1 of 13

Internet Source Guide

Online Resources for Penn State Computer Science Majors
Name: Dengfeng Li

2 of 13

Table of Contents
Preface 1.1 Contents 1.2 Audience 1.3 Assumption 1.4 Organization 1.5 Tips General Website and Database 2.1 GitHub 2.2 Safari Computer Books Online 2.3 Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures 2.4 Stackoverflow 2.5 IEEE Xplore Scholarly Journals 3.1 International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science Government Resources 4.1 Catalog of U.S Government Publications 4.2 Statistical Abstract of the United States Job Resources 5.1 Penn State Engineering Career Resources & Employer Relations 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 5 6 7 8 8 9 9 10 11 11

1 of 13

Preface
1.1 Contents
This guide consists of a variety of online resource that will be helpful for Penn State students to study computer science and extend skills further into their career. In this guide , the general website and database resource is a shortcut to get involved into the computer science world and participate online open projects. And the scholarly journals serve the students to expanding the knowledge in specialization area and as an assistant for conducting research. The government resources and job resource can both contribute to students entirely career life.

1.2 Audience
This source guide is mainly aimed at Penn State students who are interest in computer science or currently enrolled in the computer science major. Since the content in this guide vary from beginning level to the professional degree, readers can easily follow the guide source no matter you are a freshmen or a graduate student in computer science. People who are seeking a position in computer science can find the job resources and government resources section valuable.

1.3 Assumption
Learning is always self-motivated. If you want to keep the pace of development in computer science, you should keep reading and maintain an enthusiasm towards computer science. This guide assumes that you are interest in computer science and have a computer that it is able to run the integrated development environment for programming and it is connected to the internet.

2 of 13

1.4 Organization
This Internet source guide provides a complete introduction to each source including the location, availability to the source, concise abstract and useful tips. And this guide divides the contents into four categories: general website and database, scholarly journal, government resources and job resources.

1.5 Tips
Use the table of content to quickly locate the information that you may interest in Check the availability in each internet resource because some of them require Penn State access

3 of 13

General Website and Database

2.1 GitHub
Research Studies Location: https://github.com Availability: This website is entirely free for all users to look for public projects. For extended functions such as bookmark and participating to some projects, you need register a user account. But if you plan to host your project in private on the website, which is unnecessary for beginners, you should afford at least $7/month to use their service. Description: GitHub is an open source community and provides a web-based hosting service for software development. By simply registering an account with GitHub, users have access to plenty of open source projects ranging from simple tutorials to complicated, integrated systems allowing them to participate in software development at varying levels. And GitHub provides a sophisticated version control system, which allows team members to develop their software collaboratively. Users can find related topics quickly with the search bar on the top of the website by typing a project keyword or the name of a programming language. Tips: Use the Explore tap on the top of the website to look the project for users and find an prevalent topic. When you find projects that you want to collect for further reading, you can bookmark the project by clicking the Star GitHub also provide a service to help you duplicate an open source project to your account or download to local computer. You can click the Fork button on the project panel to your account for personal learning and development online or click the Clone in Desktop on the right of the website to download the whole project.

4 of 13

2.2 Safari Computer Books Online

Bibliography Location: http://proquestcombo.safaribooksonline.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu Availability: In order to get the permission to access the full content you need register an account and buy servers. Since Penn State has already purchased the license, you just only need connect the Penn State network and then go to the Safari Computer Books Online website to get the authorization for free. Description: Safari Computer Books Online is a digital library that provides a variety of textbooks for computer science and computer engineering. Accessing the website by using Penn State library system, gives the reader permission to access the resource at any time. This website is useful for students who plan to enroll into a computer science major because it provides a comprehensive list of popular textbooks and serves as a guideline for choosing a reference book. And for the following semesters in computer science major, you may need some of the books in your class and this digital library can save you lot of money in buying hardcover book or online e-book. The website provides a well-classified top-down table of contents which allows the readers quickly locate books they are interested in. The details about each book are well documented in the website including ISBN, author and publisher. Tips: You can check the exact edition, publisher, author and page number information of a book, click the cover of the book to go to the books panel and the information will be shown on the top. The website provides an overview about the books audience, its goals and its basic characteristics allowing readers to estimate the value of the book. You can access the information by clicking the title or the cover of the book.

5 of 13

2.3 Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures

Specialized Dictionary Location: http://xlinux.nist.gov/dads// Availability: This websites content is entirely free. Description: As the computer science world expands vastly, the emerging technology and terminology in computer science grows exponentially as well. Sponsor by the National Institute of Standards and Technology organization, Website of Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures provides a systematic overview of the current terminologies in computer science with their definitions in detail to public. Auxiliary tools such as the index table and search bar at the top of the webpage can help readers quickly locate the term and the website, while also providing relevant results in order to extend further reading. Tips: The index and search bar are significant tools to use this website efficient. If you want search the exact terminology, it is a good idea to use the index. On the other hand, if you want to search the related topic, use the search bar which will list all the possible results for you.

6 of 13

2.4 Stackoverflow
Discussion Groups Location: stackoverflow.com Availability: The whole content is free to all users Description: Stackoverflow is a question and answer site for programmers that operate like a forum in which you can communicate with other programmers. The user interface of this website is concise and prevent user being distracted. It also has vote system which allows all registered users to vote an answer and the vote system allows the website highlight the best answer. The website also provides the functionality that users can write their comments under each question and answer, which improve the interaction between users. Tips: At the front page, you can sort the questions in popularity in this month or in this week to check the attractive problems in computer science. The website lists the potential questions that you may interest in according to your history browser data. You can select the Tags tab on the website to find the keyword in question. For example, you can use the tags to find the question related with programming language in C++ by typing C++ in the tag search bar. By searching a username under the User tab, you can quickly access their biography and recent activities such as when was the last time they logged on, what questions were asked and what questions were answered.

7 of 13

2.5 IEEE Xplore

Database Location: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/Xplore/home.jsp Availability: Using IEEE Xplore, students need an account to obtain the membership of the IEEE organization. Since Penn State has already purchased the license, you will only need connect the Penn State network and then go to the IEEE Xplore to get the access to its all content. Description: IEEE Xplore is an academic digital database that stores variety of scientific and technical contents and a powerful search tool aimed at the efficiency and accuracy for users to find the contents. The documents in the IEEE Xplore are the most cited documents focusing on the cutting-edge technology in computer science, electrical engineering and computer engineering. Furthermore, IEEE Xplore is an active website that approximately 25,000 new documents are added to the database monthly. The Computing and Processing section is crucial and useful for graduate students who plan to conduct research or undergraduate students who interest in extending their vision in computer science field. The resources in the database are mainly in the type of Conference Publications, Journals, Magazines, Books and Early access articles. Tips: Use the BROWSE menu on the top left corner to look through the category table by content type or content topic. If your purpose to use this digital database is to extend your knowledge, you can check the suggested resource under the Whats popular tab to find the prevalent research paper. When you find a document that sparks your interest, you can browser its abstract, keyword and all authors at the front panel after you click the title of the document.

8 of 13

Scholarly Journals
3.1 International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science
Scholarly journals Location: http://www.ijarcs.info Availability: The content of this journal is open to public. Description: The International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science cover all the field in computer science such as computer engineering, computer security, biometrics and bioinformatics, database management system, artificiel Intelligence, software engineering,etc. And this website mainly focuses on theory, method and application within computer science. The impact factor of this journal is 5.47 in 2010 which is eminent among journals in computer science. You can access both current volume and previous volumes. This website provides the paper with its author, title, country and section in both pdf version and text version. Tips: You can quickly access the current volume of the journal by clicking Current button on the left of the website. Also, you can access the previous volume by clicking Archive button. When viewing the one of the journal volume, you can read the abstract of each paper through the abstract link.

9 of 13

Government Resources
4.1 Catalog of U.S Government Publications
Website Location: http://catalog.gpo.gov/F?RN=231569122 Availability: The content of this website is entirely free. Description: Catalog of U.S Government Publications is a database and a tool to find the electronic or print version of government publication about administration, legislation and judiciary system. The Catalog of U.S Government Publications records the documents that are created from June 1976 and the database is still update daily. the This database provide a detail information for each document including the author, publisher, bibliography, internet copy access, hard copy location, and variation of the title. Three search modes, which is basic, advanced and expert, in the website serves users in different level. For instance, you can use the database to find the documents about the network security by access the article Telecommunications networks: addressing potential security risks of foreignmanufactured equipment. This article helps student to look forward the future communication security development prospect and its effect in person, business and homeland defense.

On the top of the website, there is a NEW Titles tab under which you can see the latest documents or you can browse the documents in monthly archive report. You can choose the type of the key word in the drop menu below the search bar, such as search the keyword by title, author or subject.

10 of 13

4.2 Statistical Abstract of the United States

Website

Location: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ Availability: The content in this website is open to public and free to use. Description: The Statistical Abstract of the United States provides a integrated summary of statistics with graph and table on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Although the some statistic programs in the website stop updating the content in the website still can be a valuable reference for studying. It provides a detailed category table which allows readers to quickly locate the topic. You can also access to the previous years statistic from 2011 to 1900. For computer science students, this website can be used to get an overview of computer science majors employment, salary, and funding. Students can use the statistic to plan further education in graduate school. In the abstract Graduate Science/Engineering Students in Doctorate-Granting Colleges by Characteristic and Field, we can get the information that amount of federal funds that provided to the selected universities and colleges between 2006 and 2007 . Furthermore, it includes the amount of US and international graduate science and engineering students in doctorate-granting colleges. Such information is helpful if students plan to obtain a master degree. The amount of funds may represent the available research projects in a university or college to a certain extent. Tips: Use the table of contents of the left of the website to locate the specific topic and statistic that you are interest in. On the other hand, you can read the summary of each category under the PDF Version tab. When you click into the Guide to Sources in the main page, you can see the information about each category such as availability in various formats and update frequency.

11 of 13

Job Resources
5.1 Penn State Engineering Career Resources & Employer Relations
Potential employers and job search services Location: http://www.engr.psu.edu/career/ Availability: This website needs Penn State account access to see the detail information and use other useful service. Description: Penn State Engineering Career Resources & Employer Relations provides pipeline services for students searching and applying jobs. The website displays the upcoming career fair sessions and their information including time, location, company name and major preference. The fantastic function is that the website provides a comprehensive guide to apply a job step-by-step from documents preparation for application to tips for success in workspace. Moreover, the website provide a e-career search engine which allows students to search the position in co-op, internship and full-time jobs that provided for Penn State students. Tips: Click the STUDENT tab to go to the table of content for students and start reading the guideline. In the table of content, go to Job Search Resources -> eCareer and log into the system to search the currently available job position. Go to the Engineering Average Salaries, you can browse the average salaries for each major in co-op and internship position, which can be used as a reference during job application.