2005* Results 'Core' or Essential Reference Tool Survey: Physical Sciences

1. What are the essential 3-5 print Physical Sciences reference sources that you can't work without in answering reference questions ?  Top 3 positions - many tied for 3rd. First was way out in front.

1. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
2. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology
3. CRC Concise Encyclopedia of Mathematics, CRC Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulae, Dictionary of Organic Compounds, Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, and Merck Index

These print Physical Sciences reference sources received 2 votes each:

• Aldrich Handbook of FT-IR Spectra, etc.
• Periodical Title Abbreviations

2. What are the essential 3-5 Web-accessible or other Physical Sciences databases that you can't work without in answering reference questions ? The Top 7 Web Sites - Some sites tied in votes:

1. SciFinder Scholar (Chemical Abstracts) - http://www.cas.org/SCIFINDER/SCHOLAR/
2. Web of Science - http://scientific.thomson.com/products/wos/
3. INSPEC - http://www.iee.org/publish/inspec/
4. GeoRef - http://www.agiweb.org/georef/about/index.html
5. MathSciNet - http://www.ams.org/mathscinet and Knovel - http://www.knovel.com
6. Science Citation Index - http://scientific.thomson.com/products/sci/, CrossFire Gmelin - http://www.mdl.com/products/knowledge/crossfire_gmelin/index.jsp, CrossFire Beilstein - http://www.mdl.com/products/knowledge/crossfire_beilstein/ and COMPENDEX - http://www.cas.org/ONLINE/DBSS/compendexss.html
7. Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management - http://www.csa.com/factsheets/envclust-set-c.php and CHEMnetBase - http://www.chemnetbase.com

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*This survey was posted to LIS-Scitech, STS-L, ELDNET, publib, libref-l, LIS-LINK, DIG_REF, ERIL-L, Buslib-L, Govdoc-L, and livereference during Summer 2005.

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