Reference Services & Research Assistance
- For Research consultation
and/or to schedule an instruction session:
- Contact Norah at nxiao@usc.edu
- email the S&E librarians team at: lib-scit@dots.usc.edu
- call the Science & Engineering Reference Desk (213) 740 4416
- Hours for reference desks
- Electronic assistance (Chat/IM and Email Reference): Ask-A-Librarian
USC Science and Engineering Library Virtual Tour
Physics and Astronomy Research Guide
- Physics Research Guide
- Cite it right: writing assistance and citation style in science and engineering field
- you will find your interested subjects in these tags, and if you have a delicous account you can join in PHYSUSC network account.
Collections
The principal Physics and Astronomy collections are located in the Science & Engineering Library (SSL on the USC map). These collections support Physics and Astronomy teaching and research through the doctoral level and beyond. History and philosophy of astronomy and/or physics texts are in the Doheny Memorial Library. Older texts and bound journals for which we have online subscriptions are in the Grand Library. Click HERE for the collection policy statement.
Books
- Search the HOMER catalog to find print and electronic books and where they are located.
- Astronomy and Physics books are generally in the QB and QC call number sections.
- New books are shelved separately in the Science & Engineering Library, on the 1st floor to the right of the stairwell. These books may be checked out.
- Many physics electronic books, e.g. Prof. Johnson's D-Branes text, are in the ebrary collection (note: ebrary requires Active-X, plus a reader plug-in; for more details see our Research Guide for ebrary)
- Recommend a book for library purchase (no textbooks please)
Journals
- Search the HOMER online catalog for print journals.
- Search Ejournals A to Z (http://www.usc.edu/ejournalsatoz) for on-line journals.
- Use the INSPEC citation database on Engineering Village 2 to search for and link to articles by topic, author, etc.
- The following are the article resources most often cited by 2006-07 colloquium speakers (in order of number of cites). Also included is information on the range of our online holdings.
You can always search Ejournals A to Z for these and all the rest of USC's electronic journals.
- ALL of the American Physical Society (APS) titles ALL the way back to volume 1's -- easiest start point = PROLA
- Nature -- Now back to the beginning! 1869! (January 2008+). Search this page.
- We have all the Nature titles online, back to varying start dates; search via this site
- Science (older issues in JSTOR; back to 1880, but AAAS will be moving off JSTOR)
- arXiv preprint server
- Journal of Physics A: Mathematical & Theoretical (back to vol. 1, 1968)
- The Astrophysical Journal (back to 1996)
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (back to 2003, its beginning)
- Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysical Data System/ADS (databases and a search engine; thousands of links to fulltext, some only abstracts)
- Applied Physics Letters (back to 1962, vol. 1)
- Journal of Applied Physics (back to 1931, vol. 1)
- Annals of Mathematics (link is to Open J-Gate version; back to 2003)
Instruction services for faculty
- To schedule a class taught by the Physics and Astronomy Librarian, please fill the Request-A-Class form.
- To inquire about tours for guests or orientations for new faculty or students, contact the Librarian.
(updated Aug 11, 2008)