Finding books

   *   

Finding articles   *   Finding facts   *  Finding web sites 

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If you have any difficulty locating what you need, you can contact a reference librarian by telephone at 885-1772, via email, or by coming into the library during reference service hours.

The library subscribes to many Web-based databases for use by OIT students, staff, and faculty. Access to these databases is limited to users connected to the Web from an OIT computer. If you are using a non-OIT Internet Service Provider (such as AOL, CDSNET, CVC, etc.) you will need to use your OIT email username and password to access the databases from off-campus. 

Check the library's Interlibrary Loan (ILL) webpage for information on getting loans of books or copies of articles from other libraries.

Finding Books - catalogs

See Tips for using catalog databases

Books can often provide a good overview of or introduction to a topic. They also can provide valuable historical information or thoughtful criticism and discussion.

Use Hedgehog to locate books and journals in the OIT Library. Hedgehog is a Web database containing records for items in the library's collection. OIT purchases books and colorjournals on health sciences from many publishers. The library also receives federal and state government documents relating to aspects of health sciences, particularly those from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Use Summit to locate books at other academic libraries in the Northwest. Orbis lets you request books online, when they are available, and have them delivered by courier to the OIT Library, usually within two working days.

Use World Cat to locate books, government documents, CDs, videos, and other items at libraries across North America and elsewhere in the world. A   symbol appearing next to a reference retrieved by a search indicates that the OIT Library owns the item.  If the book is not at OIT, students, staff, and faculty can make an online ILL (interlibrary loan) request. Books are usually sent to the OIT Library via U.S. mail so may take a week or more to arrive. 

Use Safari Tech Books Online to find books on topics from XML, to database to .Net in electronic format. From Safari you can:

ACM Digital Library
Bibliographic information, abstracts, reviews, and the full-text for articles published in ACM periodicals and proceedings since 1985 are available in the library. While full-text is available for most articles, it is not yet available for every article published before 1991.  From the Association for Computing Machinary.

Applied Science and Technology Abstracts
Indexes international and English-language periodicals, covering engineering, mathematics, physics, and computer technology. Includes articles, interviews, meetings, conferences, exhibitions, new product reviews/announcements, and more. A symbol appearing next to a record indicates that the OIT Library owns that item. Updated monthly. Covers 1983 - present.  From H.W. Wilson.

EI Compendex Web
Provides abstracts from all areas of engineering. Abstracts come from 2,600 engineering journals, conferences, and technical reports. Covers 1980 - present. Check Hedgehog to see if the OIT Library owns the source publication.  From Engineering Information, Inc.

Finding Facts - Reference books

Tips for using reference sources

The library reference area has books with addresses, definitions, data tables and other factual information. Books on using specific programming languages or operating systems may be identified using Hedgehog and located in the main bookstacks.

Some reference books you may find useful include:

REF HD9696 .C66.
THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY ... ALMANAC : THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO PEOPLE, SALARIES, COMPANIES, PRODUCTS, TECHNOLOGIES, AND FORECASTS IN THE FASCINATING EVER-CHANGING COMPUTER INDUSTRY / EGIL JULIUSSEN AND KAREN JULIUSSEN.

REF PN6231.E4 H3 1996.
THE NEW HACKER'S DICTIONARY / COMPILED BY ERIC S. RAYMOND ; WITH FOREWORD AND CARTOONS, GUY L. STEELE, JR.

REF QA76.15 .D56.
DICTIONARY OF COMPUTING : DATA COMMUNICATIONS, HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE BASICS, DIGITAL ELECTRONICS / EDITED BY FRANK J. GALLAND.

REF QA76.15 .E48 2000.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMPUTER SCIENCE.

REF QA76.76.O63 U545134 1996.
THE UNIX DICTIONARY OF COMMANDS, TERMS, AND ACRONYMS / BY JOHN LEVINE ...
[ET AL.].

REF T385 .M87 1996.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GRAPHICS FILE FORMATS / JAMES D. MURRAY AND WILLIAM VANRYPER.

REF TA157 .P445.
PETERSON'S JOB OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE MAJORS.

REF TK5105.875.I57 B64 1999.
DICTIONARY OF MULTIMEDIA AND INTERNET APPLICATIONS : A GUIDE FOR DEVELOPERS AND USERS / FRANCIS BOTTO.

Finding Web sites

See Tips for using Web search engines

Besides using one of the many Web search engines (some good ones are available as links from the OIT Librarys Web search engine page), there are other ways to identify higher-quality websites on your topic.

ACM SIGGRAPH: full text articles- ACM SIGGRAPH is dedicated to the generation and dissemination of information on computer graphics and interactive techniques.

Basics of Color Systems and Color Management: full text articles - Apple Computer offers this Web site that discusses the process of 'managing color across input, display, and output devices.'

Business Software Alliance - BSA is the voice of the world's commercial software industry before governments and in the international marketplace. BSA educates consumers on software management and copyright protection, cyber security, trade, e-commerce and other Internet-related issues.

Center for Human Modeling and Simulation: full text articles- Investigates computer graphics modeling and animation techniques for embodied agents, virtual humans, and their applications.

Computational Science Education Reference Desk: full text articles- Promotes the use of 'computers to do science.' Demonstrations of various concepts in mathematics, and two lesson plans cover basic vector operations. Several detailed programming tutorials are available, covering Java and parallel programming. The code libraries contain downloadable source code for C++ and Java. Other applications and activities related to math, biology, physics, and astronomy are also provided.

Digital Learning Center: full text articles- Tutorial from Kodak on how film images are captured, processed, stored and output digitally.

Digital Watermarking World: Full text articles- An international meeting point for scientists, researchers and companies active in digital watermarking.

Free Electronic Book: Thinking in Java: full text articles- The book covers the basics of objects, coding style, error handling, the Java input/output system, creating graphical user interfaces, and much more.

GPGPU: full text articles- Examines the increasing programmability of commodity graphics processing units (GPUs). It is regularly updated with news, links to conferences and research papers, and related projects.

Image Processing Learning Resources: full text articles- On-line reference and tutorial information on a wide range of image processing operations, extensively illustrated with actual digitized images, and bound together in a hypermedia format.

Institute for Software Research: full text articles- Univ. of California, Irvine research in open source software development focuses on empirically-based studies of the processes, practices, and communities that develop open source software. Links to publications and technical reports.

Internet Art Commissions for 2002:  Showcases two examples of Internet-based artwork and gives an overview of the significance and origins of this artistic medium.

Introduction to Programming Using Java: full text articles- Free, on-line textbook on introductory programming, which uses Java as the language of instruction.

Melbourne Digital Arts and Culture Conference 2003: full text articles- Papers from the Melbourne DAC conference covering the topics of Internet shopping, virtual worlds, and multimedia animations.

The GW Forecast: A Virtual Think-Tank for Tracking the Technology Revolution: full text articles- Collaborative online effort of experts used to evaluate trends and predict breakthroughs for a variety of emerging technologies.

The Technology Site: full text articles- Information on design technology including electronics, computer control, structures, and graphics techniques.

Useit.com: full text articles- Jakob Nielson's website on usability.

Virtual Museum of Computing:  This virtual museum includes an eclectic collection of World Wide Web (WWW) hyperlinks connected with the history of computing and on-line computer-based exhibits available both locally and around the world.

W3 Schools: full text articles- Tutorials on web design, coding, and scripting as well as links to resources and examples.

Yale Web Style Guide: full text articles- Style guide for web design and development. Includes information on site design, page design, typography, graphics, and multimedia.