Penn State University Libraries - Coops and Internship 195/295/395

The CAT provides author, title, and subject access to 'whole items.' Whole items means that the entire resource is indexed without information to the parts of the work. For example, a conference will be listed by the title of the conference, the editor, the sponsoring agency, and subject headings. The individual papers presented at the conference will not be indexed in the CAT. Journal titles will be listed, but not individual papers published in the journal. For access to individual articles or conference papers a subject database is used.
Materials that are indexed in the CAT include books, journal titles, computer files, CD ROMs, conferences, videos., maps, etc.

Quick Guide to Searching the CAT (HTML version) or Quick Guide to Searching in the CAT(easy-print PDF version).

For information on how to borrow books when you are on co-op and other subjects of concern, check out the Library Distance Learning Delivery page. And don't forget the full text options for many journals, Safari, and for Access Science. Links are available through the CAT (use title of journal or book, not the title of an article) or from the E-resources list for Safari and Access Science.

Compendex (Computerized Engineering Index) is the major index to all branches of engineering. It indexes journal articles and conference papers from 1884 -. Many resources are available full text online. Either use the Full Text button or the Get It! button. If we don't have the item full text online, Get It provides a link to the CAT.

IEEE Xplore contains the full text of all IEEE and IEE journal articles, conference papers, and standards published since 1988.
Knovel is a collection of over 800 handbooks in all areas of science and technology. It allows granular searching for specific properties, provides access to tabular information, and has a number of analytical tools.

NTIS (National Technical Information Service) is a major index to technical reports. A major part are on the various branches of engineering. Coverage starts with 1964. You may search by author, title, keyword or subject headings. There is no call number, but each report is identified by a ID number, which is the number used in filing the reports, on microfiche, in cabinets on the left side of the Engineering Library. If the report you need is not in the file cabinet, ask for assistance at the circulation desk in the Engineering Library. We can order the report for you. It normally takes approximately ten days for the report to arrive.
An increasing number of technical reports are now available on the Web in full text. To see if it is available, do a Google search or use one of the specialized databases such as DOE (Dept of Energy) Information Bridge, Energy Citation Database, NASA Technical Report Server, Science.gov, or TRID (transportation).

ProQuest is a multi-disciplinary database which indexes over 5000 journals, magazines and newspapers. Approximately one third are full text. While coverage of engineering topics is not strong from a technological sense, it is very good for looking at the news, social and economic aspects of engineering.

Safari "provides electronic access to computer manuals from a number of publishers including O'Reilly, Microsoft, Peach Pit Press, New Rider Press, Sams, Que and Cisco. This product allows the user to search across a number of different manuals simultaneously."

Science Citation Index (Web of Science) is a unique index that allows you to discover what subsequent publications have included a reference to an earlier, pertinent publication in their bibliography. SCI indexes about 5000 titles in all areas of science and technology. Searching is done via author name. The theory behind citation indexing is simple. If a later paper references a paper that you have found useful, there is a strong possibility that the later paper might be useful to you. Citation indexing provides that link so you can locate these new papers.