Library Resources on Astronomy and Physics
SCOPE
The purpose of this guide is to provide information about key reference and information resources in the fields of astronomy and physics. It is to support research and teaching of faculty and students in the UHH astronomy and physics programs.
The Cambridge Dictionary of Astronomy defines astronomy as follows:
"The study of the universe and its contents beyond the bounds of the Earth's atmosphere."
Reference Collection: QB 14 .M55 2001
The Oxford Dictionary of Physics defines physics as follows:
"The study of the laws that determine the structure of the universe with reference to the matter and energy of which it consists."
Reference Collection: QC 5 .C56 2000
SUBJECT SEARCHING IN THE VOYAGER CATALOG
Books and media on all subjects are indexed in UH Hilo’s Voyager catalog.
A click on the subject headings below will perform the search in UH Hilo’s catalog.
Astronomy
Astronomy
-- Hawaii
Astronomy -- Charts, Diagrams
Astronomy -- History
Astronomy -- Observations
Astronomical instruments
Astronomical observatories
Astrophysics
Cosmology
Galaxies
Optics
Stars
Physics
Physics -- History
Physics -- Philosophy
Physics -- Problems, Exercises
Physics -- Research
Atmospheric physics
Astrophysics
Cosmology
Mathematical physics
Particles -- Nuclear physics
Quantum theory
Relativity
Symmetry
To search the UH Hilo catalog on your own, go to the library’s homepage, look under “Voyager Catalog” and click on “UH Hilo Collections.” A good next step is to choose the “Guided Search” option and select from the drop-down menu “Keyword Anywhere” (to look for terms over the entire catalog record—titles, subjects, content notes, etc.) or “Subject Keyword” (to restrict your search to the “Subjects” field).
The searches above take you into the UH Hilo catalog. To have access to material owned by UH Manoa, do the same searches in the Voyager Catalog under “All UH Libraries”
Students at UH Hilo may request books and some AV material owned by UH Manoa or any other UH library through the library’s intrasystem loan service. There is no charge for books.
Students enrolled in 300 level and above, Honors, or Senior Thesis courses can arrange to borrow a book that is not available within the UH library system. There is no charge for books. Allow at least three to five weeks for a reply or delivery. You may request ILL online or submit request forms to the Reference Desk when staffed, or to the Circulation Desk.
Finding Astronomy and Physics Books to Check Out
Books related to astronomy are in the QB areas and books related to physics are in the QC areas of the library, which uses the Library of Congress call number scheme to put its books in order by subject.
Reference books are located in the Reference section on the Main Level.
Books that can be borrowed are located on the Lower Level.
Books concerning astronomy, geophysics, and climatology in Hawai‘i are located in the Hawaiian collection on the Main Level.
REFERENCE BOOKS
General Science
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (4 volumes)
Reference Collection: Q 121 .M3 2002
Astronomy
Astronomy Encyclopedia
Reference Collection: QB 14 .A875 2002
Cambridge Dictionary of Astronomy
Reference Collection: QB 14 .M55 2001
Data Book of Astronomy
Reference Collection: QB 64 .M623 2000
Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics (4 volumes)
Reference Collection: QB 14 .E534 2001
Facts on File Dictionary of Astronomy
Reference Collection: QB 14 .F3 2000
Firefly Encyclopedia of Astronomy
Reference Collection: QB 14 .F48 2004
Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Universe
Reference Collection: QB 14 .I588 2001
Physics
CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
Reference Collection: QD 65 .H3
Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights and Measures
Reference Collection: QC 94 . C295 2003
{beware the spelling of the first word}
Oxford Dictionary of Physics
Reference Collection: QC 5 .C56 2000
Physics Companion
Reference Collection: QC 21.3 .F58 2003
Weather Almanac
Reference Collection: QC 983 .W38 2001
ELECTRONIC BOOKS
The library has recently acquired electronic books to supplement its printed collection. These are especially useful for students who are not on campus. eBooks are accessed from the library homepage: under “Quick Links,” click on “eBooks.”
ebrary Thousands of titles including some on astronomy and physics. To create an account, click on "Sign In" at the upper left, then "Need to create a new bookshelf?" Your username and password can be anything.
NetLibrary contains books on all subjects and includes some titles on astronomy and physics. Some of these are cataloged in Voyager, but most must be accessed from the netLibrary website. Search for "astronomy" or "physics" as a subject.
The OnlineBooks page has thousands of freely available eBooks. Search for "astronomy" or "physics" as a subject.
FINDING BOOKS IN MAINLAND LIBRARIES
WorldCat lists books, audiovisual materials, and other items held by some 18,000 libraries worldwide. Its 1.3 billion items may be searched by author, keyword, title, and ISBN.
Once you have found a title you're interested in, you need to check our library's Voyager catalog to see if we have the book.
Students enrolled in 300 level and above, Honors, or Senior Thesis courses can arrange to borrow a book that is not available within the UH library system. There is no charge for books. Allow at least three to five weeks for a reply or delivery. For more information and instructions on requesting material from other libraries, please see the loans from other libraries page.
DISSERTATIONS
The library has access to the full text of North American theses and dissertations completed since 1997 in Digital Dissertations. Some examples of material available in full text on that site:
Garland, Catherine. The neutral interstellar medium in luminous compact blue galaxies. (University of Hawai‘i, 2004).
Carpenter, Linda. Supersymmetry models and phenomenology. (The Johns Hopkins University, 2007)
JOURNALS and DATABASES
Current issues of print periodicals are displayed on the Main Level behind the Reference area, arranged in broad subject areas. Most of our periodical backfiles are on the Lower Level (temporarily during renovation), shelved alphabetically by title.
In order to find articles in periodicals on a specific topic, use one or more of the library's periodical indexes. Online indexes of most value in astronomy and physics are:
Academic Periodical Search provides access to more than 20 databases with many full-text articles. Its primary database, Academic Search Premier, covers a variety of academic subjects including astronomy. It has full-text back issues of Astronomy, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Astronomy & Geophysics, Astronomy Letters, Astronomy Reports, New Scientist, and Scientific American. Check the complete title list for the detail of coverage.
Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is a NASA-funded project which provides access to full-text back issues of most of the astronomical journals and other resources.
Blackwell Synergy (now part of Wiley InterScience, see below)
Institute of Physics (IoP) Journals (licensed for UHH users only) access is available from on-campus only. To see a list of accessible journals, on the top right, choose "Journal subscriptions at your site".
ScienceDirect provides access to 1600 journals from Elsevier Science. Select "Physics and Astronomy" as a subject to browse journal titles. Astronomy titles include: Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics, Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Icarus, New Astronomy, New Astronomy Reviews, Planetary and Space Science, and Vistas in Astronomy.
Space Life Sciences from PubMed is a special query that will limit results to the PubMed Space Life Sciences subset.
SpringerLink has access to over 1000 journals. Under "Browse and Explore", choose"Browse Publications A-Z" to find a journal.
Wiley InterScience has almost 1400 electronic journals in the sciences and social sciences back to 1997 (where available). Now includes our subscribed content from Blackwell Synergy. Full-text articles for Astronomy & Geophysics (2000 - ), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (1998 - ) and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters (2005 - ) are available.
Finding Articles in Print and Online
The vast majority of journals we have available are now online. In order to find out if we have access to a journal, either in print format or online, use the “Find Periodicals” box on the library’s homepage. Type in the title of the journal (not the title of the article within the journal).
If we have it online, a link will be provided to the journals homepage, from which you may find the specific issue and article you’re looking for. If we have the journal in print format, the system will take you to the Voyager catalog record for the journal. It will tell you what years we have, and most likely will tell you we keep the journal in the Periodical Backfile Collection on the Lower Level (temporarily during renovation) of the Library. The print journals are shelved alphabetically by title.
Some astronomy and physics titles available for browsing include:
- American Journal of Physics. 1947-
- Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics. 1963-
(also available online 1996-) - Astronomy. 1981-
- Nature. 1869-
- New Scientist. 1969-
- Physics Teacher. 1968-
- Physics Today. 1948-
- Science. 1934-
- Scientific American. 1859-
- Sky and Telescope. 1941-
Obtaining Articles from Journals the Library Does Not Have
Students may often obtain articles from journals to which the UH Hilo library does not subscribe. Through a process called intrasystem loan, this library requests articles from another library in the UH system. There is a $1.00 charge for the photocopy.
Students enrolled in 300 level and above, Honors, or Senior Thesis courses can request a journal article that is not available within the UH library system. There is a cost of $3.00 per article. Allow at least three to five weeks for a reply or delivery. For more information and instructions on requesting material from other libraries, please see the loans from other libraries page.
ANNUAL REVIEWS
Each year, Annual Reviews, a nonprofit organization, publishes compilations of articles spanning a wide variety of topics for about 30 different disciplines. The authors are invited to contribute, and they each have the expertise to deliver a detailed, authoritative assessment of the state of theory and research of the topic under review. The Annual Review publications are often among the most cited periodicals in a given discipline.
Annual
Review of Astronomy & Astrophysics
Also available in print - General Collection: QB 1 .A2884
Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science
Only available in print - General Collection: QE 1 .A674
RESEARCH METHODS AND WRITING FOR THE PROFESSION
Best American Science Writing
General Collection: Q 158.5 .B47
College Student's Research Companion
General Collection: Z 710 .Q37 1997
Doing Science: Design, Analysis, and Communication of Scientific Research
General Collection: Q 180.A1 V35 2001
A Field Guide For Science Writers: The Official Guide of the National Association of Science Writers
General Collection: T 11 .F52 1997
Science and Technology Research: Writing Strategies for Students
General Collection: Z 710 .N47 2002
Writing and Presenting Scientific Papers
General Collection: T 11 .M3344 2004
INTERNET RESOURCES
UHH Department of Physics and Astronomy website
Astronomy - Resources list from the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division of the Special Libraries Association.
Internet Resources in Astronomy - From the Sciences Reference Services at the Library of Congress.
NASA / IPAC Extragalactic Database - Detailed and referenced photometry, position, redshift data, and more for Extragalactic objects.
NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS) - Solar system and planetary data (e.g,. Mars, Halley's Comet).
The Parallax Project - Online version of the Publications of the Allegheny Observatory of the University of Pittsburgh.
Science.gov - A gateway to authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. Government agencies, including research and development results.
SIMBAD (Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data) - Data and references for Galactic objects, maintained by CDS, Strasbourg, France.
Sloan Digital Sky Survey - Presents data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a project to make a map of the entire universe.
ORGANIZATIONS
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
International Astronomical Union
MAUNA KEA OBSERVATORIES
Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO)
Canada-France-Hawai‘i Telescope (CFHT)
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai‘iJoint Astronomy Centre
- James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT)
- United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT)
Submillimeter Array (SMA)
Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA)