Technical Literature
The State Library is recognized as an excellent source of publications on the applied sciences and technology. Some of the types and forms of this literature are:
- treatises, texts, reviews and histories
- journals, trade publications newsletters, and annual reports
- published proceedings of conferences and symposia
- technical reports, including the National Technical Information Service's publications from Federal agencies and many foreign countries
- all U.S. patents and resources for doing patent searches
- specifications, standards, codes, and related literature
- encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks and manuals
- information on computers, data processing, office automation and telecommunications
- U.S. Government Printing Office depository and non-depository publications
- publications of other states and countries
- biographical reference works
Searching the Catalogs for Technical Information
The State Library's on-line and microfiche catalogs provide access to most technical publications by author, title, or subject. The items in some collections, such as technical reports, patents, specifications, and standards are not individually cataloged. Ask a librarian about access to these publications.
The Reference Collection
Although much of the technical literature is housed on non-public floors, an extensive collection of reference works in technology is readily available on the public floor in Dewey classifications 600-609 for general technical works and 620-699 for works arranged by subject discipline. (Classes 610-619 are for medicine. Medical technology is coded 610.28.)
Indexes to the Literature
The Library's Reference collection contains many abstracting and indexing publications providing excellent access to technical information published as periodical articles, technical reports, State and Federal government documents, and other forms of the literature. A finding aid to these indexes, the Selected List of Abstracts and Indexes in Science and Technology, is available at the Reference Desk.
Several indexes to technical literature on compact disk (CD-ROM) may be searched by users at the Electronic Reference Station. Examples are an index to publications of the National Technical Information Service, the Classified Search and Support Information System (CASSIS) database for U.S. patent information, and an index to recent U.S. Government Printing Office publications, which include much technical information.
Computerized Searches Available
On-line searches of all major technical databases are available.