Finding Books
MnPALS
Our library catalog. This link takes you into the "Basic Searches" screen where you can search by author, title, etc. The "Advanced Searches" option lets you limit by date, additional keywords, collection area, and so on. In your list of results, the Location column lists the call number--where the book is shelved. You can also choose other libraries to search from this catalog and ask for books through interlibrary loan (ILL).
WorldCat is a huge, worldwide catalog with over 60 million books and other items. Some of the items you find in this catalog may be unavailable through interlibrary loan or may take longer to arrive than those found in regional libraries.
To find out what the letters in the call numbers stand for, go to LC Classification Online.
Reference Works
Reference works are helpful at two points in your research: when starting out (by offering overview articles of, say, a writer and her work) or whennailing down unfamiliar terms, concepts, and topics that turn up during your research. Many reference book articles are written by experts and offer not only information but excellent bibliographies for further research.
- Companion Encyclopedia of the History and Philosophy of Mathematical Sciences (Ref QA21 .C645 1994)
- Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Ref QB14 .E534 2001)
- Encyclopedia of the Solar System (Ref QB501 .E53 2007)
- McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (Ref Q121 .M3 2007)
Finding Articles
Scholarly vs. Popular (vs. Trade)
Databases for articles and other materials offer references to publications that may or may not be in this library; some databases offer full text of articles and others simply references. There are in-depth databases that cover publications in a particular field and others that are interdisciplinary. Databases can be accessed from a drop-down list on the library's main page; descriptions can be found here.
Academic Search Premier
Academic Search Premier contains indexing for nearly 8,050 publications, with full text for more than 4,600 of those titles. This database covers biology, chemistry, education, engineering, humanities, physics, psychology, religion and theology, sociology, and other disciplines.
AMS Journals (Mathematics)
Citations, abstracts and full text articles of five journals published by the American Mathematical Society.
APS Journals (Physics)
Search and browse journals published by the American Physical Society.
JSTOR
Full-text backfiles to over 350 journals from more than 25 academic disciplines published between the 19th and 21st centuries, including Mathematics and the History of Science and Technology.
MathSciNet
A comprehensive index, with abstracts, to the research literature of mathematics. Corresponds to the print indexes Mathematical Reviews (MR) and Current Mathematical Publications (CMP). Published by the American Mathematical Society.
PROLA (Physical Review Online Archive)
Backfiles to the journal Physical Review from 1893 to 1998, Physical Review Letters back to 1958, and Reviews of Modern Physics back to 1929.
Interlibrary Loan
To get books or articles that Gustavus does not own, use Interlibrary Loan.
Web Sites
Citing Your Sources
Documentation Guide -- Includes models for APA and MLA style, plus links to examples of Chicago and CBE style.
Avoiding Plagiarism
mlt 11/07
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