Monday, October 05, 2009

Say you're one of them


Oprah's latest book club book has arrived on the North Metro campus. Say You're One of them by Uwem Akpan.

Through GALILEO you may access NoveList and read the reviews from BookList, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus.

A reviewer noted that the first story,"An Ex-mas Feast", was published in the New Yorker. My favorite task is to see if I can really find something. I searched for the New Yorker in the Journals A-Z link. It is available in full text through Ebsco (from 2004), ProQuest (from 2001), Gale, and Lexis Nexis. I went looking in GALILEO for "An Ex-mas Feast".

I did a specific search through The New Yorker. I did a general search through the GALILEO search box. Nada. I searched for Uwem Akpan and did find another short story in The New Yorker, titled "My Parents Bedroom" (2006).

A specific search through the New Yorker showed it isn't really full text in Ebsco. With the date I was able to find the article. The Find It button told me which libraries hold that issue.
Hmm...it's not in ProQuest. I checked by the New Yorker date - 13 Jun 2005- no "ex mas feast".
I tried Lexis Nexis using Uwem Akpan in the New Yorker- I did not find ex mas feast but another article by him.
Went to Gale Cengage Learning- still no luck finding this particular short story.

A Google search for 'ex mas feast New Yorker' did find the short story dated 13 Jun 2005 in the New Yorker archives.

So why couldn't I find it full text in GALILEO? One of life's mysteries.

-kls