Select useful titles and look at the full record for subject headings . You will want to use periodical indexes and abstracts to update older material or to compare recent events with past events or to find information of current interest. Both popular and scholarly journals are indexed in the general and specialized indexes listed below. Popular magazines have short articles that are written to inform or entertain the general public. They are seldom footnoted, or give the source of information, use non-technical language and are written by authors that on usually on the staff of the magazine.
Scholarly journals have articles that are lengthy and list references in footnotes.
They are written by authors that have conducted research in the field and who are usually affiliated with a university or research centre. CBCA covers the time period 1982 - present. Geobase provides a list of scholarly articles with abstracts to worldwide literature on the earth sciences. Indexes books, pamphlets, reports, journals and government documents throughout the world. Social Sciences Index covers the time period 1983 - present.