Reading

Magazines and journals are called periodicals because they are issued on a regular or "periodic" basis – they might arrive daily, weekly, monthly, four times a year (quarterly), once a year (annually) or anything in between. Periodicals are usually separated into two major groups: popular and scholarly.

 Use popular magazines when you need:

• information or opinions about popular culture
• up-to-date information about current events
• general articles by people who are not necessarily specialists about the topic

Use scholarly journals (also called academic or scientific journals) when you need:

• original, primary research on a specific topic
• articles and essays written by scholars or subject experts
• factual, documented information to reinforce a position
• bibliographies that point you to other relevant research  

Use a Newspaper to:

• find current information about international, national and local events
• find editorials, commentaries, expert or popular opinions

  For more information from IRIS, check out this cool tutorial.

On the STCC Library Web site, our electronic databases are collections of articles or in-depth reports that you can retrieve through your Internet connection. Here are some databases that focus on articles from popular and general interest magazines.  

Use the following databases to retrieve articles from newspapers.

Video courtesy of Yavapai College.

The following databases may be useful to find articles in the health and medical field (remember to use alternative search terms!):