The National Climatic Data Center (of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is responsible for preserving, monitoring, assessing, and providing public access to the climate and historical weather data for the United States. A variety of data sets are available.
Science, math, and technology
Offers over 6000 courses (apps available) in business, technology and creative subject areas (such as marketing, project management, data analysis, communication, information technology, design, office software, programming, photography, 3D/animation, audio, video and Web development). Tutorials are segmented and indexed into tasks for just-in-time learning, and course playlists can map to specific job roles or competencies. More than 20 new courses are added weekly. Many courses include downloadable practice files. The courses are compatible with Mac, Windows, Linux, and mobile devices, with privacy that is TRUSTe compliant.
Computer technology books and video tutorials from the world's most respected publishers such as O'Reilly Media, Addison-Wesley, Peachpit Press, Wiley, Adobe Press, Microsoft Press, Sams, McGraw Hill and more. Books are fully searchable and always available, no "on hold" waiting.
Safari Books Online was purchased for the Library through the Shelton Bequest and Friends of the Library.
A data-driven factual answer engine, not a website indexing search engine. Crunches data on a wide range of topics, with particular strength in science, technology and math computations.
American Physical Society journals
Full text access to the journal articles is available to a computer user at any Knox County Public Library location.
Highly technical research in physics, available in-library only.
A bimonthly magazine for the maker community. Lawson McGhee Library's holdings begin with the June/July 2014 issue.
Downloadable magazines covering science and technology include Astronomy, Discover, Macworld, National Geographic, PC Magazine, PCWorld, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Smithsonian, and Sound & Vision.
Hundreds of volumes of encyclopedias and other ebooks covering all subject areas. Gale Virtual Reference Library is included in Gale PowerSearch which searches the content of the books along with magazines and other resources. If you want to browse the books as books, the Gale Virtual Reference Library is the better choice.
Volumes cover business topics of entrepreneurship and finance, and the science topics of astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, physical science, and physics.
Definitions and concise explanations from over 40 volumes covering many disciplines. This is a subcollection of Oxford Reference.
Many popular topics and even more obscure ones are researched by the agency and summarized for the public. Scan the A-Z index for a more complete list of topics, but popular ones include air, water, bed bugs, chemicals and toxins, greener living, and health.
From cooking to 3D printing, to making just about anything fly, Instructables document countless hours of tinkering, soldering, stitching, frying, and fun, making just about anything.
This organization offers access to a maker space and workshops. Some events are open to the public; membership requires payment of monthly dues.
Make: Projects is way to share projects online for creating, hacking, and learning new skills. Make: Projects started with projects from MAKE magazine (find current issues at Lawson McGhee Library), but expands through member sharing.
A gateway to government science information and research within several federal agencies.
Award-winning coverage of breaking news in science, with research articles, encyclopedia entries, book reviews, and videos.
An online catalog containing most of Smithsonian major collections from museums, archives, libraries, and research units, with over 1.3 million images, videos, audio files, podcasts, blog posts and electronic journals.
Search for and apply for patents and trademarks and learn about intellectual property protections.
References on web development languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, SQL, W3.CSS, and Bootstrap.
A global science gateway comprised of national and international scientific databases and portals.