The 'Zine Search

Many people know how to run an Internet search. Unfortunately, many people (particularly of the younger generation) are clueless when they need to research magazines.

If you're in college, your university probably has a subscription to EBSCO, or at least its Academic Search Premier subunit. This functions as a search engine for magazine articles, and sometimes you can find the full text of the article there on the site, so you don't need to worry about tracking down the print version.

Otherwise, though, you may be stuck with using your local library or libraries, looking things up the old-fashioned way. In this case, there's something called The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature. It comes out every year and has all sorts of articles for the year divided by topic. It gives you the information you need to track down that potential source.

(I have encountered a librarian who didn't know what The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature was. That was sad.)

But whenever you search magazines, be aware of the magazine's reputation and intended audience. Is it a major reference for what's knew in technology, or have you never heard of it, before? Is it for tech whizzes or the average computer-illiterate layman? Is the author a self-educated computer whiz or a general researcher? Those factors can affect the source. Run an Internet search to find the answers, if you need to.

And the other main rule of searching magazines: be willing to ask librarians for help. Sometimes they can be a lot of help; sometimes they're more clueless than you are. But be willing to ask.