A periodical index such as Readers' Guide provides in an alphabetical sequence listings of articles by subject and author. While an abstracting service does essentially the same thing, it does it in a different way. Each article is listed with an abstract or summary of its content. Generally these abstracts are grouped under broad subject categories. To gain access to these abstracts there are author and subject indexes which must be consulted.
Resumes provide a description of each document and an abstract of the document's content.
ERIC's Thesaurus , which represents a definitive vocabulary for education, should be consulted in order to gain maximum subject access to the document resumes. The documents cited in Resources in Education are available on microfiche from Eastern Kentucky University through Hutchins Library's interlibrary loan service. Access is provided here to approximately 300 scholarly and special interest periodicals in the social sciences. Therefore, SSI is useful for locating periodical articles on a wide range of topics which are oriented toward social problems or the study of people and how they act individually and within groups. Sociological Abstracts is the major abstracting and indexing tool relating to the study of society and the relationships among social groups.