As you explore the resources on this page, keep in mind that a lot of historic research involves browsing and serendipitous discovery. Resources that were published before the Internet and scanned or brought online later were not created in the same way as resources originally published online. The ability to search within these publications may be limited, and the data available to search is only as good as the human who entered it.
This means this research takes patience and time. You may spend more time scrolling and browsing through a title than you typically would with a digital source. Think of it like flipping through a real magazine - you don't always know what you're looking for until it catches your eye!
Start with a more general search and browse within the results. Advertisements and magazines may not have detailed descriptions or tagging to tell you what is inside, so keeping your search broad can help you get a wide scope. It may be useful to search for a specific publication first.
Library databases use subject terms to label the main topics of a source. The terms listed below are suggested for use in library databases.
Advertisements tend to be tagged with the industry they are advertising. For example, an ad for a car will likely have "automotive" somewhere in the description. Think of what industries would have ads looking towards the future, such as:
Search tip: Use an asterisk (*) to search for all endings of a word. For example, to search for auto, automobile, and automotive all at once, use auto*. This will tell the database to search for all words that start with auto.
Most databases have the option to search within specific dates. Think of when magazines and publishers would run stories looking towards the future, or consider searching around the date(s) of specific events that would have made people anxious or curious about the future. For example:
These are magazines that have online archives or collections for historical issues. Access may be limited to a certain number of articles or views per month.
The library provides access to many magazine archives for searching. Use some of the search tips above to get started. Many of these databases also have a filter option for "Document Type," where you can select specific types of content included in the magazine like advertisements, editorials, entertainment reviews, and more.
Date(s):1923-2000
Articles from Time Magazine including all pictures and advertisements.
Date(s): 1936-2000
Articles from Life Magazine, including all pictures and advertisements.
Date(s):1974-2000
Articles from People Magazine, including all pictures and advertisements.
Date(s): 1880-2015
American and British magazines about film, music, broadcasting, and theatre, including fan magazines. Includes full issues from publications such as Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, The Stage, Variety, and many more.
Date(s): 1933-2014
Articles from Esquire Magazine including all pictures and advertisements.
Date(s):1930-2000
Articles from Fortune Magazine including all pictures and advertisements.
Many of the magazine databases can be searched simultaneously. To do this, start by clicking on the link to one specific magazine. This will bring you to an advanced search page. It will list what database you are searching above the search box. Click on the title of the database.
This will display a list of all available databases. Find and select all databases you want to search.
When finished, click select. The search box will now show all of the databases you have selected.
The library has some print magazines on the shelves in Dinand. They are bound, which means every issue of the magazine published in a single year is collected into one single volume.
These are scholarly, peer-reviewed journals in the field of Future Studies. In them you will find academic research articles written by scholars and experts about new research in the field.
You can use CrossSearch, the search box on the library website, to search within a specific journal. To start, click on "Advanced Search" below the search box.
Then, enter the name of the journal you want to search in one of the search boxes. In the dropdown menu to the right of the search box, select "Journal Title/Source SO"
Use the other search boxes to include specific terms you want to search within the journal, then click search.
You may need to put the title of the journal in quotation marks (" ") to make sure it searches for that exact title.
