It basically tells you how to read the Readers Guide (lists every magazine ever published), which makes it easier to look something up or to write bibliographies.

Procedure

To find a book review in an index, you need to know:

1) the title of the book

2) the author’s name

3) the year the book was first published

Usually a book will be reviewed in the same year it was published or the following year. Therefore, you should check each index for the year the book was published, as well as for a couple of years thereafter.

The reviews will usually be listed under the author’s last name in the indexes.

When you find the book review citations you want, refer to the abbreviation key at the front of the index to get the full titles of the periodicals containing the reviews. Then check the periodicals holdings list to see whether or not that periodical, journal, magazine, is at the Education Library or another library on campus.

Reader’s Guide to Periodic Literature

1890-to date

REF AI 3.R48

Index of reviews from general interest English-language periodicals