Using & Evaluating Print
Resources
Lesson 5
Alternative Press Index Lesson
The Alternative Press Index covers many unique magazines and journals not found anywhere else. As stated earlier, every index uses selection criteria and has an editorial policy. Mainstream indexes, such as those produced by the H.W. Wilson Company, do not include magazines and journals from the more radical left or right. The Alternative Press Index on the other hand specifically indexes magazines and journals on the political, social, and economic left.
The Alternative Press Index is published quarterly with an annual cumulation. It is also available in electronic form. (We will be focusing on the print version of the index in this lesson). The Alternative Press Index includes magazines and journals not found in most mainstream indexes. Unfortunately the Alternative Press Index is not found in most college libraries. The reasons for this vary, but the fact that this important index is missing from most college libraries says something about the power of the dominant culture to shape academic debate. You will need to check to see if your college libaray subscribes to the Alternative Press Index. If your libary does not subscribe to the Alternative Press Index you may wish to skip this lesson and go directly to the Using Print Periodical Indexes Assignment.
The reason why we have not included an index to periodicals covering the radical right in this Tutorial is not because we are trying to censor such information, rather, there simply is no such index in publication. No one from the right has seen fit to produce an index comparable to the Alternative Press Index.
Like H.W. Wilson Company indexes, the Alternative Press Index also provides the researcher with information on how to use the index.
The Alternative Press Index is a great resource for information on our topic of the genetic engineering of food. This topic is extremely controversial and persons working in progressive organizations have much to say about the topic.
The Alternative Press Index does not use the same subject headings as the H.W. Wilson Company indexes. As a result you may have to approach your search differently. For example, when searching for information in the Alternative Press Index we cannot use the H.W. Wilson subject heading: "Bioengineered food". No such subject heading exists in the Alternative Press Index . However, we do find an entry for "Biotechnology" which refers us to the subject heading: "Genetically Engineered Food."
When we locate the subject heading "Genetically Engineered Food" we find the following:
None of these articles appeared in the H.W. Wilson indexes. These articles are unique to the Alternative Press Index. Most of these articles will also not be found in the WebPALS General Magazines Index, which is produced by the Information Access Company. The Alternative Press Index provides us unique information not found anywhere else. This information will assist us in writing a research paper and it will provide us with information from a different perspective.
Now that we have covered all the print periodical index lessons, it is time for you to use the indexes yourself. Locate your library's periodical index section. If you are not sure where your library's periodical index section is, ask the librarian.
Print off the Periodical Indexes Assignment and answer the questions. When you are done with the assignment proceed to the Encyclopedia lesson.
