16.S26: Modern Space Science Engineering
Spring 2007

Finding general information | Finding articles | Organizing your references | For more information

Finding general information about your topic:

Encyclopedias: Use for a general overview of your topic. Articles usually include a bibliography.

• Encyclopedia Britannica
• McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
• Wikipedia

Books:

• Use the MIT Libraries’ catalog Barton
• Use title keyword or keyword from the pull down menu
• Search on words from your topic, or you may need to use a broader term
• Use Worldcat to find books not at MIT. Ask our Interlibrary Borrowing office (ILB) to get them for you.

Finding articles on your topic in a database:

An example of an article: Cumpsty, N.A. and Greitzer, E.M. "Ideas and Methods of Turbomachinery Aerodynamics: A Historical View." Journal of Propulsion and Power (2004), 20(1), 15-26

Note: the term database, as used here, usually refers to a search engine for scholarly information in a particular field.

Virtual Electronic Resource Access (Vera)

• MIT Libraries' gateway to the electronic resources we have access to
• Includes articles, electronic journals, and electronic books
• Browse by subject on the right side
• Search for a specific title in the search box on the left

ABI/INFORM Global (1971-present)

• Covers over 1600 business and management publications
• Includes 350 non-US English language publications
• Look for "Full text" icon

Aerospace and High Technology Database (1962-present)

• Journal articles, conference papers, some NASA reports
• Look for “Full Text” or “SFX-Get This MIT” links to get the full article

• Compendex covers all areas of engneering, INSPEC covers physics, electrical engineering, and computer science (control and aerospace information)
• These databases may be searched together by selecting both at the top of the opening screen
• Compendex covers years back to 1884
• Inspec covers years back to 1896
• Use the 'Get this MIT' to find the full article.

Google - Using Google Appropriately (coverage varies)

NASA database (1915-1958, 1958-present)

• NASA reports back to 1958
• NACA reports back to 1915
• Publicly available
• Simple search covers only NASA/NACA reports
• Use “Advanced Search” for more options
• See also the Finding Guide for NASA Technical Reports
• If the report you want is not available electronically, contact Aero Library staff at aero-lib@mit.edu.

• For information on policy
• Covers articles, books and government documents
• Click on title link for availability of full text
• No full text? -ask library staff for help

Proquest Research Library (coverage varies by publication)

• Provides access to thousands of magazines, newspapers, and journals
• Covers many subjects
• Many articles available in full text

Web of Science (1973-present)

• Covers all science and engineering
• Allows citation searching (who has cited this paper).
• A way of searching forward in time

Organizing your references

• Use RefWorks to organize references and create a bibliography.
• Start by logging in to Refworks. Anyone with an Athena account can create a RefWorks account; follow the link from the login page to sign up for an individual account.
• Web-based
• Uses folders
• Can share folders with other RefWorks users
• RefWorks offers its own tutorial and help pages, or see the Libraries' page on RefWorks at MIT.

For more information see

• How do I find articles? to learn the basic steps for finding and getting articles
• How do I search databases? for tips on how to effectively search bibliographic databases
• How do I find books? for tips on using Barton, our catalog, or how to find books at other Libraries.

For help anytime contact the Aero Library staff, Eileen and Mat:
aero-lib@mit.edu

This page was last updated on 03/14/07