First Year Seminar: Special Relativity

Locating Background Material:

Specialized encyclopedias give overviews of topics from the perspective of the discipline they cover. They can provide definitions for unfamiliar terms, and leads on the identities of accepted experts and the titles of some books or articles they have authored.

Reference 503 E56e 2002	Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology, 3rd ed. (2002)
Reference 503 M147m 2002	McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, 9th ed. (2002)
Reference 529.03 E56e	Encyclopedia of Time (1994)
Reference 530.03 E562e	Encyclopedia of Modern Physics (1990)
Reference 530.03 E563e	Encyclopedia of Physics, 3rd. ed. (2005)
Reference 530.03 M167m	Macmillan Encyclopedia of Physics (1996)
Reference 539.72 B932b	Building Blocks of Matter: Supplement to Macmillan Encyclopedia of Physics (2003)
Britannica Online	Less specialized than the above sources, but available when the library is closed!
xreferplus	Useful for short definitions of terms. Science list contains dictionaries of physics, astronomy, science & technology.

Locating Books:

Search for books and journal titles in the Drew Library Catalog. If you know the title or author of the book or journal, use the browse feature. When you find the item you want, be sure to check our holdings at the bottom of the record to find the complete call number (for a book), status, and location of the item within the library.

Library Maps will help you locate books, periodicals, the interlibrary loan office and other library resources and services.

Searching Databases for Journal and Magazine Citations on a Topic:

From the Library home page, choose Research Resources. Access lists of subscription databases by clicking either Resources By Name or General Resources to find two of our multidisciplinary databases which contain many full text articles.

Academic Search Premier indexes nearly 3,200 newspapers, magazines, and journals, with full-text available for most of them.
ProQuest Direct indexes 1,900 magazines, journals, and newspapers, with full text available for the majority.

Specialized databases:

Choose Physics from the Science discipline dropdown under Resources by Subject. Three databases that may be of use are:

General Science Abstracts offers citations to (mostly) scholarly articles; no full text; indicates Drew Library holdings.
Institute of Physics publishes many journals and offers full text access to all articles published within the first 30 days after publication, plus full text for three of those journals that goes back several years.
ISI Science Citations Index, indexes 5900 journals, including at least 400 physics journals, some with full text availability.

Access Research Help to find the numerous Database Guides, Course Guides (including this guide!), and Subject Guides for extra help using our databases, and using our resources for a specific course or subject.

Finding the Journals and Magazines that Contain the Citations You Found:

Sometimes accessing full text of an article will be a few easy clicks from the database in which you found the citation. Click on a link or . If that does not produce full text, then use the information in the citation (journal title, year, volume, issue, page, article title) and follow the steps below in order until you find what you need:

Enter the journal title into the Full Text Electronic Journals Holdings list (dropping the initial article, if any). If we have electronic full text access, click the links until you find the volume, issue, and page number you need.
If there is no electronic access to the full text of the article, check the Drew Library Catalog. Use the browse function, enter the journal title (dropping any initial article), and choose Periodical Title for the search. If we have the journal, scroll to the bottom of the record to determine the time range format and location of our holdings.
If you still have not found the journal article you need, request the article through Interlibrary Loan for a small fee. This can take up to four weeks, so it requires planning ahead. Scroll down the Interlibrary Loan Form page to find the form for periodicals requests.

Websites:

American Institute of Physics has a link for the history center for information on Einstein and special relativity. Note: If you search AIP's journals through this site, you may be asked to pay. As a Drew student, you have FREE access (except for the most recent year) using Academic Search Premier or by entering the journal title into our Full Text Electronic Holdings List.
Einstein year Although the site stopped updating at the end of 2005, it has useful links to Einstein biographies, papers, and manuscripts and a page devoted to Special Relativity.
Exploratorium, The Museum of Science, Art, and Human Perception, San Francisco. Check out the Webcast archive for lectures on Einstein and special relativity that took place during 2005, or search the site for "special relativity" to find other information on the topic.
Library of Congress Science Reference Service offers a bibliography and several links to other websites about Einstein and special relativity.

Still Have Questions?

Contact Cathy Ryan, x3483.
Stop by at the reference desk 9-5 weekdays, and 6-10 pm Sunday-Thursday during the academic year.
Check out the Ask a Librarian link on many of our library web pages for 24/7 help from academic librarians.

Last updated 08/24/2006 by Cathy Ryan