Business Periodicals Index

Description of publication

The Business Periodicals Index is dedicated to business periodicals, 604 of them to be exact. That's not all there are to be sure, but it's a good start. Look up almost any subject matter in business and if it's been written about (since January 1958) you should find the citations and an annotation of the article in the BPI. Disk data only go back to June 1982, and abstracts back to June 1990.
These homely blue-covered indexes are pure reference function-no pictures, no graphs, essentially no fun. Nevertheless, they are a very important source, found in almost all libraries. You don't need to have a CD-ROM, or go on-line or through other machinations, although such services are provided by the publisher. The BPI is published monthly, except August, with a bound cumulation each quarter and year. It is a cumulative index to English-language periodicals. Selection of periodicals (395 at this date, taken from a list of 522) for indexing is accomplished by subscriber vote represented by the Committee on Wilson Indexes of the American Library Association's Reference and Adult Services Division.

Although no author indexing is available, articles about general subjects, a company, or a person are indexed under the specific name. Bibliographic information may be a little hard to decipher (see the Sample page). Also, the periodicals covered may not be up-to-date. A separate listing of citations for book reviews is at the end. The BPI does not have a table of contents.

Perhaps the mother-of-all-indexes is the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, a cumulative author-subject index to English-language periodicals of general interest. Although not specifically dedicated to business, the periodicals listing are comprehensive. A total list can be seen in the "Periodicals Indexed" section at the beginning of the book.

It's tough to write about indexes without mentioning The New York Times Index, published semimonthly with quarterly cumulating and distributed by University Microfilms International, (800) 521-0600. This Index has been designed to provide simple access to the contents of The New York Times. It can be used by itself for a basic chronological overview of the news, or it can be used as a guide to the location of the full articles in the original newspaper.

The New York Times Index contains abstracts of the significant news, editorial matter, and special features published in the newspaper, daily and Sunday. These abstracts (entries) are classified under appropriate subject, geographic, organization, and personal name headings.

Headings and their subdivisions are arranged alphabetically; the entries under them are arranged chronologically. Each entry is followed by a precise reference-date, section, page, and column-to the item it summarizes. All related headings are covered either by cross-references or by duplicate entries. For example:

European leaders, in their landmark attempt to create a single, unifying currency for the 21st century, officially name it the Euro and agree on a timetable for introducing it by 2002; chronology; photos (M), D 16,1,1:5.
European Union leaders agree to begin formal negotiations with ten Eastern European countries as well as Malta and Cyprus, by the end of 1997 concerning their admission to the union (M), D 17,1,17:1.

The entries include references to an article's length: (S) = article up to 6 column inches in length; (M) = article of 6 to 18 inches in length; (L) article over 18 inches in length.

Something to Think About

The Business Periodicals Index is published monthly except which month? What is meant by "quarterly and annual cumulations"? How many journals in business and economics are covered in the BPI? Are there other sources that can provide approximately the same information? If so can you list them?

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Business Periodicals Index

ISSN 0007-6961)
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