Finding Church Periodicals in the Church History Catalog

by David Taylor, Church History Library
13 April 2021

See how new updates to the Church History Catalog can expedite searching for periodicals published by Church members.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a rich history of publishing newspapers and magazines. From the earliest days of the Restoration to modern times, periodicals have been the means of disseminating news, doctrine, life help, personal devotion, and other content for members of the Church. These periodicals are valuable historical resources and are some of our most popular items in the Church History Library. Unfortunately, they have also been difficult to find in the Church History Catalog.

Part of this is due to the nature of most search engines and their reliance on keyword searches. For example, a keyword search for “Ensign” in the catalog yields more than 32,000 results. These results range from records about the Ensign Stake in Salt Lake City (which has produced many records over the last 120 years) to more than 24,000 articles from the Ensign magazine that are individually described in the catalog.

To make periodicals easier to find, we have released a new feature in the Church History Catalog: the “Church Periodicals” search option. To filter catalog search results by “Church Periodical,” first select “Church Periodicals” from the dropdown menu to the left of the search bar at the top of the screen. Then enter the name of the periodical you seek in the catalog search bar. When you click the “Search” icon to display your results, only Church periodicals will be displayed in your search results.

That’s it. This new search feature will get you to your desired resources faster and with greater accuracy. Enjoy!

Top image: The cover of the June 1974 Ensign.