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UofT Astronomy and Astrophysics Library:
INSPEC at University of Toronto

INSPEC is a broad based scientific and engineering bibliographic database that covers many journals and conferences and is the best single electronic source for searching astro literature. (It is supposed to include the contents of Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts but there appears to be some doubt about the completeness of the material included.) It is the commercial database I usually use for literature searching and I recommend it for all astronomy/astrophysics subject/author searching unless you are searching a specific object (in which case SIMBAD is better- see me), or the popular literature (as opposed to the research literature).

The INSPEC database is available online (free to you) through the UTLibrary web site. Check the date of the latest update.

INSPEC is divided up by date and you may have to search several databases, depending on the time period you wish to cover. The interface from UTL changes occasionally so if you have trouble, look at the help files. I notice that there is a tutorial there too- especially for INSPEC. If you still have problems or get suspicious results, please see me.

Note that you may browse the thesaurus or index. GO


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Compiled by Marlene Cummins
library@astro.utoronto.ca
Last update: April 10 2001