dec08b.indd


Mary Murray and John Mumford 

Periodical
indexes
on
the
edge
of
time


A look at the introduction to library research course at Juniata College 

Allow me to begin with a confession: I always wanted to be a science fi ction 
writer, hence the title. In fact, I incorporate 
science fiction short stories into the one­credit 
Introduction to Library Research course I 
teach every semester. Not only does the 
assignment expose the students to our ex­
tensive special collections (in this case, the 
Loyal F. Ramsey Science Fiction Collection), 
but it also helps to ground a course whose 
content is largely electronically based in the 
material, printed world that is the foundation 
of libraries. While so many of us—librarians 
and students alike—become more and more 
entangled in the immediacy of electronic 
information, it is important to remember the 
lasting value of the printed artifact itself, and 
several assignments throughout the semester 
emphasize that point. 

In this semester­long introduction to the 
rigorous world of library research, I have 
always included a hands­on assignment 
involving our collection of print indexes. 
Fifteen years ago, when the course began, 
these print indexes were still indispensable, 
as computers often failed us at the time. Have 
these unwieldy behemoths of the periodical 
publishing world now been relegated to the 
dusty, and perhaps musty, back shelves of 
your library—somewhere between the Twi­
light Zone and Rigel 7? With the advent of 
online databases and thousands of full­text 
journals, periodical indexes have almost 
surely been buried under the omnipresent 
avalanche of technology; we have dropped 
our subscriptions to most of them over the 
years. 

It is important to keep in mind the 
shortcomings of the technology inundation, 

however; while the depth of online coverage 
is increasing every day, most databases still 
lack comprehensive coverage of published 
periodicals from the early 19th and 20th 
centuries. 

The Big Picture 
As a small, liberal arts college, Juniata College 
tries to emphasize the Big Picture in most of 
what we teach; it is difficult to imagine any 
kind of picture, regardless of size, being fully 
complete after looking solely at electronic da­
tabases, which are still a relatively small rep­
resentation of the human intellectual record. 
Libraries are preservers and conservators of 
this record, and it is increasingly incumbent 
upon us as librarians to make sure our stu­
dents recognize that EBSCO and ProQuest 
are not technological panaceas. Sometimes, 
students still have to get their hands dirty. 

I begin the print index assignment with 
the following introduction: 

You are in a time machine, and the 
year is 1990. We are still the Juniata 
Indians (now Eagles). The library has 
two computers, and one of those does 
not work. The only way you can really 
do research is to look up books in the 
card catalog, and look up journal ar­
ticles (today’s assignment) in the print 
indexes in the basement. (You have 
to blow the dust off them fi rst). Your 

M a r y  M u r r a y  i s  h e a d  o f  i n s t r u c t i o n ,  e - m a i l :  
murraym@juniata.edu, and John Mumford is library 
director, e-mail: mumford@juniata.edu, at Juniata 
College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania 
© 2008 Mary Murray and John Mumford 

C&RL News December 2008  674 

mailto:mumford@juniata.edu
mailto:murraym@juniata.edu


paper is due in three days, so you must 
research the following topics and deter­
mine if we own any of the journals in 
which the articles were published. Can 
you find the article in the library? You 
ask someone for full­text online, and by 
the perplexed look you get, you realize 
it does not yet exist! Use our electronic 
journal list to determine if we own the 
articles! 

The Introduction to Library Research 
course has proven to be good launching 
pad for teaching students how to search for 
articles in the old­fashioned way. While all 
students receive cursory information literacy 
instruction and an introduction to databases 
during their freshman year, it is rare that we 
get the chance to involve students in in­depth, 
old­school research that is the hallmark of the 
mythical College Library. This assignment, 
however, is a chance to push students out of 
their technological comfort zone. 

The guided worksheet that accompanies 
the assignment asks students to look for ar­
ticles in our collection of print indexes—from 
The London Times to the Book Review Index. 
They are given subjects to research, then they 
must select the most appropriate periodical 
index for each subject, find an article about 
that subject, and write out the complete 
citation of that article. The exercise calls on 
multiple higher­end research skills: Students 
must first identify an appropriate index, then 
they must perform subject searching through 
the pages (without the help of an electronic 
index), identify individual articles (while real­
izing that almost every periodical index cites 
articles in a different format), and decipher 
the various pieces of article citations in or­
der to try to locate the articles in our library. 
(The citation­writing exercise is valuable in 
and of itself; as many of us know, it is not 
always a given that the students will know 
the difference between the article title and 
the journal name.) 

The second part of the assignment does 
become electronic, as the students have to 
figure out if we have access to the journals 

that contain the articles they have found. Not 
only must students realize that they have to 
search in the periodical list for the journal 
name (not the article title, as so many try 
to do), but along the way their confusion 
is also compounded by figuring out which 
part of the citation is the journal name, title 
of article, and author’s name, and what those 
abbreviations for “illustrated” or “containing 
bibliography” really mean. By the end of 
the exercise, the exasperated but relieved 
students have experienced what students 
went through years ago and perhaps have 
a better understanding of the fundamental 
construction of indexes and databases. As an 
added benefit, they must ask a lot of ques­
tions throughout the process. 

Because of the unfamiliarity and relative 
intricacy of the assignment, it is a tough 
exercise, particularly for the 8:00 a.m. sec­
tions. But it always seems to be worthwhile 
to step back to a time when researching was 
all tactile and hands­on. While completing 
this activity, the students soon realize that in 
the days before computer­assisted searching, 
one had to dig to fi nd information. 

What students gained 
Some appreciation for the old ways of re­
search is not the only lesson gained with 
this assignment. Students also begin to reach 
an understanding of the construction of a 
database. By working with a physical mani­
festation of an electronic database, they can 
see that the results they get with a computer 
search are not just random pieces of free­
floating information adrift like space nebulae, 
but that the electronic databases themselves 
have the same underlying foundations—cita­
tions, subject headings, journal, and article 
titles—that they see in the print index. The 
indexes become a tool for teaching students 
not just how to find information, but also how 
information has to be organized in order for 
it to be found. There is a certain amount of 
value as well in the inevitable trial­and­error 
process the students go through as they com­
plete the assignment–the process of searching 
and struggling, battling through “see also” 

December 2008  675 C&RL News 



references, having to take time and skim 
through the headings, even in some cases 
having to look up information in an index 
that refers to an abstract in another volume, 
are all worthwhile endeavors. The repetition 
and the struggle can be valuable tools for 
teaching students about the complexity of 
research—understanding how a .13­second 
Google (or ProQuest) search is rarely the 
starting and stopping point for fi nding infor­
mation. In a way, hands­on research can be a 
building block, much like hitting the tackling 
dummy or juggling a soccer ball. 

All librarians place a great amount of value 
in the hands­on approach to student learning, 
and we are no different. Most of the lessons 
in the class are hands­on, with very short 
lectures and occasional interruptions to the 
students’ work to make sure they are on the 
right track. The physical approach to learning 
not only teaches the students that they need 
guidance and must ask questions, but it also 
complements the auditory and visual learn­
ing that is taking place by attaching a tactile 
element to the learning experience. Many 
students need the reinforcement of “learning 
by doing” in order to grasp a concept fully. It 
is one thing to tell students how a print index 
works, but quite another thing to place an 
index in their hands and offer guidance as 
they try to figure it out for themselves. Often, 
the physical act of paging through an index 
reinforces many of the more abstract concepts 
we try to teach throughout the semester. The 
trial, error, and initial confusion are all part 
of the learning process. 

What librarians learn 
Teaching this course has consistently taught 
me that students do not always understand 
what we consider to be obvious. It is easy to 
take for granted what we think they know, 
but working with the students one­on­one 
with complicated assignments allows us to 
see where we need to be more explicit in 
our instruction. Particularly in the case of this 
assignment, we assume that most students 
know that information is still available in 
print, that they know that journal publishing 

in print far predates the Internet revolution, 
that they know how an index (of any kind) 
works. Sometimes, going back to the basics 
is the most efficient way to impart knowl­
edge. Having the students operate, even for 
just an hour, almost entirely in the world 
of print materials is a valuable exercise in 
itself for demonstrating the dizzying breadth 
of published information and for showing 
students some fundamental tenets of informa­
tion classification—the stuff that frequently 
gets hidden beneath the slick graphics and 
interfaces of today’s electronic indexes. How 
much are the students able to take advantage 
of this growing database world without some 
kind of understanding of the tools that laid 
the groundwork? 

In keeping with the old­school theme 
(who reads books in a library, anyway?), 
we emphasize hands­on experience with 
physical books in other lessons, as well. As 
mentioned previously, one week is devoted 
to having students read a science fi ction short 
story from our science fiction special collec­
tions and write a review of it, students also 
spend two weeks lost on an “Extreme Trea­
sure Hunt” in our reference collection, and 
another week is spent analyzing a rare book 
from our archives. Often we become so busy 
in a library, what with endless printing and 
electronic database searching, that we forget 
to read, experience, and appreciate such 
things. These tactile reinforcements serve as 
another reminder of the forebears of today’s 
information world; they also jolt students 
into cognizance by prying them away from 
the computer in front of which they spend 
so many hours of their days. 

In teaching these students about the rela­
tive obscurities of library research, we learn a 
lot about what they find to be confusing and 
what we take for granted that they already 
know. By watching the students learn, we 
become better teachers and have a better 
framework for working with other students– 
not just in the library classroom, but even at 
the reference desk and across campus. The 
students have found, too, a certain amount 

(continues on page 702) 

C&RL News December 2008  676 



It should be stressed that SERU is not a 
one­size­fits­all approach. Because the SERU 
statements are intended to articulate common 
(but not necessarily universal) practices, they 
will not fit every circumstance. Instead, SERU 
is intended as an alternative to license agree­
ments when such an alternative makes sense 
to both parties to a transaction. 

Some parties may not be comfortable 
dealing in high­cost or high­risk transactions 
without a license agreement, while others 
may be required by their general counsel 
to negotiate licenses for all purchases, no 
matter the cost or perceived risk. If either 
party is uncomfortable with using the SERU 
approach (or should either party seek to 
make changes to the SERU), then a negotiated 
license may be more appropriate to complete 
the transaction. The SERU FAQ provides ad­
ditional suggestions as to how SERU may be 
implemented.4 

Implementing SERU 
As noted earlier, SERU was adopted as a 
NISO Recommended Best Practice early in 
2008. The SERU statements of practice are 
available at the NISO Web site.5 This site also 
provides many other resources, including an 
FAQ, links to relevant articles that provide 
more detail on SERU, and details on the 
aforementioned SERU Registry as well as 
instructions for joining a electronic list de­
voted to discussion, advice, and information 
about SERU. 

The first step toward implementing SERU 
is to determine whether such an approach 
would work for your institution or company 
by reading through the statements, FAQ, and 
associated articles and presentations linked 
from NISO’s SERU page. If applicable, join 
the SERU Registry and discussion list. 

Publishers should let potential custom­
ers know if they would prefer to use SERU 
instead of a license agreement for a given 
transaction, and librarians should ask pub­
lishers if SERU could be invoked when 
engaged in preliminary discussions. If either 
party is unfamiliar with the SERU approach, 
they should be directed to the appropriate 

documentation at NISO’s Web site. Through 
using SERU, both publishers and librarians 
may be able to sidestep the laborious licens­
ing process, thereby freeing up valuable time 
and reducing the high costs associated with 
license negotiations. 

Notes 
1. Maria Collins, “SERU: An Alternative to 

Licensing—An Interview with Selden Dur­
gom Lamoureaux,” Serials Review 33:2 (June 
2007), 122–28. 

2. Karla Hahn, “SERU (Shared Electronic 
Resource Understanding): Opening Up New 
Possibilities for Electronic Resource Transac­
tions,” D­Lib Magazine 13:11/12 (Novem­
ber/December 2007), www.dlib.org/dlib 
/november07/hahn/11hahn.html. 

3. See www.niso.org/publications/rp 
/RP­7­2008.pdf. 

4. SERU FAQ can be found at www.niso. 
org/workrooms/seru/statementFAQ/. 

5. NISO Web site is at www.niso.org 
/workrooms/seru. 

(Periodical indexes . . .” continued from 
page 676) 
of charm in these “kitschy” and seemingly 
outdated activities; it’s such a drastic change 
of pace for many of them that they respond 
reasonably well to the assignments, and 
many even get legitimately excited about the 
idea of holding in their hands a book that is 
hundreds of years old, or seeing a citation 
to an article that was published before their 
grandparents were born. 

In a course that meets only once a week 
for one hour at a time, it is important to 
incorporate activities that have maximum 
impact. Nudging the students into the unfa­
miliar galaxy of print indexes is an example 
of one such activity. Not only are the students 
physically engaged in a tactile and unfamiliar 
learning environment, but the activity also 
provides students with a new lens through 
which they can understand modern infor­
mation principles—even from the edge of 
time. 

C&RL News December 2008  702 

http:www.niso.org
www.niso
www.niso.org/publications/rp
www.dlib.org/dlib