Henry Buhl Library: Physics: Background Reading

Places to Start your Research

Encyclopedia of Physics
Call Number: Ref QC 5 .E545 2005 v. 1-2
A comprehensive and topical account of physics and the physical world that covers the latest terminology and techniques in physics.

Annual Reviews

offer "comprehensive, timely collections of critical reviews written by leading scientists" in a variety of disciplines, including:

Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics
Contains full-text literature reviews of topics in the field (including waves, wind, fluid dynamics, etc.).
Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science
Contains full-text literature reviews of topics in the field (including quarks, string theory, linear colliders, etc.).

Or find literature reviews here:

Science Citation Index (Web of Science) This link opens in a new window
Part of Web of Knowledge/Web of Science. Daily updates make it a good source for recent information. Gives the number of times each article has been cited. Use Journal Citation Reports (JCR) to find impact factors for journals in science, social sciences, and technology.
Engineering Village (Ei Compendex) This link opens in a new window
Ei Compendex is the broadest and most complete engineering literature database available in the world. Great for applied physics research.
Medline with Full-Text This link opens in a new window
Provides authoritative medical information from 1400+ full-text journals to support research in medicine, nursing, dentistry, and more.

To find research articles, start by reading review articles.

Review articles provide:

important keywords and terms
a timeline of existing research,
great bibliographies of previous research,
the names of important authors on that area of scientific research.

After you have read some review articles, you are ready to move onto finding Research Articles.

Find Books & eBooks

Search for print & eBooks using these links:

HENRY
The Library Catalog

EBSCO eBook Collection This link opens in a new window
Access to over 200,000 full text eBooks across a variety of subjects.

Some search terms to start.

Force and energy
Matter
Motion
Music--acoustics and physics
Nuclear physics
Optics
Physics
Quantum theory
Sound
Thermodynamics

NOTE: This is just a short list of terms to get you started.

Need a book the library does not own?

You can request the book through Interlibrary Loan. Info and a downloadable form are available here!

To search for books available in other libraries, try using

WorldCat -- Search the holdings of more than 10,000 libraries to locate books and identify citation information.

Library of Congress -- Access to the Library of Congress catalog and other online collections.

NOTE: Users do not need to identify a library that owns the book. Simply provide the appropriate information on the form and library staff will do the rest!