibliographic information as well as current pricing structures for magazines, newspapers, and journals.

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.

Browse All Databases by Subject and Type

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
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Comprehensive source of detailed information concerning nonprofit American membership organizations of national scope. To search only this directory, use the drop down at the top of the linked page, then select "Encyclopedia of Associations" before entering your search terms.