What is A-to-Z?A-to-Z is a catalog listing of all full-text journals available in the Walden Library. You can use it to explore the collection or find out whether the library has a particular title.
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| What you cannot do in A-to-Z |
What you CAN do in A-to-Z |
- Pull up individual articles
- Search by author or date
- Find e-books or dissertations
If you would like to these types of searches, use Thoreau or the resources on our Journals and E-books pages. |
- Find out if the library has a particular journal
- Find journals by subject
- Click through to the databases to read full text journal issues
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Accessing A-to-Z
A-to-Z is accessible from the library databases page. Look for the "A-to-Z E-Journal List" link near the top of the page.
For immediate access click here for the A-to-Z search page. Note: you will leave this guide.
Example – Finding a specific journal title:
Suppose you have the following article citation and want to know whether or not the journal that published the article is available in the Walden Library:
Pastor Jr., M., Morello-Frosch, R., & Sadd, J. (2005, June). The air is always cleaner on the other side: Race, Space, and Ambient Air Toxics Exposures in California. Journal of Urban Affairs, 27(2), 127-148.
You will need to look up the title of the journal - Journal of Urban Affairs - in A-to-Z.
The first screen you will see in A-to-Z has a journal title search box at the top of the page. We can enter "Journal of Urban Affairs" and click search.
Here is the result screen - the name of our journal with information about the library holdings.
The important pieces of information in the search result are:
- The date span of the journal issues
- The databases that contain this journal
In the example Journal of Urban Affairs is available in full text in two databases and both databases cover the same date range: 1996 to present with a 1-year embargo.
Note that sometimes different databases will cover different dates:
Also, many journals have an embargo on them - this is a delay period set by the publishers before articles can be offered in full-text online. For example Journal of Urban Affairs has a 1-year embargo. If we are looking at online issues in March 2009, the earliest full-text articles we can access are from the February 2008 issue.
You can click on the database names in the search results to jump directly to that database. In the database you will have options for browsing the journal issues or searching for individual journal articles
If you cannot find your title in A-to-Z you may want to try different types of search. See the examples below.
If a journal is not listed in A-to-Z at all, then the journal is not currently available in full text in the Walden Library. Please remember that e-books and dissertations are not usually listed in A-to-Z and may be found through our e-book and dissertation databases.
Alternate Search Strategies in A-to-Z
Different title search methods
Use the drop down menu by the first search box for different options. The default, “Title begins with” will match the first few words of a journal title. “Title equals” will look for an exact match to the text you typed in (no extra words). If you would like to search on a partial title, use the “Title contains all words” option. You can also search by ISSN.
Browsing by title
Use the clickable alphabetical index to browse for journal titles.
Subject browsing
You may be curious to see what journals the library has for a particular subject. Use the drop dow menu that says "Please select a category" to start browsing by subject.
Once you click a major category, you will be able to choose more specific sub-categories.
Once you get to your specific topic, you can see exactly how many titles we have for that area. Just as above, you will see date ranges and have the option to click through to the full-text in the databases.
Citation Linker
A-to-Z does offer one tool to help you find individual articles. Click the Citation Linker link on the main A-to-Z search page.
You will see a form to enter in the information you have about an article. Here is an example with the citation given earlier in this guide.
Enter as much information as you have then click "Look Up". Remember to include the correct journal title. You may also want to use only the last name of the first author. As always, be careful about spelling - the search engine looks for exact matches only.
