BOOKS:
Searching for Books:
The CAT is the Penn State Libraries' catalog (a database of material owned by Penn
State Libraries). For a detailed introduction to
searching for information in the CAT go to the Penn State Libraries Guide to the CAT (requires Flash player).
Search the CAT:
You can return to this search form to revise and resubmit your search - or - you can launch a New Search from within the CAT by pressing the blue oval button marked "New Search" in the results window. Whichever method you choose, your revised results will appear in the original results window.
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The following link will take you directly to the main "PSU Libraries CAT Keyword Search" screen.
Write down the call
number and location for the books or journals you want.
For information on building a complex search see combining
terms in a search.
Tips:
Use the subject headings from relevant books you find as search terms in additional searches.
The "Browse Titles & More" screen (click the tab on the main CAT screen labeled "Browse Titles & More" is useful if you are looking for a specific Book or Journal title, or for works by an author whose name you already know (type Last name - comma - First name).
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Specific book searches in the CAT:
Click on the links below to launch specific Subject searches in the CAT. These searches open a window in the CAT, containing a title list sorted by date (newest first). Once you've got results, navigate within the CAT as usual.
Digital communications
OSI
Computer networks
Computer network protocols
Computer network--Security measures
Books Elsewhere:
WorldCat
The WorldCat is a unified catalog of holdings at libraries all over the world. Do a thorough search of our own CAT (see above) first. Then search WorldCat if the PSU Libraries don't have what you need. Items cataloged in WolrdCat are available through the PSU Libraries Interlibrary Loan service
Penn State Libraries Borrowing Policies:
Once you have the books, check them out at the nearest lending desk or self check-out station. Loan periods are usually four weeks but books can be recalled for another user, so respond promptly to library notices. For more information see the University Libraries lending code.
ARTICLES:
Searching for Journal articles:
The first thing you need to know is that individual journal articles are not cataloged in the CAT (nor in any other library's catalog) - there are just too many of them! Instead, the Libraries subscribe to a number of database services. These services give us a searchable index to journal articles. Some of these indexes include the full text of the actual articles but even when they don't, the fact that you can search across a large number of journals simultaneously can save you a huge amount of time!
The next question you must decide upon is which database to use. Here's an alphabetical list of subjects covered in our databases. Please Note - clicking on a subject gets you a list of databases covering that subject. You still have to do your search in the databases themselves!
- Select a database from one of the lists below.
- Enter and combine terms appropriate to your topic.
- Look at the best references you retrieve and determine the subject
terms used for those articles. Then revise your search using these
new terms.
- Write down or print off all pertinent information (called the 'citation')
including the journal title, volume, date, and page numbers.
- Explore other databases and subject terms (which vary between databases)
for more information.
Lists of Databases:
Or, try these first:
- Compendex
Indexes journal articles, conference proceedings and selected technical
reports in all areas of engineering. Coverage:1970 - Present.
- IEEE
Electronic Library
IEEE Xplore contains the full text of all IEEE and IEE journal articles,
conference papers, and standards published since 1988. The material
can be accessed through a searchable database or by browsing.
- ACM
digital library
The Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) Digital Library includes
the full text of all its current journals and magazines (19), co-distributed
journals (5), and conference proceedings (44). It features searching
capabilities and printing. Coverage: 1991 onwards
Get the full text of the articles you find:
Once you find the citation, you may find the
full text linked from the database. If not, finding the complete article requires additional steps. Check to see if Penn State has access to the
electronic version by searching the Full-Text Electronic Journals list
(note - this may take you to a publisher’s site where you have to search your journal title again). You can see if Penn State owns the print version by searching the
journal title in the "Browse Titles & More" screen in the CAT.
RESEARCH TIPS:
General Search Tips:
The most important trick to effective searching is to find ways to express your topic in the form of searchable terms. For example, if your topic is "How the invention of steam-powered machinery affected the lives of factory workers and their families in England in the 1800's," you need to express this topic as search terms. You might try a term like Industrial Revolution and then combine it with terms like England, steam power, and Social Impact.
Then, as you begin to retrieve citations and abstracts from the databases, compare the topics you're retrieving with your own topic. If you find some citations that are pretty good matches, take a look at the Subject Terms assigned to those articles by the database service and use these to do another search. Your new results will contain more articles that are relevent to your topic!
Most important of all, remember that searching is an iterative process! This means you must try a search term, examine your results, modify your search term and try again, then examine your results again, and so forth, until you are retrieving items that are right for yout topic! It'll usually take several tries - and sometimes more! That's why it's called Re-search!
Selecting a Research Topic:
Pick a topic you enjoy! You want something that is broad enough that you can find information and yet narrow
enough that you are not overwhelmed with sources. Check out Defining
Your Topic for suggestions on finding and refining topics.
Evaluating Resources for Content:
To evaluate print sources and web sites, you should ask a series of questions concerning the source’s currency,
authority, validity, intended audience and bias. See this How to
Evaluate Information site for details.
Citation Guidelines:
The objective in citing your sources is to lead the next person to the same information you found. Make sure your citation
contains everything you would need to backtrack and find the information again. It is best to pick one style and be consistent. See more information at this Citing Your Sources site.
