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B. Finding Journal and News Articles Using Indexes

Articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers can be found using article indexes (searchable databases of article records). In many cases these indexes link through to full-text articles (look for the ArticleLinker icon); if not, use the Library's Catalog to search for the publication by its title.

Article not available at Dartmouth? Try DartDoc. (Also see the section, Getting Items Not Available at Dartmouth.)

See eResources for a complete listing of electronic indexes, databases, and other eResources licensed by Dartmouth. Ask a librarian if you need help choosing an article index with a particular focus (e.g., philosophical reflections on exterrestrial life.)

Try Search360 to search across multiple databases at once! eg, "anaerobic bacteria"

General and Multidisciplinary Article Indexes: These are great for exploring multiple aspects of a topic, or if you are unsure which subject-specific index to try. Academic Search Premier is a good, all-purpose, full-text multidisciplinary database that you may be familiar with. Web of Science Web of Science indexes about 8000 journals in all subject areas.This index is unique in that it tells you who has cited a particular paper, which is useful as a way to find related papers, and to track the influence of a particular paper. You can also search by topic, and the index is very up-to-date. Especially strong in the sciences and interdisciplinary fields. Coverage varies; journals in the social sciences are indexed back to 1956; science journals back to 1945. Wilson Web Databases: These can be searched separately or together. General Science Abstracts Indexes about 250 popular and scholarly science and multidisciplinary journals. Also indexes articles on science topics from the New York Times. Covers 1984- present. Humanities Abstracts Indexes about 350 popular and scholarly journals in the humanities including history, philosophy, literary & social criticism. (Include the Humanities & Social Sciences Retro file for access to years from 1907 - 1984.) Social Sciences Index Indexes about 350 journals in disciplines such as public policy and economics. Covers a wide range of interdisciplinary fields covered in a broad array of social sciences journals. (include the Humanities & Social Sciences Retro file for access to years from 1907 - 1984.) Book Review Digest Provides descriptive summaries of books as well as excerpts of book reviews, with complete book review citations and all book reviews from other Wilson indexes. Books appear with all their reviews grouped together. JSTOR Contains the complete archives of core scholarly journals in several disciplines, digitized and fully searchable from the first issues, in many cases dating back to the 1800s. Search in individual journals or disciplines, or across collections such as Film Studies, History, Law, Public Policy & Administration, Philosophy and Religion. Note that in many cases, the most recent 5 years of issues are not available in JSTOR (publisher embargo). LexisNexis Academic Universe Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe is a web-based news and business information service that contains more than 13,500 sources. Search Lexis-Nexis for news coverage (regional, national and international), broadcast transcripts, news wire service reports, industry and trade journals, and congressional news coverage.

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C. Finding Books in the Library Catalog

Search the Dartmouth library catalog to locate books, journals, and other items in the collections of all the Dartmouth libraries. Search by subject (using Library of Congress subject headings) or by keyword; you can also search for specific works by author, or by title.

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D. Government Research Centers

NASA: Ames Research Center
Charged with the mission of assisting with better life quality on earth, human exploration, space travel and the search for life on other planets. Includes news highlights, virtual tour of the Mars exhibits, research programs, and educational resources.

The Ames Center's Astrobiology Portal provides the latest astrobiology news, an introduction to and overview of the study of astrobiology, discussions on the technologies used and future missions, workshop links, educational resources, an "Ask an Astrobiologist" feature, more. Also check out:

• NASA's Exobiology Branch
• the Space Science and Astrobiology Division at NASA Ames
• Astrobiology Magazine - provides summaries of scientific articles relevant to astrobiology.

NASA's Astrobiology Institute (NAI) is a multi-institute research initiative -- 16 research teams distributed across 150 institutions. Teams and the inter-team focus groups address specific research areas of particular significance. Among the research teams:

• Carnegie Institute of Washington's NASA Astrobiology Institute
• University of Colorado, Boulder's Astrobiology Center
• NASA Ames Research Center (see above)
• the SETI Institue

and many others. Here is a complete listing of the NAI research teams including each research team's reports, and a link to the NAI focus groups.

Solar System Exploration, a NASA Office of Space Science site, is dedicated to information about the exploration of our solar system.

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E. Selected Web Resources

In addition to search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Ask Jeeves, try internet directories -- annotated guides to selected Internet resources. Browse by topic headings, or search within categories. Great way to focus!

• The Scout Report Archives
  Search, or browse by subject headings, over this collection of over seven years' worth of critical annotations of selected Internet sites, mailing lists, and other online resources.
  
• DMOZ Open Directory Project
  Science: Astronomy: Extraterrestrial Life: Exobiology
  Science: Technology: Space: NASA: Centers: Ames Research Center
• intute: Science, Engineering & Technology > Astronomy > Astrochemistry & Astrobiology > Astrobiology

Selected Web sites

• .The Astrobiology Web - an eclectic but well-organized, searchable set of news features and resource links under topics in astrobiology. Good for starting points and to browse topics of interest - remember to view all such collections of links with a critical eye.
• Marsbugs: The Astrobiology Index - A collection of Web links, articles and other material on astrobiology compiled by Dr David J Thomas. Links are current and well organized, but again -- evaluate each source for authority, completeness, currency, bias, and overall quality.
• The Planetary Society - This non-profit organization seeks to inspire the people of Earth through education, research, and public participation to explore other worlds and seek other life. Their website offers special sections by topic.

F. Citing Sources & Managing Your References

Style guides provide accepted standards to follow when preparing research papers for publication. Sources is the Dartmouth College general guide to citing sources, and contains required reading about plagiarism and when, and how, to cite material you are using for a paper or presentation.

RefWorks
RefWorks is a web-based reference management program that allows users to create their own personal database of references by importing references from online article databases. RefWorks makes it easy to search, sort, and cite these references in writing papers and then to automatically format the paper and the bibliography. To get started with RefWorks, go to http://www.refworks.com and click on the "User Login" button on the menu bar. Then click on the "Sign up for an Individual Account" link and fill out the form. RefWorks in-context help, or the online tutorial, will guide you through the basics. See the overview for details on importing citations from various article databases into RefWorks.

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G. Getting Items Not Available at Dartmouth

BORROW DIRECT: Delivers books from the combined library catalogs of Brown, Columbia, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale within 4 business days.

Please fill out the DartDoc Form for documents that are in Storage or that are not in the Dartmouth Library system (Interlibrary Loan requests). See the Document Delivery webpage for more details on these services.

You can also use the Request Selected Item feature of the Library Catalog to request books or articles from Storage.

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H. Locations | Maps | Hours | Help

QuickJump Dartmouth College Library Kresge Physical Sciences Library Baker-Berry Library Biomedical Libraries (Dana) ------------------- Getting Started with Library Research Library Catalog eResources

Map of the libraries & Library Hours

Getting Started with Library Research
A quick review of the basics

Ask A Kresge Librarian | Ask a Rauner Librarian | Ask a Baker Berry Librarian

Accessing Electronic Resources from Off-Campus (VPN software instructions)

Help

For help with your research, please contact:
Jane Quigley, Kresge Physical Sciences Library, 6-3564
Noah Lowenstein, Kresge Physical Sciences Library, 6-9958
Ann Perbohner, Kresge Physical Sciences Library, 6-3845

The Dartmouth Writing Program's online resources page for students offers help with all aspects of composition.

The Student Center for Research, Writing & Information Technology (RWIT) trains student tutors to assist with paper topics, research assignments and multimedia projects.

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Last updated September 2007