Physics  Tags: physics astronomy energy  

Materials which are usually consulted for specific quick-fact information rather than read cover-to-cover.  Reference resources include things like:

• Background or overview synopses (encyclopedia)
• Definitions (dictionary)
• Synonyms (thesaurus)
• Statistics
• Biographical Details
• Maps (atlas)

Links/Resources to the right are specific to this discipline.  General sources can be found at the libraries Reference Sources page.

Most reference resources are organized in a logical order that aids searching (alphabetically, chronologically, etc).  In paper, most also include an index in the back which points users to the appropriate pages.  Searching reference resources electronically is unusually equal with paper techniques.  Try the following:

1. Decide on your search terms
2. Try searching with them
3. If not satisfied with the results, try searching a synonym or related idea

Things to watch out for:

• Is the computer searching only the title/header of the entries or the full-text of the information?  You will get more results, but more of them will be irrelabent if you are searching the full-text.
• Are you searching for a proper noun (name, place,...)?  Make sure that the spelling is correct and try variations if it originated in a foreign language.
• Searching for something by date?  This is trickier than it sounds.  If possible, search for an event name or topic rather than a date, e.g. civil rights movement or hippies or flower children rather than 1960s.

• Handbook of physics / John W. Harris, Horst Stoecker, Walter Benenson. Springer, 2001. 1181 p. Crumb Reference : Ref. QC61 .H37 2001
• Macmillan encyclopedia of physics. 4 v. 1881 p. Crumb Reference : Ref. QC5 .M15 1996
• History of astronomy: an encyclopedia.  Ref. QB15 .H624 1997