If you have found a periodical (journal, magazine, etc.) we hold only in print, you have a few options!
If you are at the campus where the catalog says the journal is held, there is usually an area where we store our issues. You can ask library staff at the circulation desk to direct you and even help you find it!
This is an example of a periodical we hold in print, but pay attention to the years we hold.
Libraries may not start subscribing until long after a journal has started publishing OR they cancel their subscription even though the journal is still publishing.
Libraries may have so many back issues that they start to bind the issues together into bound volumes. Volumes are created according to the publisher's structure to help researchers. Volumes, issues, and years are all used in citing an article and that is why!
Let's pretend that either your instructor recommended an article to you using the following information or you saw a citation for this in a bibliography and wanted to read it:
Title/Journal Title: The Explicator.
Author: George Arms; University of South Carolina.; Virginia Commonwealth University.
Article Title: To Be Shocked to Life Again: Ray Bradbury's FAHRENHEIT 451.
Article Author: Lee, Lee, Sunjoo
Volume: 72
Issue/No: 2
Issue Date: 20140401
Pages: 142
All of this information can help you track down the print version of the article. By searching the catalog for "The Explicator" (the periodical title), you were able to find the link above. Maybe at first you tried the catalog by searching for the article but could not find a result and so chose to search for the journal title instead. This is better sometimes because not all publishers offer indexing information for our catalog to search by article title, though it is worth trying!
This print periodical is only held at Metro and only has issues (and therefore articles) published within this timeframe:
If your article is published in 2014, then TCC would have it available for you to read. If it was published outside of the date range of what TCC holds coverage to, you can place an ILL request for the article instead.
If your article does fall within this timeframe, but you are not at that campus, you can still place an ILL request for the article, and the Access Services Office will turn it into a document delivery request and will coordinate a scan for you. Or, you can reach out to that campus directly via the staff directory, asking them to scan and send it to you via email.