Periodicals Department

Location

The Periodicals Department is located on the Second floor of the library. The most recent issues of all journals are located in the Current Issues Stacks on the Second floor while older journal issues published before 1975 are located in the periodical stacks in the basement. Law journals are held in the Law library, Medical journals at the Medical library and Veterinary journals in the Veterinary library.

OPENING HOURS

Monday to Thursday: 0800 hrs to 1630hrs.
Friday: 0800 hrs to 1600 hrs.
Saturday and Sunday: Closed
Public Holidays: Closed.

STAFF

Periodicals Librarian: Mr. L. Kusekwa
Library Assistant: Mr. R. Chitepo

MEMBERSHIP

The Periodicals Section is open to University of Zimbabwe Post graduate students, members of staff and Approved readers.

RESOURCES ADMINISTERED BY THE PERIODICALS SECTION

The Periodicals Department deals with newspapers, directories, annuals, yearbooks, abstracts, indexes and periodicals (magazines, Print and Electronic Journals etc.) as commonly understood. It does not handle governmental and non-governmental organizations publications (for which you should enquire in the Government Publications Section of the Library).

PRINT JOURNALS

The Periodicals Section houses print periodicals. These are found on the shelves and can be consulted on request. All Periodicals are shelved according to broad subject and their call number according to the Library of Congress Classification. Subject areas covered include arts, humanities, social sciences, education, engineering, natural sciences, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, agriculture and library science.

Reserve Collection

Academic staff may request to have certain periodicals put on the reserve for the benefit of their students. The lecturing staff assists the librarians in identifying those periodicals that are on demand and these are classified as reserve materials. These are shelved in the reserve section of the periodicals stack room. The Section also houses current newspapers such as the Herald, Independent, Standard and Financial Gazette in the reserve section available to the public on request.

Pre 1975 Journals

All print journals that date back to before 1975 are found in the University library basement stack room.

Locating journal literature and articles

Articles are found in magazines and journals. Individual articles do not appear in the Library catalogue, but the journal in which they appear can be found on the catalogue. Articles can be searched if:
You know the title of the journal
And the volume, issue number
Year of publication
Author and article title
Or at least the subject area/ topic.

Electronic Journals Collections

The Library has access to thousands of full contents periodicals, table of contents and abstracts of thousands more periodicals through the Internet. All the online periodicals are available through the OPAC or though the Electronic Resources link on the University of Zimbabwe Library Homepage. Included under Electronic Resources is:

• The e-journals list
• E-journals on campus access - Electronic databases are searchable from anywhere within the campus using the campus wide network.
• E-journals off campus access -Electronic databases are searchable off campus but require login using student name and barcode.
• E-books- electronic books & Subject based gateways -Gateways to specific information on particular subjects.
• World bank online -Provides access to World Bank publications.
• UN depository library -Provides access to United Nations Publications.

Periodicals Service Desk

The Periodicals Service Desk is staffed by the Periodicals Librarians. They assist with reference questions and queries relating to periodicals. The Service Desk hours are the same as the Library opening hours. Readers needing information or help of any kind with regard to periodicals are urged to ask at the Periodicals Enquiry Desk located at the Reserve Section of the Periodicals Stack room.

Circulation Policy

Lectures and Staff

Lectures and staff are allowed to check out periodicals out of the library. They can borrow periodicals using their university staff Ids. Periodicals in the reserve collection can be borrowed overnight. Open stack periodicals can be borrowed for up to three days.

Students

Both Postgraduate and Undergraduate students have access to the periodicals section but may not borrow outside the library. Students use their students Identification cards to request for reserve journals from the periodicals reserve collection. Periodicals in the open stack collection are issued to students for reference purposes only and photocopying. . Students must not take periodicals out of the periodicals stack room.

Returns

Periodicals must be returned to the Periodicals Service Desk.

LOAN REQUIREMENTS

The borrower must present a valid university ID in order to borrow journals.