Suggested Information Resources for the School of Technology

Librarian Dave Lepse (dlepse@mtu.edu)

 

 

Guide to the Library - http://www.lib.mtu.edu/about/MTU_Library_Guide.pdf

Answers your questions about the basics of using the MTU Library.

 

For Assistance - Ask a Librarian

For individual assistance or instruction from a librarian, visit or phone the Reference/Information Desk (487-2507), e-mail reflib@mtu.edu.

 

JRVP Online Catalog

On the Library web page at www.lib.mtu.edu.

Use to find what books, journals and government publications that the Van Pelt Library owns and where they are located. When you enter the catalog, a Basic search screen appears.

 

To search for a periodical title, click on the Journal Title button, and then type the title of the periodical in the box provided. A Journal Title search may result in a list of several records for the same title; you may need to view more than one of these to find the issue you need.

 

When searching for more complex titles such as conference proceedings, a keyword search is usually effective. Click on the Keyword Search button, then enter several of the most unique keywords from the conference title, then select all of these from the pull-down menu on the right.

 

Other catalogs

WorldCat

Unified catalog of OCLC member libraries

Linda Hall Library

The largest private science and engineering library

 

 

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) access to items from other libraries.

Requests are made through ILLiad, the personalized online ILL account system.  After your initial registration is complete, use ILLiad to request books and articles.   ILLiad also allows you to track the status of your requests and cancel requests. 

ILL requests may also be made directly through most research databases such as WorldCat, CSA Metadex, and Compendex.  Follow the HuskyFetch menu options and select "Get Item from another Library via ILLiad."  Please be sure to check the JRVP Library holdings before submitting a request directly from a database.

 

Locating Books & Periodicals

Books are located on the Third Floor in the Main Collection, shelved by Library of Congress call number.

Periodicals are shelved by Library of Congress call number in these locations:

CURRENT JOURNALS (1^st Floor): Recent issues kept here until bound or reissued in microfilm/fiche.

SERIALS COLLECTION (Garden Level): Bound periodicals.

MICROFORMS AREA (2nd Floor): Microfilm & Microfiche cabinets located on west side of 2nd floor.

E-Journals: The Library subscribes to an increasing number of journals which provide electronic versions of their publications online. Access them through the Librarys web page.

 

Reference Collection - 2^nd Floor

The Reference Collection is a good place to collect background information on an issue or start your research. The collection is arranged by subject, using the Library of Congress Classification System (LCCS) call numbers. An outline of the system is available at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html.

 

 

Selected open-access sites

 

ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education) conference proceedings

Papers available from 1996 to the present. Can search or browse. Search by keyword, author, or session type.

 

Intute: Science, Engineering and Technology is a free online service providing you with access to the very best Web resources for education and research, evaluated and selected by a network of subject specialists. It covers the physical sciences, engineering, computing, geography, mathematics and environmental science. The database currently contains 33484 records.

 

Intute: Science, Engineering and Technology: E-journals search engine

Search the content of over 250 freely available full-text engineering, mathematics and computing ejournals, selected for relevance and quality. Academic journals, trade publications and society journals are covered. All sites are also listed in the Intute: Science, Engineering and Technology catalogue of Internet resources.

 

Journal of Technology Education

Scholarly discussion on topics relating to technology education. Focus on technology education research, philosophy, and theory.

 

MITs D-Space MIT's online institutional repository built to save, share, and search MIT's digital research materials.

 

NEEDS

A digital library for engineering education.

 

NSDL (National Science Digital Library)

National Science Foundation project. Can start with the Engineering Pathway: portal to high-quality teaching and learning resources in engineering, applied science and math, computer science/information technology, and engineering technology.

 

Recent Advances in Manufacturing (RAM) is a database of bibliographic information for manufacturing and related areas. It covers items in well over 500 niche and mainstream journals and magazines, and also details of books, videos and conference proceedings.

 

TechXtra is a free service which can help you find articles, books, the best websites, the latest industry news, job announcements, technical reports, technical data, full text eprints, the latest research, thesis & dissertations, teaching and learning resources and more, in engineering, mathematics and computing.

 

 

 

Databases for journal articles, technical reports, and engineering handboooks

 

Database Keyword Search Tips - http://www.lib.mtu.edu/reference/tutorials/databasekeyword.aspx

 

To find citations to recent articles from journals, conference proceedings, and other publications, go to the Librarys web page and select E-Resources & E-Alerts. The resulting screen offers four search options for finding databases: (1) Keyword search of database titles and/or descriptions, (2) E-Resources A-Z to browse an alphabetical list by title (3) Search by Subject Headings, (4) Search by Provider.

 

Here are some recommended databases:

 

Applied Science & Technology Abstracts

Also known as ASTA, leads users to the latest findings in every area of science, engineering and technology. Covers trade and industrial publications, journals issued by professional and technical societies and specialized subject periodicals. Abstracts database records include abstracts and indexing information.

 

CiteSeer

Scientific literature digital library and search engine that focuses primarily on the literature in computer and information science. Citing papers are listed.

 

Compendex

Provides comprehensive access to the latest engineering research covering engineering and applied science, containing over seven million references and abstracts taken from over 5,000 engineering journals, conferences and technical reports. Compendex is the online version of Engineering Index.

Access Note: Compendex is also commonly known as Engineering Village.

 

Energy Citations Database (U.S. Dept. of Energy)

Includes bibliographic records of literature in disciplines of interest to DOE such as chemistry, physics, materials, environmental science, geology, engineering, mathematics, climatology, oceanography, computer science and related disciplines. It includes citations to report literature, conference papers, journal articles, books, dissertations, and patents.

 

ENGnetBASE

Compiles a wide range of information previously published in CRC engineering handbooks. The online database will be updated continually, and its coverage will be expanded. Current coverage includes general, structural, electrical, mechanical, civil, environmental, remediation, and optomechanical engineering.

 

Google Scholar

Web search engine designed specifically to locate scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports across broad areas of research. Citing papers are listed.

 

IEEE Xplore (1988 - )

full-text articles from all journals published by IEEE and IEE (the Institution of Electrical Engineers. Full-text for all IEEE and IEE conference proceedings and standards is included as is select legacy content dating back to 1950. Citing papers are listed.

 

INSPEC (1969 - )

comprehensive database of bibliographic information and abstracts for published works in physics, electrical engineering and electronics, computing and control, and information technology. Covers scientific and technical journals, conference proceedings, books, reports, and dissertations. The print version is Science Abstracts, Sections A, B, and C.

 

Information Bridge (U.S. Dept. of Energy)

Provides records of Department of Energy (DOE) research and development reports in physics, chemistry, materials, biology, environmental sciences, energy technologies, engineering, computer and information science, renewable energy, and other topics.

 

Mechanical and Transportation Engineering Abstracts

Provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the serials literature in mechanical and transportation engineering and their complementary fields, including forensic engineering, management and marketing of engineering services, engineering education, theoretical mechanics and dynamics, and mathematics and computation.

 

NTIS (National Technical Information Service)

A resource for accessing the latest U.S. government-sponsored research and worldwide scientific, technical, engineering, and business-related information. NTIS is the central source for the sale of unclassified and publicly available information from research reports, journal articles, data files, computer programs and audio visual products from Federal sources.

 

SAE (Society of Automotive Engineering) technical papers

Guide to finding SAE papers in the library.

 

ScienceDirect

Extensive and unique full-text collection covers authoritative titles from the core scientific literature. ScienceDirect is designed as a basic electronic version of Elsevier Science print allowing you to access full-text articles published since 2003.

 

Science.gov

Contains reliable information resources selected by respective government agencies as their best science information. Two major types of information are included: selected authoritative science Web sites; and databases of technical reports, journal articles, conference proceedings and other published materials.

 

TRIS Online (Transportation Research Information Service)

A comprehensive transportation database containing almost half a million records of references to books, technical reports, conference proceedings, journal articles and on-going research in the field of transportation.

 

Web of Science

Offers Web of Science access to ISI Citation Indexes (Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index and Arts and Humanities Citation Index), which contains multidisciplinary, high quality research information from the world's leading science, social science and art and humanities journals. We now have unlimited access to WoS. Primary tool for citation searches.

 

Windows Live Academic

Web search engine designed specifically to locate scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports across broad areas of research.

 

 

Journal title abbreviations

 

Periodical Title Abbreviations: By Abbreviation Z6945.A2 P47 2001 REF DESK  

Jake (Jointly Administered Knowledge Environment) - http://jake.openly.com/

CISTI (Canada Institute for Scientific & Technical Information) - http://cat.cisti.nrc.ca/search/t

JAS (Journal Abbreviation Sources) - http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/JAS.htm

 

 

Dissertations and Thesis

 

Current Research @ Michigan Technological University

Provides a searchable full text database of dissertations submitted by Michigan Tech to UMI's Dissertation database. Full-text PDF files are available for most dissertations from 1968. Also includes some theses.

Access Note: Downloading the full PDF files may take up to five minutes. ProQuest/UMI sends an email message to your account when the file is ready. The message contains instructions for retrieving the full dissertation via the web.

 

Dissertation Abstracts

Includes citations to every doctoral dissertation completed in the U.S. at accredited institutions since 1861 and some master's theses and foreign language dissertations.

 

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations

The Networked Digital Library of Thesis and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination and preservation of electronic analogues to the traditional paper-based theses and dissertations.

 

WorldCat Dissertations and Theses

Provides fast and convenient access to the dissertations and theses available in OCLC member libraries. Many theses are available electronically, at no charge, directly from the publishing institution.

 

 

Patents

 

Google Patent Search

With Google Patent Search, you can now search the full text of the U.S. patent corpus and find patents that interest you.

 

Patents database from US Patent and Trademark Office

US patents are primarily covered. Provides both bibliographic and full-text searching.

Access Note: Viewing full-page images requires a TIFF image browser plug-in. Links to plug-ins are at http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/plugins/index.html. Alternatively, you can go to http://www.pat2pdf.org/ and type in the patent number. This site converts the patent to a pdf file.

 

The European Patent Office

This database enables you to search the patent applications published by the European Patent Office over the last 24 months (for EP patents older than 24 months you should select the worldwide database option).

 

 

Standards

ILI Standards InfoBase

Covers 400,000 worldwide standards (DIN, ISO, BSI, ASTM, NFPA, API, IEC, ASME, etc.) The search software allows you to search by Standard number, title, text, publisher, document type, equivalency or any combination of these. The information provided includes: number, title, version, summary, international equivalents, table of contents and more.

 

 

Current awareness resources

These tools are designed to keep you up-to-date in your research and teaching. Journal tables of contents or the results of stored database searches are sent to you by email or RSS feed.

Blackwell Synergy saved search and journal contents email alerts

Compendex (Engineering Village) email alerts and saved searches

IEEE Xplore email alerts

Ingenta table of contents email alerts, RSS feeds, and saved searches

ScienceDirect (Elsevier journals) saved search and journal contents email alerts

Web of Science search alerts (save your search history, sign in, select e-mail alerts)

Wiley InterScience saved search and journal contents alerts

 

 

Managing your library research

EndNote Web

Web-based software for developing bibliographic databases, organize references, and creating bibliographies and figure lists. The Library has offered workshops on using EndNote Web, and will do so again. For individual instruction or workshops, please contact the librarys instruction coordinator, Hans Kishel (hfkishel@mtu.edu).