Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and biographical guides are useful starting points when you need an overview, definitions of terms and concepts, and illustrations of instruments. Articles in these reference sources help you get oriented and often provide a bibliography of important references.
Cambridge Illustrated Thesaurus of Physics Kresge Ref. QC5 .R5 1984b Contains short descriptions and clear illustrations of concepts and terms commonly found in reading about physics, organized by themes such as "light waves", or "optical instruments - microscopes, telescopes, and cameras".
Dictionary of Scientific Biography Kresge and Baker-Berry Ref.: Q141 .D5 Scholarly essays about the life and work of major scientists, along with excellent bibliographies (often including references to both work done by a person as well as writings about that person).
Encyclopedia of Antique Scientific Instruments Kresge Ref. Q184.5 M54 1983 Short entries by name of an instrument or a key inventor are supplemented by a timeline of the invention of important instruments.
Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics Print version: Kresge Ref QB14 E54 2001 Useful for understanding terms and concepts such as solar prominence or solar spectroscopy.
History of Science in the United States: A Chronology and Research Guide Kresge Ref. Q125 .E45 1996 Organized by year, with a detailed index by names of organizations and people, this provides a quick overview of key events in science within a year or other periods of time.
Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia Kresge Ref. Q184.5 I57 1998 Consists of well-referenced scholarly articles on instruments from antiquity to the 20th century.
McGraw-Hill AccessScience: Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Online Print version: Kresge Ref. Q121 .M3 Provides full articles, dictionary terms, biographical information, multimedia (online version), news, images, and research updates in all areas of science and technology.
Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists Kresge Ref. Q141 .N73 Short articles with pictures of contemporary scientists
Scientific Instruments 1500-1900 an Introduction Kresge Ref. Q185. T85 1998 The short descriptions and many colorful photographs make this an essential guide to starting to learn about antique instruments. The text is organized by type of purpose of the instrument, such as "astronomy and time telling".
2. 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 locate the source (i.e. journal, magazine) of the article. Note that the Catalog does not contain records for individual articles.
Selected indexes relevant to the history and social aspects of science and technology are listed below. See eResources for a complete listing of electronic indexes, databases, eJournals, and other eResources licensed by Dartmouth. A selected set of eResources in the area of the history of science might also be helpful. Ask a librarian if you need help choosing an article index with a particular focus.
2A. Indexes in the History of Science
The indexes listed in this section capture information about articles (and may provide access to the articles themselves) published in relatively recent journals. Although articles discovered in these indexes may discuss the history of science and developments/discoveries/inventions concerning scientific instruments in a historical context, you will also want to look at the indexes in section 2B, Indexes to Primary Source Material, to discover historical articles and other primary source material that discusses events you may be researching as they happened.
History of Science, Technology and Medicine (1975-to present) Indexes about 600 scholarly journals covering the history, philosophy and sociology of science with partial contents of several hundred more. Indexes journals that specialize in the history of scientific instruments such as Rittenhouse and Bulletin of the SIS.
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.
Applied Science Abstracts Indexes about 390 technical and engineering journals, including: Review of Scientific Instruments, Physics Today, Technology Review, and others.
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.)
Readers Guide to Periodical Literature Indexes the New York Times, the NYT Book Review and the NYT Magazine, as well as popular magazines like Time, Newsweek, Atlantic Monthly, Discover, Environment, National Geographic, the Smithsonian, and Scientific American. Covers 1984- present.
Readers Guide Retrospective Extends the coverage of the Readers Guide (see directly above) to the period from 1890 - 1982. Covers all subjects from the popular press, including Astronomy, History, Science, and Technology (among many others).
2B. Indexes to primary source material
19th Century Masterfile Search a number of subject, author and title indexes published prior to 1925. Includes periodical (journals, magazines, and newspapers) indexes covering 1802-1906, an index to the Royal Society scientific papers from 1800-1900, and indexes to US and UK government materials (including patents) from 1790-1873. NOTE: these indexes will provide citations, you still have to look for the papers by source title (title of journal) in the Dartmouth Library Catalog!
American Periodicals Series Online 1740-1900 Contains over 1,000 periodicals and chronicles the development of America across 200 years. The journals in this collection cover three broad periods: journals published between 1740 and 1800 offer insights into America's transition from a British colony to an independent nation; the first 60 years of the 19th century include general interest magazines; periodicals published during the Civil War (1861-1865) and Reconstruction (1865-1877) eras reflect the nation in turmoil and growth, and titles from the 1880s through 1900 record issues important to the emergence of modern America. Popular science, technology and agriculture journals and magazines are included.
JSTOR JSTOR is the name of a project to archive scholarly journals from the first issues up to the last five years. Articles are both fully searchable (you can look for words or phrases in the "full-text") and fully accessible (download/print articles as PDF files). JSTOR has two collections that are useful for this course; the "General Science" and "History of Science and Technology" collections. SEARCH the science collections (NOTE: you MUSTscroll down the search page and check the names of the collections, "General Science" and "History of Science and Technology", to search just these items - you may also select individual journal title(s) within the collections to search). You may also BROWSE the General Science and/or the History of Science and Technology collections.
ProQuest Historical Newspaper Archives NOTE: Click "Clear all databases", then scroll down to the "Historical Databases" section to select which newspaper archives to search. Provides access, individually or combined, to full text digital reproductions of the following newspapers:
Periodicals archive online(1771 - 1995) Periodicals archive online is a major online periodical archive which makes the full image of periodical articles in the humanities and social sciences, from 1770 to 1995, available in digital form. It includes major publications like the North American Review.
Search the Dartmouth library catalogto locate books, journals, and other items in the collections of all the Dartmouth libraries. Search by subject (using Library of Congress subject headings -- NOTE: for scientific instruments, the exact Library of Congress subject heading is: Scientific apparatus and instruments) or by keyword; you can also search for specific works by author, or by title.
Many bibliographic databases, including the library catalog and many article indexes, use assigned terms to describe the subject content of materials. These subject terms (subject headings) can help you focus your search with great precision.
To bring together all biographies of members of a profession, perform a subject search using the profession name and term biography. There may also be geographical subdivisions, if appropriate.
Additional Tip: If you're not sure of the exact Library of Congress Subject Heading, use a Keyword search to locate a few items that are relevant to your topic. Then use the Subject Headings associated with those items to lead you to more relevant materials.
Keyword searches can be made to search for your terms in specific fields (subject, author, title) by using field tags ( s: or a: or t: ) . With a little creativity, you can use this technique with great success.
6. Collections of Instruments at museums, organizations, and educational institutions
The sites listed here have collections or archives relating to historical scientific instruments, and in some cases, these collections have searchable catalogs so you can locate instruments by type or maker.
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.
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.
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.
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ArticleLinker icon); if not, use the Library's 