Science Librarian
Anna Yang
she/her/hers
Physics Library Resources
Physics Library Resources
Image Credits, left to right: NASA, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of Minnesota Supercomputing Institute
University libraries use the Library of Congress classification system rather than the Dewey Decimal classification system.
Below are the most common call number areas for books about Physics and related subjects.
| Call Number | Subject Area |
| QB1 - QB999 | Astronomy |
| QB460 - QB465 | Astrophysics |
| QB520 - QB540 | Sun (solar physics) |
| QC1 - QC999 | Physics |
| QC170 - QC197 | Atomic Physics |
| QC176 - QC177 | Solid State Physics |
| QC220 - QC246 | Acoustics, sound |
| QC251 - QC338 | Heat |
| QC350 - QC467 | Optics, light |
| QC450 - QC454 | Spectroscopy |
| QC474 - QC496 | Radiation Physics |
| QC501 - QC766 | Electricity & Magnetism |
| QC717.5 - QC718.8 | Plasma Physics |
| QC770 - QC798 | Nuclear & Particle Physics |
| QC801 - QC809 | Geophysics, cosmic physics |
| QC811 - QC849 | Geomagnetism |
| QC851 - QC999 | Meteorology, climatology |
| TK7800 - TK8360 | Electronics |
| TK7857 - TK7871 | Electronic Circuits |
| TK7871.85 - TK7874.5 | Semiconductors, microelectronics |
Physics Databases (via Library Subscription)
- American Institute of Physics (AIP) Publications This link opens in a new windowThe mission of the AIP is to serve physics, astronomy, and related fields of science and technology by serving its Member Societies and their associates, individual scientists, educators, R&D leaders, and the general public with programs, services and publications.
- Engineering Village This link opens in a new windowProvides access to over 17 million abstracts from Compendex (1884-present) and approximately 14 million abstracts from Inspec (1896-present).
- INSPEC This link opens in a new windowCovers the fields of physics, electronics, computing, control engineering, and information technology with more than seven million records taken from 3,500 technical & scientific journals and 1,500 conference proceedings. 1896-present. Updated weekly.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowProvides image and full-text online access to back issues of selected scholarly journals in history, economics, political science, demography, mathematics, biology, and other fields of the humanities, social sciences, and life sciences. Consult the online tables of contents for holdings, as coverage varies for each title. Updated monthly.
- MathSciNet This link opens in a new windowA searchable database based on the data in Mathematical Reviews and Current Mathematical Publications. It provides coverage of Mathematical Reviews from 1940-present.
- O'Reilly for Higher Education This link opens in a new windowO'Reilly includes technical and business content from more than 250 publishers. Additionally, videos, case studies, interactive tutorials, audio books, and self-assessments are provided.
- ScienceDirect This link opens in a new windowSCU receives 400+ ScienceDirect online journals from the publisher Elsevier. SCU's ScienceDirect journals are marked by green icons. Most are full-text. Dates covered: 1995-present. Elsevier journals focus on science, technology, medicine, and business, and include high impact-factor journals such as the Trends and Current Opinion series.
- Web of Science This link opens in a new windowIncludes Social Sciences Citation Index, Science Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index.
Other Databases with Physics Information (via Library Subscription)
- Directory of Open Access JournalsDOAJ's mission is to increase the visibility, accessibility, reputation, usage and impact of quality, peer-reviewed, open access scholarly research journals globally, regardless of discipline, geography or language.
- IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new windowThe IEEE/IEE Electronic Library (IEL) is IEEE's complete full-text product on its Xplore platform. It is an online collection of IEEE and IEE journals and conferences--plus the IEEE standards. These publications provide 30% of the world's electrical engineering and computer science literature in a single source. There is a full-text backfile for each title to 1988, with selected titles back to 1950.
- Inspec Analytics This link opens in a new windowInspec Analytics enables research professionals to explore beyond the literature in Inspec to uncover trends and patterns across a wide range of physics and engineering disciplines at both local and global levels. With Inspec Analytics, you can monitor the research output of your institution and see how this ranks globally, benchmark an institution against collaborators and competitors to find strengths and areas for growth, and monitor global trends for over 14,000 research topics to explore new fields and find collaborators.
- MathSciNet This link opens in a new windowA searchable database based on the data in Mathematical Reviews and Current Mathematical Publications. It provides coverage of Mathematical Reviews from 1940-present.
Suggested Journals (via Library Subscription)
- American Journal of PhysicsThe mission of the American Journal of Physics (AJP) is to publish articles on the educational and cultural aspects of physics that are useful, interesting, and accessible to a diverse audience of physics students, educators, and researchers
- Nature PhysicsIn addition to publishing primary research, Nature Physics serves as a central source for top-quality information for the Physics community through review articles, news & views, research highlights on important developments published throughout the Physics literature, commentaries, book reviews, and correspondence.
- Physical Review LettersPhysical Review Letters has published seminal research by Nobel Prize winners and other distinguished researchers in all fields of physics.
- ScienceScience is published by the American Association for the Advancement o Science (AAAS), publishing to help fulfill the mission to "advance science and serve society" by communicating the value of science to the public, helping governments formulate science policy, promoting advancements in science education and diversity, and helping scientists develop their careers.