Perspectives on Inquiry

Failure

Instructor: William Bulleit: email; wmbullei@mtu.edu.

Librarian: Joan Goodbody: email; goodbody@mtu.edu: phone; 487-2698

 

MTU Library Catalog:

Use the catalog to find items that the library owns: Searchable by author, title, subject or keywords. Also after using an index to find a paper/article that you want, youll need to use this catalog to determine whether we have the journal that the article appeared in. Articles from journals we do not have or books we do not have can be ordered through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Many of the databases now have a direct ILL link.

 

Reference resources:

The reference collection is a good place to begin exploring an unfamiliar subject. The encyclopedias and dictionaries found here can give you definitions of terms and background information on your subject. Along with help identifying specific issues within your broad subject area to explore in more detail.

CQ researcher (issues): H35 .E2. REF: This is a multi volume (by year) publication that is put out to help the members of congress and their staff understand public issues. Index is in the front of the newest notebook. The Index is also available at: http://library.cqpress.com/researcher_index.pdf

War on Drugs: 03/19/93

Nuclear Power plants: Energy security, 02/01/02; Nuclear Waste, 06/08/01; Politics of Energy, 03/05/99; Worker safety, 05/21/04

The Oxford English dictionary: PE1625 .O87 1989 Definitions

Metals handbook: TA472 .A5 1990 Metal failure.

Black's Law Dictionary (legal definitions past and present)

KF156 .B53 1999 REF: This is the definitive source for legal definitions. The 1999 edition is the newest. The library also owns the 1933 and the 1979 editions in case someone is interested in looking at any changes in definitions

The reference guide to famous engineering landmarks of the world : bridges, tunnels, dams, roads, and other structures. TA15 .B42 1998 REF

Studies in the history of civil engineering. TA145 .S78 1997 REF

When technology fails : significant technological disasters, accidents, and failures of the twentieth century. TA169.5 .W44 1994 REF

From the Titanic to the Challenger : an annotated bibliography on technological failures of the twentieth century. TA 169.5 .H47 1989 REF

 

E-Resources access to electronic indexes/abstracts, online books, e-journals and selected websites. From the E-Resource menu select listings by alphabet, topic or collection (e.g. FirstSearch or InfoTrac.) E-Resources are also searchable by name or keyword(s.) Use the index databases to locate journal articles, newspaper articles, or reviews on your topic. Some indexes or collections of indexes especially useful for research in this course include:

 

Databases:

FirstSearch: This database provides access to over 60 indexes. They include:

Worldcat, a comprehensive database for all types of material cataloged by OCLC member libraries. This does NOT index periodicals at the article level;

Wilson Select Plus, A full text database comprised of articles represented by selected citations from Readers' Guide Abstracts, Social Sciences Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, General Science Abstracts, Education Abstracts, and Wilson Business Abstracts.

LexisNexis:

Academicprovides full-text documents from over 5,600 news, business, legal, medical, and reference publications with a variety of flexible search options. Especially for legal issues concerning legal.

Congressional provides a comprehensive online resource from Congressional hearings, public issues, legislation, history, and legal research.

Infotrac: A comprehensive multi-index database including:

General Reference Center Gold (issues and philosophers): A general interest database that integrates a variety of sources in one easy-to-use interface. Use General Reference Center Gold to find articles from newspapers, reference books, and periodicals, many with full-text and images.

InfoTrac Custom 150 Full Text Newspapers:A collection of newspapers from around the Country and the World;

Expanded Academic ASAP:Gives access to arts and the humanities to social sciences, science and technology scholarly journals, news magazines, and newspapers - many with full text and images!;

JSTOR: is a searchable database containing scanned images of back issues of over 100 scholarly journals in a variety of academic disciplines. Titles currently available are from the fields of: African-American Studies, Anthropology, Asian Studies, Ecology, Economics, Education, Finance, History, Literature, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies, Sociology and Statistics.

 

Government resources:

Remember that there are a multitude of Government Documents that deal with the topics that you are working with so be sure to utilize the paper and web sources for these.

 

Websites:

Evaluation of websites: http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/webeval.html - Cornell University Libraries Research Skills -One of the best sites on evaluating information found on the Internet.

 

Firstgov.gov: www.firstgov.gov. This is the official government site that searches over 87 million sites. Can search for just federal, federal and a specific state, federal and all states, all states, or a specific state. Advanced search gives the most flexibility.

American Memory: http://www.loc.gov/. This is the main page of the Library of Congress. Click on American Memory to get to the search page. American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.

Learning from Failure: http://www.matscieng.sunysb.edu/disaster/ This website is produced by theDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering State University of New York at Stony Brook

Engineering Failure Watch: http://www.icivilengineer.com/Failure_Watch/ A website put together by Engineers for engineers.

 

 

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Failure: 1. NONSUCESS *washout, *bomb, fiasco, disappointment, defeat, *Edsel, stumble, botch, fumble, slip, miscarriage, mishap, *strikeout, abortion, misadventure, dud, loss, bust, *dog, *turkey, debacle. A school in which the truth always grows strong.-- Henry Ward Beecher. Not the falling down, but he staying down.-- Mary Pickford. The highway to success.-- John Keats. 2. LOSER *down-and-out, *also ran, flop, stiff, incompetent, *has-been, washout. 3. WEAKENING deterioration, dwindling, fading, decline, loss. ANT. 1. success, achievement, triumph. 2. winner, success, champion. 3. strengthening, flourishing, thriving, growth. [Rogets Super Thesaurus, Cincinnati, OH. Writers Digest Books. 1998.

 

Books available in the library that might be of interest:

 

The aesthetics of failure : dynamic structure in the plays of Eugene O'Neillby Zander Brietzke.

PS3529.N5 Z5745 2001

How children fail by John Holt. LB3063 .H627 1982 [subject heading Failure psychology]

Mechanical system reliability and cost integration using a sequential linear approximation method by Michael Kowal. NAS 1.26:202336 This is a NASA document found under the subject heading failure which had 22 on the list. Under the subject heading failure-analysis, 26 were on the list, mostly NASA documents.

The Texas Aggie Bonfire by Irwin Tang. This book belongs to me and is in my office. A student can borrow it if they want to.

 

For Assistance

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