A bibliographic index is a
bibliography
Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliograph ...
intended to help find a publication. Citations are usually listed by author and subject in separate sections, or in a single alphabetical sequence under a system of authorized headings collectively known as
controlled vocabulary, developed over time by the indexing service. Indexes of this kind are issued in print
periodical form (issued in monthly or quarterly paperback supplements, cumulated annually), online, or both. Since the 1970s, they are typically generated as output from
bibliographic database
A bibliographic database is a database of bibliographic records. This is an organised online collection of references to published written works like academic journal, journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government an ...
s (whereas earlier they were manually compiled using
index card
An index card (or record card in British English and system cards in Australian English) consists of card stock (heavy paper) cut to a standard size, used for recording and storing small amounts of discrete data. A collection of such cards ei ...
s).
"From many points of view an index is synonymous with a catalogue, the principles of analysis used being identical, but whereas an index entry merely locates a subject, a catalogue entry includes descriptive specification of a document concerned with the subject".
The index may help search the literature of, for example, an academic field or discipline (example: ''
Philosopher's Index''), to works of a specific literary form (''
Biography Index'') or published in a specific format (''
Newspaper Abstracts''), or to the analyzed contents of a serial publication (''
New York Times Index'').
See also
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Citation index
A citation index is a kind of bibliographic index, an index of citations between publications, allowing the user to easily establish which later documents cite which earlier documents. A form of citation index is first found in 12th-century H ...
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Guide to information sources
A Guide to information sources (or a bibliographic guide, a literature guide, a guide to reference materials, a subject gateway, etc.) is a kind of metabibliography. Ideally it is not just a listing of bibliographies, reference works and other so ...
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Indexing and abstracting service
An abstracting service is a service that provides abstracts of publications, often on a subject or group of related subjects, usually on a subscription basis. An indexing service is a service that assigns descriptors and other kinds of access po ...
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Library catalog
A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliography, bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a group of libra ...
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List of academic databases and search engines
This page contains a representative list of major databases and search engines useful in an academic setting for finding and accessing articles in academic journals, institutional repository, institutional repositories, archives, or other collecti ...
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Metabibliography
A metabibliography (or biblio-bibliography) is a bibliography of bibliographies.
While bibliographies serve the finding of relevant documents, metabibliographies serve the finding of the relevant bibliographies in which the relevant documents may ...
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Metadata registry
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Subject index
References
Bibliographic databases and indexes
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