Knowing what type of material you need will help you focus your search. To help you determine which sources will best meet your needs, consider the following:
Primary Source - original material/research. In modern science, this is the first published appearance of an experimental result or theory.
EXAMPLES: research articles in journals or conference proceedings; research reports; original books or treatises
Secondary Source - these are once-removed from primary sources. Typically, this material is evaluative in nature and interprets the results presented in primary materials. Secondary sources do not provide new results or evidence, but rather comment on and discuss evidence presented in primary sources.
EXAMPLES: textbooks, review articles in journals, encyclopedias
Tertiary Source - material collected from primary and secondary sources; distillations of the information therein.
EXAMPLES: guidebooks, collections of data, chronologies, directories
Each of the recommended resources listed on this page has an icon next to its title. Hover your mouse over the icon to find out what kind of source each item is. If there is no icon, the source type is listed directly beneath the resource's description.
These resources are available through the UNH Library or are free:
The following items can all be found in the Physics Library. Please click on each title to see catalog information.
