Conference Proceedings

Conference proceedings are very difficult to find for two reasons:

1. Stanford Libraries shelve proceedings like books or journals depending upon the conference and there is no way to tell for a given conference unless you know what to look for in Socrates.
2. Often conferences are published as issues of journals and therefore will only be indexed in an article level database - not in the Socrates books or journals files.

Persistence pays to verify if Stanford owns a proceedings. You can always ask for information in the Stanford University Libraries.

Methodology for finding proceedings

1. Perform a keyword search in Socrates using unique words in the title of the conference but not specific to a particular conference. In other words if you are looking for the 1995 proceedings of an annual conference - Do not put 1995 in the query. Many proceedings are cataloged like journals and do not have individual records. If the exact title is found you are in luck - go get it.
2. Check in an article level database like Inspec to verify the conference title. Search for a known author/title of an article in the proceedings or search for the title of the conference.
3. If the title wanted is found in the article level file and is different than the original search performed in the Socrates, go back and redo the search in Socrates.
4. If the article level file indicates location not in Socrates, ignore the message. The lookup to Socrates is by ISBN or ISSN and often Stanford owns the title but it is cataloged with a different number than what's given in the article level database.
5. If you still cannot find the conference you are looking for ask at the nearest Library Information Desk.