Reference librarians will:

• look up definitions, facts, formulas and other scientific or technical information.
• help with the use of the catalog, databases, and indexes.
• confirm the library's holdings.
• explain procedures and policies for circulation and use of materials.

Contact Reference

Use our online form to ask Reference Services Staff a question.

• Phone: 800.662.1545 or in the Kansas City area at 816.926.8764. Phone service is available all hours that the library is open.
• Fax: 816.926.8782
• Via e-mail

Reference Guides

Use these guides for more in-depth help with some of the frequently asked topics and more complex resources in the library.

Guide #1: History of Science and Technology
Guide #2: Units, Dimensions, Conversions and Formulas
Additional Research Guides

Additional Reference Services:

Circulation
Patents and Trademarks Program
Standards and Specifications
Science & Engineering Databases

Papers by Reference Librarians

Scott Curtis

• Finding ASME Technical Papers (Slides) - American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, June 23, 2008.

Eliseo Fernández

• Semiosis and Control: From Biosemiotics to Technosemiotics and Back - Thirteenth Annual Gathering in Biosemiotics, Castiglioncello, June 4-8, 2013
56th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Junto for the History of Science, University of Notre Dame, April 5 - 7, 2013
• Of thinkers and tinkerers: Science meets technology at the invention of the triode - 56th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Junto for the History of Science, University of Notre Dame, April 5 - 7, 2013
• Of thinkers and tinkerers: Science meets technology at the invention of the triode [presentation slides] - 56th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Junto for the History of Science, University of Notre Dame, April 5 - 7, 2013
• Habit and Generalization - V Jornadas Peirce en Argentina, Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Buenos Aires, August 23 - 24, 2012
• Hábito y generalización - V Jornadas Peirce en Argentina, Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Buenos Aires, 23 - 24 de agosto de 2012
• Semiosis and Phase Transitions in Biology: The Future of Biosemiotics within a Genuinely Evolutionary Conception of the World - Twelfth Annual International Gatherings in Biosemiotics, University of Tartu, Estonia, July 17 - 22, 2012
• Symmetry Breaks Out: A Fundamental Concept Jumps Over Disciplinary Barriers - 55th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Junto for the History of Science, University of Missouri of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, USA, March 23 - 25, 2012
• Symmetry Breaks Out - Slides from Presentation - 55th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Junto for the History of Science, University of Missouri of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, USA, March 23 - 25, 2012
• Energy, Semiosis and Emergence - The Place of Biosemiotics in an Evolutionary Conception of Nature - Eleventh Annual International Gatherings in Biosemiotics, Dactyl Foundation, New York City, USA, June 21, 2011
• Energy, Semiosis and Emergence - Slides from Presentation - Eleventh Annual International Gatherings in Biosemiotics, Dactyl Foundation, New York City, USA, June 21, 2011 (2.5 MB)
• How the Tree of Life Became a Tangled Web - Midwest Junto for the History of Science, University of Lincoln, Nebraska, April 1-3, 2011
• Peircean Habits and the Life of Symbols - Thirty-fifth Meeting of the Semiotic Society of America October 21-24, 2010, Louisville, Kentucky
• Variescence - Cosmic Progress and Contemporary Science - International Conference "Peirce in Argentina III", Argentine Academy of Sciences - Buenos Aires, August 26-27, 2010 (English translated version)
• Variescence - Cosmic Progress and Contemporary Science - International Conference "Peirce in Argentina III", Argentine Academy of Sciences - Buenos Aires, August 26-27, 2010 (Spanish language version)
• Living is Surviving: Causation, Reproduction and Semiosis - Tenth Annual International Gatherings in Biosemiotics, Portuguese Catholic University, Braga, June 22 - 27, 2010
• Life, Temporality and Semiosis: The Place of Biosemiotics within General Semiotics - 34th Annual Meeting, University of Cincinnati, 15 October - 18 October, 2009
• Biosemiotics and the Relational Turn in Biology - Ninth Annual International Gatherings in Biosemiotics, Charles University, Prague, June 30 - July 5, 2009
• Directed Evolution: Pruning the Tree of Life from Darwin's Demon to Nanobiotechnology Midwest Junto – March 27–29, 2009
• Peirce in 21st Century Science and Philosophy: New Prospects (English Language)
  Peirce en la Ciencia y la Filosofía del Siglo XXI: Nuevas Oportunidades (Spanish Language) - III Jornadas "Peirce en Argentina" (Third Congress "Peirce in Argentina") Buenos Aires, Argentina , September 11-12, 2008
• Biosemiotics from Peirce to Rosen - Eighth Annual International Gatherings in Biosemiotics, University of the Aegean, Syros, Greece, June 23–28, 2008
• Biosemiotics and Survival: Life and Death, Genes and Signals. 32nd Annual Meeting of the Semiotic Society of America. New Orleans, Louisiana, October 2007
• Signs, Instruments and Self-Reference in Biosemiotics. Seventh Annual International Gatherings in Biosemiotics, University of Groningen, Netherlands, June 6-9, 2007
• Complexity and Peircean Relationism. Second Biennial Seminar on the Philosophical, Epistemological, and Methodological Implications of Complexity Theory. Havana, Cuba, January 2004
• SYMMETRY: Key to Nature and Natural Philosophy. Review of: Katherine Brading and Elena Castellani (eds.), Symmetries in Physics: Philosophical Reflections. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Pp. xii + 445.
• Information and Ersatz Reality: Comments on Albert Borgmann's Holding On to Reality - Techné 6:1 Fall 2002.
• Concepts and instruments: the potential from Green to Kelvin - The Midwest Junto for the History of Science, Norman, OK, March 25-27, 1994