Locating Full-Text Journals in the CCSU Library Collection: A Primer
by Yelena Mushkatina

The CCSU collection of full-text journals online has grown tremendously over the past two years. Currently, there are about 1,200 digitized full-text journals available to CCSU users in CONSULS, the library public catalog, and about 15,000 journals available through various databases, publisher’s websites, and aggregators. All are available 24/7 on and off-campus to the CCSU community; however, to take the full advantage of this collection and use these journals successfully from home or office, library users must 1) have a valid Blue Chip card, 2) set a library pin code (see the Guide prepared by John Rutherford for additional configuration tips)— and, 3) follow the search strategies provided in this article!

To facilitate access to full-text journals online, the library purchased TDNet  in 2003. TDNet serves as an intermediary between the library user and subscription digital journal collections by providing title and subject access to online journals. Subscribing to this service brought some significant changes in the library catalog records found in CONSULS for digitized journals. This article is a brief introduction to these changes and presents guidelines for locating full-text online journals in the CCSU library collection without being lost or frustrated.
 

If the record for a digitized journal is located in CONSULS, users will find a CCSU-specific link to  TDNet. Please note that most of the digitized full-text journals are available to the CCSU community only by subscription; therefore, it is highly recommended that CCSU searchers choose the link that indicates “CCSU users…”.

By following this link from the CCSU record, the TDNet web page for the journal will appear on the screen. This page lists all online sources of full-text (e.g., databases, aggregators, publishers, etc.) available to CCSU library users. The column right of the title indicates online coverage, which varies from one resource to another. Additionally, the check marks under ‘Print Holdings’ indicate whether the library holds the print version of the journal.

The links beneath the specific titles in the ‘Journal Title’ column lead the user to the publisher’s website or a particular database where the full-text of the journal is located. Some of these will lead the user to the page of the journal (e.g., EBSCOhost EJS); others will link to the database that contains the journal.  Alas, in the latter case, the user has to know how to search that particular database. Ask a librarian or consult the help menu within the database if you need assistance.

Additional CONSULS Search Hint!
If you just started looking for periodicals in your subject area and do not have a particular journal title in mind, a subject search “<Subject> Periodicals” in CONSULS will retrieve records for all print and digitized journals in CONSULS on the subject indicated in your search. For instance, the search query “Music Periodicals” will display records for all print and digitized journals for music.

Searching TDNet Directly
Since not all digitized journals are in CONSULS yet, the next step a successful searcher would take is to search TDNet directly to see whether the journal is available in any of the full-text databases to which CCSU is subscribed.

How to Find an Online Journal in TDNet
From the library home page, follow the Digital Library Resources link and then
Digital Journals (TDNet). Two basic strategies effective for searching TDNet are ‘Journal Title’ and ‘Subject Browse’.

If you know the exact title of the journal, just type it in the search box and you will get links to all resources that contain the full-text online version of it. For instance, typing “Oxford Economic Papers” in the ‘Journal Title’ search will bring up the following screen:



If you do not have a specific title in mind but just want to browse journals available in the area of your research interest, select the subject from the drop-down menu by clicking once.

In the future, we plan to publish more instructions on how to use TDNet. Meanwhile, explore it, enjoy it, and, if you have any questions, ask a librarian by phone (832-2060) or by e-mail.