The Olympics: A Guide to Reference Sources

Library of Congress Resources: Indexes and Abstracts

When searching for periodical articles about the Olympics, researchers should choose the index most closely related to their interest. The broadest coverage on a wide variety of topics is to be found in Infotrac (1980 to present), also known as Magazine Index, and the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (1901 to present; LC call number AI3.R48). Information on the economic aspects of the Olympics are best found in the Business Periodicals Index (19 58-present; LC call number Z7164.C81 B983) and ABI Inform. Political and economic citations are included in both the Social Sciences Index (LC call number AI3.S62) and the Social Science Citation Index (LC call number Z7161.S65). The latter has the added benefit of leading to other cited works.

For 19th- and early 20th-century material, indexes are few: Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (LC call number AI3.P7), Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (LC call number AI3.R48), New York Times Index (LC call number AI21.N45), and The Times Index (London) (LC call number AI21.T4) should prove useful. In most cases one will find substantially more articles in th e years when the Olympics were held. Lists of available indexes and abstracts, both print and electronic, are obtainable from reference librarians. The Library currently does not have a copy of the CD-ROM title, SPORTDiscus. If one is interested only in a specific sport, it is sometimes worthwhile, although quite time consuming, to search through journals devoted to that sport, beginning perhaps six months before the games.