Agricultural and Biological Engineering

Skip Contact Info and Research Tips

Contact

Helen Smith
Title: Agricultural Sciences Librarian

phone: 814-865-3706
Life Sciences Library
408 Paterno Library

Need more engineering resources?

Check out the other Engineering Research Guides

Articles and Databases

Core Resources...

CAB Abstracts includes agricultural engineering, as well all other agricultural subjects.
Compendex a comprehensive engineering database.
ASABE Technical Library the online version of all ASABE publications. It includes the full text of all ASABE journals, conference proceedings, meeting papers, textbooks, monographs and standards.

Of Related Interest...

Web of Science (cited references) search for new articles which cite an older article by using the "cited ref" search mode.
AGRICOLA Articles covers a wide variety of agricultural engineering information as well as other agricultural subjects.
Food Science and Technology Abstracts (FSTA) via Web of Knowledge for food engineering topics.
Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management for environmental topics.
Dissertations & Theses includes dissertations from most U.S. institutions.
IEEE Xplore contains the full text of all IEEE and IEE journal articles, conference papers, and standards published since 1988.

Do we have that E-Journal?

Search for Penn State E-journals by title, keyword or ISSN.

Need just a few popular or news articles?

Check out our Try These First suggestions!

Article Search Tips

Finding the best articles on your topic requires a number of steps.

Select an appropriate database.
Enter and combine terms appropriate to your topic
Look at the best references you retrieve and determine the subject terms used for those articles. Then revise your search using these new terms.
Save, write down or print off all pertinent information (called the 'citation') including the journal title, volume, date, and page numbers.
Explore other databases and subject terms (which vary between databases) for more information.

Get the full text

Once you find the citation, try the Penn State Get It Button button to see if Penn State has the electronic or print version of the article you need. If the electronic version is available, it will appear as the first link on the Get it! menu. If the article is not available electronically, click on The CAT link to automatically search our catalog and see if Penn State has a print copy. If no other copy is available, you use the InterLibrary Loan link to request it from another library.

Books

Books at Penn State

Use The CAT for finding books owned by Penn State.

CAT Search Tips: The CAT is the list of what is owned by Penn State Libraries.

Go to the Browse function if you are looking for a specific title or author (type last name first).

Go to the Keyword function and combine terms to search on a topic then use the subject headings from relevant books for additional search terms.

Write down the call number and location for any book you want.

For electronic books, click the words "online content" to access the full text.

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

Learn how to refine your search with Savvy Searching in the CAT (html) or easy-print PDF version: Savvy Searching in the CAT.

Suggested CAT Search Terms: Search for specific products (i.e. farm equipment or tractors), processes (i.e. ventilation or fermentation) or concepts (i.e. farm safety or feed processing).

Call Numbers: At University Park, most materials in the life sciences are located on the 4th floor of Paterno Library. Engineering specific information and materials are located in the Engineering Library. Some technology material is located on the 3rd floor of Paterno. General call numbers and subject areas are:

S671-S790 – agricultural engineering, equipment, machinery, buildings (UP location: 4th floor Paterno)
TJ1480-TJ1500 – agricultural machinery (UP location: 3rd floor Paterno or Engineering Library)
TK4018 – electricity in agriculture (UP location: 3rd floor Paterno or Engineering Library)
TP370-465 – food technology, manufacturing and processing (UP location: 3rd floor Paterno or Engineering Library)

Libraries Borrowing Policies

Once you have the books, check them out at the nearest lending desk or self check-out station. Loan periods are usually four weeks but books can be recalled for another user, so respond promptly to library notices. For more information see the University Libraries Lending Code.

Books Elsewhere

If Penn State doesn't own the book you need, try WorldCat to identify it, and then use the InterLibrary Loan link to request it from another library.

Reference Materials

Standards

ASABE Standards the core standards in agricultural engineering. In the category drop-down box, select "Standards" before you begin your search.
ASTM Standards select "My Subscription" under the "Search" menu. Includes the full text of the current standards from the ASTM.
IEEE Standards are available through the online IEEE Electronic Library (IEEEXplore).
NSSN includes a searchable index to standards from NIST/ANSI that are available for purchase.
Other industry standards from organizations such as ANSI, IEEE, SAE, and ASME may be available in the library. Try searching The CAT by title of the standard. You may also search the name of the sponsoring agency, or keyword searches on the subject of the standard.

Handbooks and Encyclopedias

Access Science is a general science and technology encyclopedia.
Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering
Gale Virtual Reference Library for a wide range of encyclopedias in many subjects.
Knovel (engineering and science handbooks) a collection of over 800 essential reference books and databases from the world's leading scientific publishers and professional societies in 18 industrially important subject areas.
Technical terms may be found in printed dictionaries of agricultural science or engineering.

Other Resources

Patents and Trademarks Research Guide for finding patents.
ASABE - American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers provides information about the organization.
National Ag Safety Database Home Page is an extensive compendium of agricultural safety and health education information resources.

Research Tips

Did you know?

ASABE members can receive e-mail alerts when information of specific interest to them is added to the ASABE Technical Library.

Evaluating Resources for Content

To evaluate print sources and web sites, you should ask a series of questions concerning the source’s currency, authority, validity, intended audience and bias. See this How to Evaluate Information site for details.

Citing Your Sources

Plagiarism, whether you copy a paragraph from a book or cut and paste someone else's words from an e-mail, is a violation of Penn State's academic integrity policy. See this Definition of Plagiarism and Academic Integrity in Penn State's Plagiarism Tutorials.

When using information from another source you must give credit to the original author or you are plagiarizing. You give credit by citing the source. Make sure your citation contains everything you would need to backtrack and find the information again. It is best to pick one citation style and be consistent. Check our Citation and Writing Guides page for more details.

For Agricultural and Biological Engineering, you might want to use the ASABE Guide for Authors; References.

Manage your personal research library

When working on extensive research projects, you will need to collect, organize and format all those citations!

The following tools are appropriate to use at Penn State. They all allow you to store and search for your references, as well as create in-text citations and bibliographies.

Zotero is a free Firefox plug-in that allows for easy capturing of citation information from web pages.
Mendeley is a free tool for both the desktop and web that integrates with Zotero and easily manages PDFs.
EndNote is a citation manager that you must purchase and download onto your personal computer.

See also this comparison chart of these products.