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The CAT In general, 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.
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 in electronic format, click on the Go button on the Get It! page to see if we have it in print. If not, use interlibrary loan to obtain the item.
AGRICOLA Agricultural subjects from 1970 -.
Dissertation and Theses Indexes over 1.4 million dissertations and theses from over 1000 universities. Coverage begins in 1851.
Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management "The Environmental Sciences Collection provides abstracts and references to the literature covering all areas of air, land, water, and noise pollution as well as bacteriology, ecology, toxicology, risk assessment, environmental engineering, environmental biotechnology, waste management, and water resources from 1981 to the present."
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.
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.
Science Citation Index - Web of Science is a valuable index that allows you to discover what subsequent publications have included a reference to an earlier, pertinent publication in their bibliography. SCI indexes 3200 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.
Science.gov "Science.gov is a gateway to authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. Government agencies, including research and development results." (web page)
Intute (formerly EEVL) Search or browse this large, annotated collection of engineering web sites. Frequently updated.
Infomine Excellent resource from University of California, Riverside. Search the site or browse by category.
Google Scholar Beta test of evaluated scholarly resources. Has citation links. While still being developed, well worth a look.
Scirus Links to scholarly resources. Similar to Google Scholar.
Citation Guides Engineering does not have a specific citation guide. The options are to use a general guide, one from anther discipline, or to use a guide from your specific professional society, for example, use ASME's author guide for mechanical engineering. For more information see the Library Learning Service 's guide to citation style guides.
Evaluation Guides Evaluation of resources is crucial. You need to consider the authority, validity, currency, and many other factors. Several sites provide good overviews of the topic.
Check out Cornell University's Critically Analyzing Information Sources
or
World Wide Web Virtual Library - Evaluation of Information Sources
Ulrich's is generally used by librarians, however it serves a very important role for the student/researcher. If you know a few good journals, Ulrich's can tell you which databases index those journals..One of the best features of Ulrich's is the feature that tells you if a journal is refereed or not. You can even search on a topic and limit the search to refereed publications.
