1. Texts and reference books in my personal library
2. The knowledge and resources of my coworkers who are close by
3. The knowledge and brochures or Internet sites of technical sales people
and companies
4. The local UCSD library-especially for reference journals; review
articles, popular books (such as Craig Bohren's "Clouds in a Glass of Beer"
or introductory chapters in books that are often invaluable when venturing
into a new field; technical compendiums and reference books; and technical
books in areas that I am working on.
5. Internet - Google, etc.
6. Search services such as NERAC
<http://www.nerac.com>
7. The US Patent Office
<http://www.uspto.gov>
especially
<http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/search-bool.html>
The general idea is to use the most readily available resources and, if
those are insufficient, use less readily accessible resources, such as
driving to the university library. But it is critically important to be
able to learn about new fields and technologies in an efficient manner.
Larry Woolf;General Atomics;San Diego CA
92121;Ph:858-526-8575;FAX:858-526-8568; www.ga.com;www.sci-ed-ga.org
This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.