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 ''bibliography ...
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
Control may refer to:
Basic meanings Economics and business
* Control (management), an element of management
* Control, an element of management accounting
* Comptroller (or controller), a senior financial officer in an organization
* Control ...
, 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 databases (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 e ...
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
''Biography Index'' is a bibliographic index that indexes biographical information contained in books and magazines. Its content can also be found in the bibliographic database
A bibliographic database is a database of bibliographic records, a ...
'') or published in a specific format (''
Newspaper Abstracts''), or to the analyzed contents of a serial publication (''
New York Times Index'').
See also
*
Citation index
*
Guide to information sources
*
Indexing and abstracting service
*
Library catalog
A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all 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 libraries is also ...
*
List of academic databases and search engines
This article contains a representative list of notable databases and search engines useful in an academic setting for finding and accessing articles in academic journals, institutional repositories, archives, or other collections of scientific and ...
*
Metabibliography
*
Metadata registry
*
Subject index
References
Bibliographic databases and indexes
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