Research Guides

Online Facts: Science and Engineering

• arXiv.org e-Print archive. A jointly funded product of the National Science Foundation, The Department of Energy and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, arXiv.org, (formerly xxx.lanl.gov) was started in Aug 1991. It is "a fully automated electronic archive and distribution server for research papers. Covered areas include physics and related disciplines, mathematics, nonlinear sciences, computational linguistics, and neuroscience. Users can retrieve papers from the archive either through an on-line world wide web interface, or by sending commands to the system via e-mail. Similarly, authors can submit their papers to the archive either using the on-line world wide web interface, using ftp, or using e-mail. Authors can update their submissions if they choose, though previous versions remain available."

• eNature.com sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation, has produced a series of online field guides covering over 5000 species living within North America. Guides include: Amphibians, Birds, Butterflies, Fishes, Insects; Mammals, Reptiles, Seashells, Seashore Creatures, Spiders, Trees as well as Wildflowers.

• Intute: Science, Engineering and Technology is a subject organized clearinghouse for thousands of Engineering Web sites worldwide.

• Calculators On-line Center. Jim Martindale's subject organized directory to over 18,640 online calculators.

• NatureServe. "A source for authoritative conservation information on more than 50,000 plants, animals, and ecological communities of the United States and Canada. NatureServe provides in-depth information on rare and endangered species, but includes common plants and animals too."

• Patents. Patent full-page images back to 1790. Now searchable in five-year blocks back to 1976, and in one additional block covering the years 1790-1975.

• Standards. Several standards organizations run online catalogs of standards, giving brief citations and abstracts. Full copies of the standards may be purchased at these sites.
  
  • The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) runs a comprehensive site that also incorporates International Standards Organization (ISO) standards as well.
  • ISO also runs its own International Standards catalog.

• Plants Database from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the "single source of standardized information about plants. This database focuses on vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories. The PLANTS Database includes names, checklists, automated tools, identification information, species abstracts, distributional data, crop information, plant symbols, plant growth data, plant materials information, plant links, references, and other plant information."
  
  

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