INTRODUCTION

Use this guide as a place to start your search for more information about the many aspects of the questions regarding the origin of life and life in the universe, and feel free to ask for help from the librarians in any of the libraries.

Contents

DEFINITIONS of TERMS, OVERVIEWS OF CONCEPTS

MAGAZINES and JOURNALS

INDEXES to MAGAZINES and JOURNALS

SUBJECT TERMS TO USE

FINDING OTHER WEB RESOURCES

TRACKING YOUR SOURCES, USING YOUR REFERENCES

HELP

Print and digital books, government documents, maps, magazines, journals, and other materials available through all the Dartmouth College libraries can be found by using the Dartmouth Library Catalog. The Library Catalog will give you the locations of the print items, and the URLs for the digital materials.

Books are listed by author, title and subject. Magazines, journals, and newspapers are listed by title and overall subject. Magazine, journal and newspaper articles are not listed by author, title or subject in the Online Catalog. Therefore, it is necessary to use indexes in order to find journal articles. See the list of indexes in section C.

Many of these indexes can be found in the Library's lists of eResources by name or broad topic , along with reference information resources to help you understand new scientific terms and ideas such as dictionaries and encyclopedias . You can also find factual and biographical information in these reference resources.

See the Life Cycle of Scientific Information slide for an idealized view of how science is communicated and what information resources are useful at what point along the cycle.

DEFINITIONS of TERMS, OVERVIEWS OF CONCEPTS

When researching in an unfamiliar field, you will need to use online and print reference sources to find definitions of terms and short overviews of new concepts. Science encyclopedias and dictionaries provide an overview of a topic and short definitions of unfamiliar terms. They often contain references to other books and articles which can be used for further research. However, remember that no encyclopedia can be considered a primary source for specialized information.

Good encyclopedias to start with are:

AccessScience contains articles authored by chosen experts in the fields, lists of other references to use, and a strong emphasis on current science. The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology is a subsection of the site, but it can also be found in book form in Kresge Reference, at Q121 .M3.

Wikipedia the free encyclopedia is developed through contributions from anyone who wants to add material, and covers all subject areas. Wikipedia works well as an initial reference to discover terminology and specific sub-specialties. For questions on it's reliability, ask a librarian and refer to Wikipedia's own entry on it's reliability.

Once you have some background, these sources can provide some depth and inspiration.

For a solid historical perspective, take a look at the following:

Statistical reference sources are valuable when you need a few statistics to back-up an argument. One of the best is:

MAGAZINES and JOURNALS

Magazine articles are a good source of news reports on subjects of current interest, but are not reviewed by other experts. Journal articles provide in-depth information and usually have been a process called Peer Review . Some important science journals, like Science and Nature, have peer reviewed journal articles and news articles in the same issue.

The library has many print and electronic journals which are listed in the Online Catalog by title.

Magazines to consider

Magazines on Astronomy and Space Exploration

General Science magazines

Journals

INDEXES to MAGAZINES and JOURNALS

Indexes help you locate journal, magazine and newspaper articles by specific subject, author, title and the journal or magazine name. Some indexes cover hundreds of journals and many subjects, while others cover a narrow subject or many years of a single journal.

All the Wilson indexes include book reviews, and many of the other indexes also cover these. Search by the author, title or subject of the book for which you want a review and combine that with the terms "book review" as a title or topic.

Points to consider when choosing this kind of index or database:

• Dates covered (many online or Web indexes go back to the mid-80s; consult the print version for materials before the online index began; find print index by title in the online catalog or consult a librarian)
• Subject areas covered
• Types of source materials indexed. Does the index cover popular or scholarly journals? Does it also include government reports or statistical data?
• Types of material within the source indexed. Does the index include book reviews, editorials, corrections, and other matter outside of the full research reports or articles?
• Numbers of source publications indexed-this gives you an indication of how much you may have to limit a search due to large retrievals.
• Language-English only or many languages? You may need to limit a search to English-language-only materials in databases that contain a lot of foreign language material.
• Special searching features such as cited reference searching, citation links, geographic search features, limits to review articles.
• Are you searching full-text in the database or reference information only? Are there links to full-text? Use the Article Linker icons to get to full text, the library catalog or document delivery.

Dartmouth-based resources:

Library Catalog
Dartmouth allows students to borrow from other libraries through: Borrow Direct (Ivy League Institutions) and DartDoc (All others).


Selected electronic and print indexes (available through eResources brought to you by the library):

SUBJECT TERMS TO USE

These subject terms will help make your search more precise in the online catalog and other databases. You can combine them with keyword and other terms. Think about the terms you use in any search, and come up with multiple ways of asking your question. Many bibliographic databases, including the library catalog and the Wilson indexes, use strictly controlled terms to describe the subject content of materials. Being aware of these subject terms can help you focus your search with great precision.

• Aeronautics General works on all flying and space vehicles.
• Astronautics General works on the scientific, technological, and engineering disciplines needed for the exploration of outer space.
• Interplanetary voyages Works on travel to the planets.
• Interstellar travel General works on travel to the stars.
• Manned space flight General and technical works on manned space travel.
• Outer space -- Exploration General works on the exploration of space.
• Rockets (Aeronautics) Works on the engineering and technical details of rockets.
• Rocketry General works on rockets.
• Space flight Works on the physics and technical details of locomotion beyond the earth's atmosphere.
• Space flights Works giving accounts of events and experiences during specific manned space flights.
• Space vehicles General works on vehicles capable of traveling outside the atmosphere.

FINDING OTHER WEB RESOURCES

Besides the many Web resources provided by the library, there are useful Web sites provided by government and private organizations and individuals who have established information resources on the Internet. These provide:

• Lists of other Internet sites that relate to a topic
• Descriptions of research projects undertaken by a particular institution or group of institutions
• Publications produced and made available by an institution.

GoogleScholar is a search engine that includes mostly scholarly materials, such as books, journal articles, dissertations and reports. The references cannot be downloaded neatly into RefWorks and not all the material in the indexes listed in section C is included in GoogleScholar. The Resources@Dartmouth link goes to ArticleLinker.

Scirus is a specialized search engine for scientific publications, and indexes many peer reviewed journals as well as scienctifically oriented web sites.

Web sites on specific topics for your papers:

• How Rockets Work
• Spaceflight Propulsion Systems
• Possible Nuclear Rockets
• Basics of Rocket Propulsion
• NASA's page on FTL drives
• Nature Magazine's web site with information on the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and the implications for the space program
• NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• NASA Human Space Flight

If you are truly inspired by this course, take a look at these lists of summer internships, job opportunities, and scholarships on space travel and exploration.

TRACKING YOUR SOURCES, USING YOUR REFERENCES

RefWorks

RefWorks is a web-based bibliographic management program that allows users to create their own personal database of bibliographic references by importing references from online databases. RefWorks makes it easy to search, sort, and use these references in writing papers and then to automatically format the paper and the bibliography.

If you want to have a personal tutorial on how to use RefWorks, please contact a librarian.

HELP

Map of the libraries , Library Hours

For assistance with any part of your research project please contact one of the following librarians at Kresge Library:

• Noah Lowenstein, Physics and Astronomy Librarian, 6-9958
• Ann Perbohner, Physical Sciences Librarian, 6-3845
• Jane Quigley, Head, Kresge and Cook Libraries, 6-3564

Course guide developed by Arun Sannuti