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LibrariesUse the web to locate appropriate university libraries in your geographic area and check their card catalogs. There are numerous resources to find libraries on the web. Yahoo! and Google are good places to start. Remember that if you're looking for engineering material, it won't generally be available at an art college - academic libraries specialize. The majority of academic libraries now provide access to their card catalogs on the web, although some require *Telnet.
You can also go farther afield geographically - sometimes very far, if what you need is obscure. Usually a phone call to a reference librarian at the institution is the way to handle this if you can't get to the library yourself. Very often for a small copying fee they'll send you an article. Most academic libraries are happy to see drop-ins from civilians, but you won't be able to borrow materials without special, often expensive arrangements. Not to worry: they all have photocopying facilities.
Larger public libraries also hold many academic and technical journals, and also frequently provide web access to their card catalogs. Start with the libraries in your geographic area. If they don't have the material themselves, they may be able to direct you to a library consortium listing, or may be able to tell you which libraries in your area do carry the required journal.
Many university and public libraries now also subscribe to the electronic versions of periodicals and provide them to authorized users over the web. In many cases these are "text only" versions, but it's often enough information for many purposes and usually will be adequate to determine if the complete print article should be obtained. Libraries may directly subscribe to specific publications or may use a service such as InfoTrac which aggregates thousands of publications.
Library consortia are very common and usually based on geographic areas. For example, all of the libraries in the eastern half of a state may pool their card catalogs into a single listing, or may have pooled listings for periodicals. There may be dozens of such organizations in a relatively small and nearby geographic area. They are usually listed on any member library's web site.
Dissertations and internal academic reports can often be obtained from the institution granting the degree or where the work was carried out. There will be a modest copying fee, typically in the range of US$20 to US$40. In some cases it may be necessary to track down the author, however. Most dissertations are available from University Microfilm International (UMI) for a fee of about US$30.
Authors
Almost every college, university or corporate entity of any size has a web site and you may find one or more of the authors listed in their personnel directory there. If not, email to the university or company and ask for the author's email address, and/or snail mail address. Specifically tell them you're trying to get a paper.
Web tips for locating authors:
- These days, always search Google, Yahoo! or another good search engine first. It's the fastest way to a result. Remember that variations of the author's name are very likely. If unsuccessful, widen your search by using a meta search site. Two fairly good ones at present are Dogpile and ez2www. If still unsuccessful, try the following strategies:
- If you know it, search on the author's phone number as a string.
- Search within the author's university, corporate or government affiliated site, if appropriate. Such sites often have deep directories which aren't drilled down through by search engines.
- See if the author has published patents, or patent applications. They frequently have complete addresses.
- Search the Usenet. Google is one good resource but there are others. Authors are often involved in discussion groups.
- Search for the author's email address using resources such as the Yahoo! directory. The listings are pretty desultory and often out of date, however.
- Last resort: Search for home addresses using web phone directories. It's not recommended that you contact authors this way, but there may be no other choice. If possible, open with a snail mail introduction which is much less intrusive than a phone call. If you must phone the author, cut the blather short by stating that you've tried every other means of locating them without success. State your purpose. Suggest that they give you their business contact info and you will call or write at their convenience.
Journals and Periodicals
You have to work a little to get info, and sometimes you have to work a lot.
