Information Resources in Civil Engineering

CE5990 Civil Engineering Graduate Seminar - T. Ahlborn

David Bezotte, Librarian (Library Room 203; 487-3041; dbezotte@mtu.edu) MTU Library web page: www.lib.mtu.edu

 

Services to Graduate Students

Circulation

To borrow an item from the collection, bring the book to the Circulation Desk with your "Tech Express" card. Books may be borrowed by graduate students for seventeen weeks, but are subject to recall after three weeks if needed by another borrower. Periodicals may be borrowed for three days.

Interlibrary Loan

To request books and articles from other libraries, complete an Interlibrary Loan Request Form. Forms are available at the Circulation Desk, or on the Library Web Page by selecting Interlibrary Loans. The Library covers the cost of interlibrary loan up to $30 per request.

For Assistance

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

 

Library Hours

Monday Thursday 7:45 a.m. 12:00 p.m.; Friday 7:45 am 5:00 p.m.

Saturday 12:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m.; Sunday 12:00 p.m. 12:00 a.m.

Reading Room Sunday noon to Friday 5:00 p.m.

Break and holiday hours will be posted.

 

Library of Congress Classification System (LCCS)

An outline of the LCCS is available at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html. Here are some examples:

 

Q General Science

QA Math & Computer Science

QC Physics

QE Geology

 

T Technology

TA General & Civil Engineering

TC Hydraulic & Ocean Engineering

TD Environmental Technology & Sanitary Engineering

TE Highway Engineering

TF Railroad Engineering & Operation

TG Bridge Engineering

TH Building Construction

 

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 under E-Resources on the Librarys web page.

 

Reference Collection - Second Floor

The reference collection contains dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, directories, standards (ASTM, ANSI, AASHTO, etc.), codes, catalogs, etc., shelved by Library of Congress Classification System call number.

 

The Librarys web page also contains some reference material. ENGnetBASE, a handbook of engineering data, can be found by selecting E-Resources & E-Alerts, then entering ENGnetBASE into the box at the top of the screen.

 

ENGnetBASE (Handbook of engineering data)

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.

 

JRVP Online Catalog- On the Librarys 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, 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 date youre seeking.

 

To find the full title of a journal from an abbreviation, consult Periodical Title Abbreviations: By Abbreviation, available at the

Reference/Information Desk (Z 6945 .A2 P47 2001 REF DESK), or one of these web sites:

 

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

 

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.

 

MTU theses and dissertations in Civil Engineering can be found through a Keyword Search as follows:

Search for: mtu civil engineering [all of these]

Search for: thesis dissertation [any of these]

 

Database	Boolean	Proximity/ Phrase	Truncation/ Wildcards	Full Text	Retrieve Results
JRVP Online Catalog lists what is available in the JRVP Library	AND, OR, NOT in a Keyword Search.	Choose as a phrase in a Keyword Search.	? multiple-character   Automatic truncation in a Basic search.	Some e-books, PDF files and web sites included.	E-mail, Disk, Print

 

Journal Indexes & Abstracts

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 or electronic journals: (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 examples.

 

ABI/Inform (1987-present)

Indexes and abstracts significant articles from current business, industry and management periodicals. Includes the full text of articles from hundreds of journals.

 

Applied Science & Technology Abstracts (ASTA) FirstSearch (1983-present)

Indexes and abstracts articles in every area of science, engineering, and technology from trade and industrial publications, journals issued by professional and technical societies, and specialized subject periodicals. Ownership notes give clues to whether the JRVP Library owns items listed.

 

ASCE Civil Engineering Database (1975-present)

Provides access to the full text of all ASCE publications from 1973 to date. Includes abstracts.

 

Cold Regions Bibliography (early 1800s-present)

Provides access to materials on Antarctica and cold regions science and technology. Sponsored by CRREL (U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory) and the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation.

 

Conference Papers Index Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (1982-present)

Provides citations to papers and poster sessions presented at major scientific meetings around the world. Subject emphasis since 1995 has been in the life sciences, environmental sciences and the aquatic sciences, while older material also covers physics, engineering and materials science.

 

Corrosion Abstracts Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (1980-present)

International coverage of general corrosion, testing, corrosion characteristics, preventive measures, materials construction and performance, and equipment for many industries.

 

Current Research @ Michigan Technological University (1968-present)

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.

 

Dissertation Abstracts - Includes citations to every doctoral dissertation completed in the U.S. at accredited institutions since 1861, with abstracts since 1980. Some master's theses and foreign language dissertations are also included.

 

Engineered Materials Abstracts- Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (1986-present)

Includes Composites, Advanced Polymers, and Ceramics subfiles.

 

Compendex (Engineering Village 2) (1970-present)

Indexes publications in all engineering disciplines, applied physics, electronics, materials science and related fields in science and management worldwide. Also provides access to engineering web-site abstracts, patents, engineering handbooks and more.

 

GEOBASE FirstSearch (1980-present)

Contains citations with abstracts covering worldwide literature in geography, geology, and ecology.

 

GeoRefS FirstSearch (North America, 1785-present: International, 1933-present)

Covers the worldwide earth science literature with index terms and abstracts for journal articles, books, maps, and reports.

 

Ground Water On-Line

Contains more than 78,000 ground water literature citations with key words, abstracts, chemical compounds, biological factors, geographic locations, authors, titles, publication source names, and more.

 

Materials Business File Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (1985-present)

Citations for industry news, international trade data, management issues, and government regulations relating to the metals and materials industries, taken from a wide variety of publication types.

 

NTIS (National Technical Information Service) Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (1964-present)

Provides citations to information in a wide variety of subject areas resulting from research sponsored by the U.S. government as well as by organizations worldwide. NTIS is the source for purchasing the publications appearing in this database.

 

Papers First and Proceedings FirstSearch (1993-present)

Provide access to the content of conference proceedings acquired by the British Library since 1993.

 

TRIS Online -Transportation Research Information Service (1960s-present)

A component of the National Transportation Library and produced by the Transportation Research Board, TRIS is the world's most comprehensive and largest transportation database. Records for all types of literature are included

 

Web of Science (1973-present)

Provides citation indexing through ISIs Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index and Arts and Humanities Citation Index. The main purpose of these is to allow researchers to find out who cited particular papers.

 

WorldCat FirstSearch (1000-present)

A worldwide library catalog with over 52 million bibliographic records, including holdings information, for all types of material cataloged by OCLC member libraries. This does NOT index periodicals at the article level.

 

Database Keyword Search Tips

For tips on searching many of the databases listed above, go to http://www.lib.mtu.edu/reference/tutorials/databasekeyword.aspx or select "Tutorials" on the Library's web page. Each of the databases also offer their own online help or search tips.