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Finding Books Reference Resources Finding Articles Finding Websites Need Help? Have Suggestions? Information on Faculty Services supporting Instruction and Research Science, Engineering and Math @ the CSULB Library weblog How to find: preprints in physics and astronomy professional societies frequently cited journals Learn about the international celebration of the World Year of Physics 2005.
	Apollo 11, the first manned mission to the surface of the moon, lifts off on July 16, 1969. (Courtesy NASA)

 

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Finding Books

To find books at the CSULB Library, use COAST, the Library's online catalog. Here are a few subject headings in physics and astronomy: physics astronomy stars thermodynamics quantum theory fluid mechanics planets astrophysics cosmology optics

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Reference Resources

Reference Books
These titles are essential resources for the study of Physics and Astronomy. Items with REF preceding the call number will be found in Reference on the 1st floor of the Library.

• Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Ref QB 14.E5342001 4 vols.)
• Dictionary of Astronomy (4th floor QB 14.I53 2001)
• Encyclopedia of Planetary Sciences (4th floor QB 600.2.E53 1997)
• Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Universe (4th floor QB 14.I588 2001)
• Dictionary of geophysics, astrophysics, and astronomy (Ref QB 14.D53 2001)
• Encyclopedia of Physics (Ref QC 5.M15 1996 4 vols.)
• World of Physics (Ref QC 5.W67 2001 2 vols.)
• Encyclopedia of chemical physics and physical chemistry (4th floor QD451.E539 2001 3 vols.)
• Tables of physical and chemical constants and some mathematical functions(4th floorQC61.T3 1973)
• CRC handbook of chemistry and physics (Ref QD 65 H3)
• The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia (http://www.obspm.fr/encycl/encycl.html)
• Handbook of Space Astronomy and Astrophysics by Martin Zombeck (http://ads.harvard.edu/books/hsaa/)
• Oxford Dictionary of Physics (e-book)
• Oxford Dictionary of Astronomy (e-book)

Print Indexes
Use to find older citations or historic information.
Science abstracts. Series A, Physics abstracts (Q1.S3 Ser.A)
1966-1991; 1992-2002; Index 1986-2002 in Room 407 (ask at circulation desk)

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Finding Articles

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. (Courtesy Stanford Linear Accelerator Center)

Use research databases to find journal articles. Start with those listed below but also check out the list of databases by title or topic.  IOP Journals (Full Text) The Institute of Physics journals. See the list of journals available here. Scitation (American Institute of Physics, formerly OJPS) (instructions) Access the full text to articles, citations and abstracts in over 80 journals in physics and astronomy. Also search SPIN database for over 1 million abstracts, some back to 1975 Compendex (instructions) Good source for articles, from thousands of journals, conference proceedings, reports, etc., on physics and engineering. Applied Science & Technology (instructions) More than 600 periodicals for engineering, mathematics, physics, and computer technology. General Science Abstracts (instructions) More than 100 journals and magazines from the U.S. and Great Britain, covering such subjects astronomy, earth sciences,and much more. MathSciNet (instructions) Over 55 years of Mathematical Reviews and Current Mathematical Publications. Produced by the American Mathematical Society. Coverage: 1940 to date. Full-text of reviews (1980 to date) accessible in PostScript and DVI formats. Proceedings First (instructions) An index of conference publications. Includes citations of every congress, symposium, conference, exposition, workshop and meeting received at The British Library. Preprints (Preprints Research Guide) ArXiv: LANL High Energy Physics Preprints ArXiv is an e-print service in the fields of physics, mathematics, non-linear science, computer science and quantitative biology. CERN Preprint Server "Over 650,000 bibliographic records, including 320,000 full text documents, of interest to people working in particle physics and related areas. Covers preprints, articles, books, journals, photographs, and much more." SPIRES High Energy Physics "Search more than 500,000 high energy physics related articles, including journal papers, preprints, e-prints, technical reports, conference papers and theses, since 1974."SPRES HEP is a joint project of Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), DESY & FNAL and the worldwide HEP community. NASA Astrophysics Data System (http://adswww.harvard.edu/) "The Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is a NASA-funded project which maintains four bibliographic databases containing more than 3.9 million records: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation, Physics and Geophysics, and preprints in Astronomy."

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Finding Websites

Two good places to look for websites on a specific topic that have been reviewed are:

Librarian's Index to the Internet

Scout Reports

or look at the suggestions below.

You can also use a search engine like Google.

Just be aware of what information you are getting!!!!!!!!!
Ask yourself:

1. Who put this information here? (Might they be biased?)

2. What expertise do they have about this topic? (Are they a PhD at a university or Joe-Bob in his basement?)

3. Why did they put it here? (Are they trying to sell something or convince me of a particular point of view?)

4. When did they put it here?

Some Good Websites:
Astronomy

• NASA(http://www.nasa.gov/)
  Website for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Find information about missions, new events, astronomy, geoscienceand much more.
  Also try NASA Image eXchange (NIX)"NIX is a web-based search engine for searching one or more of NASA's online multimedia collections."
  Also try Webstars: Astrophysics in Cyberspace from NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC)
  Also try Chronology of Lunar and Planetary Exploration

• United States Naval Observatory (USNO) Eclipse Portal
  "This web site has been designed to provide information on the global and local visibility of solar and lunar eclipses," from 1501-2100.
  Also try Eclipses of the Sun and Moon from the USNO Astronomical Applications with recent and upcoming eclipses.

• Space Telescope Science Institute (http://www.stsci.edu/)
  Find information about the science initiatives, catalogs and surveys and more.

• Views of the Solar System (http://www.solarviews.com/ss.html)
  "Views of the Solar System presents a vivid multimedia adventure unfolding the splendor of the Sun, planets, moons, comets, asteroids, and more. Discover the latest scientific information, or study the history of space exploration, rocketry, early astronauts, space missions, spacecraft through a vast archive of photographs, scientific facts, text, graphics and video."

• AstroWeb: Astronomy/Astrophysics on the Internet (http://www.cv.nrao.edu/fits/www/astronomy.html)
  "A collection of pointers to astronomy-related information available on the Internet." Includes over 3000 sources.

• The Astronomy Net (http://www.astronomy.net/)
  Find images and constellations and try the AstroGuide, listings of astronomy associations, clubs, consultants, forums, manufactures and more.

• The Nine Planets: A multimedia Tour of the Solar System(http://www.nineplanets.org/)
  "An overview of the history, mythology, and current scientific knowledge of each of the planets and moons in our solar system. Each page has text and images, some have sounds and movies, most provide references to additional related information."

• Journey through the Galaxy (http://home.cwru.edu/~sjr16/advanced/index.html)
  Use this website to explore "our solar system, stars, extra-solar planets, the theories about the past and future of the universe, and human exploration of space."

• California & Carnegie Planet Search (http://exoplanets.org/)
  Find information including an almanac of planets, planet research, key science projects and publications from this cooperative effort between California academic institutions and observatories.

• Planetary Data System (http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/)
  "The PDS archives and distributes scientific data from NASA planetary missions, astronomical observations, and laboratory measurements. The PDS is sponsored by NASA's Office of Space Science."

• Center for Earth and Planetary Studies (http://www.nasm.si.edu/ceps/)
  "The CEPS is a scientific research unit within the Collections and Research Development of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institute. CEPS preforms original research and outreach activities on topics covering planetary science, terrestrial geophysics, and the remote sensing of environmental change."

• Planetary Science Research Discoveries (http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/)
  "Planetary Science Research Discoveries (PSRD) is an educational site sharing the latest research on meteorites, planets, and other solar system bodies being made by NASA-sponsored scientists."

• Interactive Astronomy Pages (http://www.obliquity.com/astro/)
  Find out about blue moons, eclipses, the phases of the moon, latitude and longitude and more.

• Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC) (http://cadcwww.dao.nrc.ca/)
  Find out what is going on in Canadian astronomy including archives for a number of telescopes, and other catalogues.

• Stephen Hawking's Universe (http://www.wnet.org/archive/hawking/html/home.html)
  Website to accompany the PBS series Stephen Hawking's Universe.

• The Galileo Project (http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/)
  "The Galileo Project is a hypertext source of information on the life and work of Galileo Galileo(1564-1642) and the science of his time."

Surveys

• Digital Sky Survey (http://archive.stsci.edu/dss/index.html)
  DSS "includes the digitized photographic plates from the Palomer and UK Schmidt Sky surveys."

• Sloan Digital Sky Survey (http://www.sdss.org/)
  "The survey will map in detail one-quarter of the entire sky, determining the positions and absolute brightness of more than 100 million celestial objects."

Physics

• How Things Work
  http://howthingswork.virginia.edu/
  Explaining the Physics of Everyday Life
• NIST Physics Laboratory, Physical Reference Data (http://physics.nist.gov/PhysRefData/)
  Find information on physical constants, atomic spectroscopy data, elemental data index, molecular spectroscopic data, atomic and molecular data, x-ray and gamma-ray data, radiation dosimetry data, nuclear physics data, condensed matter physics data and more.
• Physics Web (http://www.physicsweb.org/)
  Website from the Institute of Physics with news, jobs, resources, productsand more.
• Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/)
  Website of SLAC with information about high energy physics, research, and more.
• Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (http://www.fnal.gov/)
  National Laboratory of the Department of Energy whose mission statement is, "Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory advanced the understanding of the fundamental nature of matter and energy by providing leadership and resources for qualified researchers to conduct basic research at the frontiers of high energy physics and related disciplines."
• College Physics for Students of Biology and Chemistry (http://www.rwc.uc.edu/koehler/biophys/text.html)
  A hypertext book which includes problem sets, a table of contents, and an index.
• Online Particle Physics Information (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/library/pdg/)
  List of websites related to particle physicssuch as conferences, directories, e-prints, journals, education, and more.
• General Relativity Around the Worl (http://www.astro.auth.gr/Science-Subjects/Gravity/Gravity_Links1.html)
  List of links about relativity including links to servers, physics, astrophysics and astronomy, and supercomputing.
• Particle-Surface Resources on the Internet(http://chaos.fullerton.edu/mhslinks.html)
  List of almost 200 links Dr. Mark Shapiro a professor at CSU, Fullerton.
• Einstein Archives Online (http://www.alberteinstein.info/)
  A collection of digitized images of Albert Einstein's original manuscripts and notes, both scientific and non-scientific. There are over 3,000 images.
• Fundamental Physical Constants (http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/chemistry/general/constants_en.html)
  List of physical constants.
• How Things Work (http://Landau1.phys.Virginia.EDU/Education/Teaching/HowThingsWork/)
  Website accompanying a book of the same name, "explaining the physics of everyday life." Includes questions and answers about every day physics questions.
• Laws, Rules, Principles, Effects, Paradoxes, Limits, Constants, Experiments, and Thought-Experiments in Physics(http://www.alcyone.com/max/physics/laws/)
  Laws, rules, etc. listed alphabetically and produced by a computer scientist from California.
• Physics News (http://www.het.brown.edu/news/index.html)
  Brief list of Physics News sites including Physics News Update and NASA Hot Topics.
• PhysLINK (http://www.physlink.com/)
  "PhysLink.com is a comprehensive physics and astronomy online education, research and reference web site."
• Sixty Symbols (http://www.sixtysymbols.com/)
  Ever been confused by all the letters and squiggles used by scientists? Hopefully this site will unravel some of those mysteries.  Sixty Symbols is a collection of videos about physics and astronomy presented by experts from The University of Nottingham.

 

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Frequently Cited Journals
This is a brief list of journals in Physics and Astronomy.
Use databases to search for specific articles on your topic.

Journal of Applied Physics

Applied Physics Letters (Print or Online)

Advanced Functional Materials

Materials Science and Engineering. R, Reports: a Review Journal

Progress in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (Print or Online)

Journal of Chemical Physics (Print or Online)

Physical Review. A. (Print or Online)

Advances in Physics (Print or Online)

Reviews of Modern Physics (Print or Online)

Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science (Print or Online)

Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Print or Online)

Note: Current year located on Lower Level and older holdings may be in ORCA, storage or microfilm. Search your journal title Coast, Journals for the exact location of the year you are interested in.

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Professional Societies

• American Astronomical Society (http://www.aas.org/)
• American Association of Variable Star Observers (http://www.aavso.org/)
• International Astronomical Union (http://www.iau.org/)
• American Institute of Physics (http://www.aip.org/)
• Institute of Physics (http://www.iop.org/)
• Canadian Astronomical Society (http://www.casca.ca/)
• Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (http://www.rasc.ca/)

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Related CSULB Academic Webpages

• Physics and Astronomy (/depts/physics/)
• Mathematics and Statistics (/depts/math/)
• Science Education (http://www.cnsm.csulb.edu/depts/scied/)
• Student Access to Science (http://www.cnsm.csulb.edu/centers/sas/)

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Need Help?

• Try Chat with a Librarian 24/7 anytime and anywhere.
• Email Khue Duong, Science Librarian
• Set up a consultation with a librarian.
• Try the Library Tutorial.
• Ask a librarian at the Reference Desk on the First Floor of the Library.

Content created by Cathy Outten.  Maintained by Khue Duong

 

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