The Informed Physics Student

The Library (Part 1)

Have you ever navigated on a boat, or in the woods, using dead reckoning? You know... the practice of taking a reading by compass (if you ever have that) and then just following the track of the bearing as close to straight as you can without a map to judge landmarks?

The library is the space; the catalog is the map. Use them.

Now I'm the first to say that it's unreasonable to make a paper out of quotes and references alone. This is because it is unreasonable to say that everything that's worth thinking of has been thought of. Therefore, it is of primary importance that you write what you think in a paper, and, only later, go back and reference the places where you got your correlating and confirming information.
For this, however, you need sources, and chances are, if you need sources, you need a library.
Many many students don't appreciate their campus libraries. Libraries offer a good place to study and do homework, a font of information and inspiration among their shelves, and computer labs to do work and (most importantly) print things.
But all of that is secondary. Most of all, the library is an information space. Within a 3-dimensional space with a dimension (or half-dimension, since it's uni-directional) of time, we have a building. Within that building, in some sort of 3D spatial matrix, are books, which also have a time variable, and are dynamic by that. However, this is the part where we start entering the information spaces. As books are organized, they also construct a pseudo-dimension, based on the placement scheme: Dewey Decimal, Library of Congress (which most college and university libraries use here in the US), etc. (see more here). This linear index then refers you to a particular volume which has, inside it, an index, creating a further pseudo-dimension of linear coordinates. Follow those to the conceptual illustration you want, and you're there... After having navigated a whole six dimensions.
Similarly, on computers, you immerse yourself in an information space with its own quantified theoretically infinite dimensions. But the real key is navigating.
First of all, after reading this, I want you to immediately march yourself down to your school's library and wander around. See where the fiction is. See where the physical science and math books are. If you're lucky enough to have a physical sciences library, go over there and bring the staff cookies or cappuccinos in a library-approved container, as they rule.
Now, the other thing that you need to do is familiarize yourself with online databases. Make certain that your school has current subscriptions to the ones you need, or else you might have to circulate a petition among the students. Read papers from these, and you'll be kept up to date.
(Incidentally, if you want to see articles about what's on the cutting edge of physics, some not even refereed or reviewed yet, go to that link up and to the right, "arxiv.org". Yep, the one with the Jolly Roger smiley. That's it.)
More on this tomorrow.

posted by Pete Marchetto @ 9:48 PM