Engineering

For the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, the subject bibliographer is:

Michael Wilson , Reference Librarian
Office: Alden Library Reference Department (2nd Floor Learning Commons)
Phone: 593-0329
Email: wilsone2@ohio.edu

The faculty library liaisons are:

Aviation
Jaun Merkt, Assistant Professor
Office: Airport
Phone: 597-2623
Email: merkt@ohiou.edu

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Gerardine Botte, Assistant Professor
Office: Stocker 183
Phone: 593-9670
Email:botte@bobcat.ent.ohiou.edu

Civil Engineering
Guy Riefler, Assistant Professor
Office: Stocker 139
Phone: 593-1471
Email: riefler@ohio.edu

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Savas Kaya, Assistant Professor
Office: Stocker 329
Phone:597-1633
Email: kaya@homer.ece.ohiou.edu

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering
Dusan Sormaz, Assistant Professor
Office: Stocker 280
Phone: 593-1548
Email:sormaz@ohio.edu

Industrial Technology
Patrick McCuistion, Associate Professor, Chair Engineering Library Committee
Office: Stocker 124D
Phone: 593-1457
Email:mccuisti@ohio.edu

Mechanical Engineering
Frank Kraft, Assistant Professor
Office: Stocker 266
Phone: 597-1478
Email:kraft@bobcat.eng.ohiou.edu

Link to Russ College of Engineering and Technology

Library Instruction Workshops for Engineering Students

• Target Audience: freshman/sophomore-level engineering students
• Coverage: Alice, OhioLink, databases such as Applied Science and Technology Index, ...
• Time/Location: 1-2 hours, on-site or at the Library

• Target Audience: junior-senior level engineering students
• Coverage: Databases such as Compendex, INSPEC, and Science Citation Index, handbooks, ...
• Time/Location: 1-2 hours, on-site or at the Library

• Target Audience: graduate students/ new faculty
• Coverage: Alice, OhioLINK, available electronic sources such as Science Citation Index, ILL, and where to go for help.
• Time/Location: 1-2 hours, on-site or at the Library

• All workshops are free
• Workshops can be customized to individual needs.
• For more info on any of the workshops: See the attached workshop description or contact the instructor, Bob Houdek (Engineering subject bibliographer)
• To schedule a workshop: Call Bob Houdek at (3-0329) or email to houdek@ohio.edu.

Library Instruction for Engineering Students - An overview

In the best of cases, the faculty members are directly involved in the workshops, and library staff provides its expertise. Instruction should address immediate and future needs of students for access to the literature of engineering. The faculty members' involvement with the process assures the students' active participation and assures that what particular faculty members feel is most important is what is taught either by themselves or by the librarian.

Obviously, there is going to be a division between the parts of this instruction provided by the librarian and the parts provided by the classroom instructors. Librarians understand the search tools, they understand how the literature is linked, and what tools are readily available for finding specific pieces of information. They understand the structure of a citation and how to complete incomplete information. The instructor is involved directly in the discipline in which he/she has done research. Instructors understand the makeup of their literature, they know the important journals, and often who is doing research in a particular topic. They are in a position to require students to do research and reports that force them to use the literature and, with the help of the librarian, develop the necessary skills for that use.

Workshop Descriptions

(1) Introduction to research and databases

Students at different levels have different needs. Beginning students' needs for access to the literature is limited to knowing that there are supportive materials available to help them better understand the materials presented in their textbook and in class. This should include understanding how to use Alice to find materials on a specific subject and how to use the references in their text to identify supporting materials and to find them either in Alice or through OhioLINK. They also should be able to find additional articles on a topic that interests them.

At the beginning level (freshman-sophomore) that can be limited to using databases such as Applied Science and Technology Index as well as some of the more general databases such as Academic Search Complete and Business Source Premier. I mention these latter two because they do index some engineering journals and have a significant amount of full-text materials. Students also need to recognize what constitutes reliable information-this can be an especially difficult concept to get across. In learning to use these indexes and the online catalog, they will have to acquire certain skills:

• identifying clearly the topic of their research;
• identifying the most useful databases for their research;
• learning to use advanced features of those databases;
• understanding what constitutes a record in a particular database and why that matters in retrieving information from it;
• identifying what kind of coverage they can expect in a particular database;
• using Boolean operators in constructing a search;
• understanding why using the subject headings provided might improve their search;
• finding the materials that they have identified as useful;
• evaluating the reliability and suitability of those materials;
• knowing when to ask for help.

At the junior-senior level, students should be moving into more sophisticated databases (Compendex, INSPEC, maybe even Science Citation Index, although that may be a stretch). They should be aware of some of the more specific reference resources; these will vary within engineering but would include materials like the ASM and SME handbooks as well as the specialized encyclopedias and data sources. Many of these sources provide excellent grounding and lead to additional sources of information that include both published articles and standards.

Students should develop a feel for the literature in their particular field and be familiar with the principal journals and know which engineering societies are important in their area of study. They should develop an appreciation for how information is shared, the importance of the published literature, the importance of conference literature and conferences. They should understand the structure of a scientific paper, why references are included and how they can be used to find additional relevant information, how later research builds on earlier research, and that they may be able to find relevant information in literature outside of engineering.

They should also be aware that these same processes can be used to find information on matters more personal than professional; as well as how what they have learned in the process can help them find a job or pick a graduate school. When they leave the university, students should be able to find information they need to do their jobs and to satisfy personal and professional information needs.

(3) Effective Research Skills for graduate students and new faculty

Graduate students' knowledge and background in the literature of science and engineering will be dependent upon their undergraduate education. One assumes they will have acquired, or will acquire, the skills that undergraduates should have when they graduate:

• Graduate students need to be oriented to the peculiarities of the local situation: Alice, OhioLINK, the arrangement of the library, available electronic sources, ILL, and where to go for help.
• They should be capable of doing a thorough literature review on a topic.
• They should be able to use such tools as Science Citation Index and should be aware of and able to use the advanced features in the major indexing tools (Compendex, INSPEC, Chemical Abstracts, etc.).
• They should be adept at recognizing when it would be useful to look for resources outside of their discipline, and to ask for more help when they need it.
• They should be able to synthesize what they find in the literature with what they find in their own research to create new knowledge, new understandings.

General Internet Resources

Engineering Electronic Library, Sweden
This is an evaluative site with a classified list. It uses Compendex's classification system for dividing up topic areas within engineering. Its emphasis is European.

BUBL LINK / 5:15 Catalogue of Internet Resources
Allows access to lists alphabetically, by subject, by type (ie dictionary), by Dewey number and through a search. These indexes are to the complete site not just the engineering materials. Entries are descriptive and each includes basic cataloging information.

Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library
The U.K. gateway to quality engineering information on the internet.
Arranged in broad subject areas. Includes hotlinks to other broad sites. Individual entries are annotated and evaluative. This site has several thousand links. It is heavily weighted toward British sites but does include U.S. sites as well.

Engineering Virtual Library
An American site, arranged by broad subject areas along with links to institutions, standards, products and services. Each of the separate subject areas is the responsibility of an organization or individual. Includes a listing for sites of general interest in engineering. Entries are annotated, pages are attributed.

Journals

The library has access to both print and electronic journals access to both is provided by ALICE, the library's on line catalog. This is a listing of the periodicals that are specifically linked to engineering; there are a number of related areas, such as physics, chemistry, etc. that are not here. Its always a good idea to check ALICE.

Indexes and Abstracts

• Coverage 1983-present. Updated monthly.
• Location of Printed Version: Reference Department Index Shelves in Alden Library.
• Call number: Ref. Z7913 .I7
• Holdings of printed version: 1958 to 1982.
• This is a good index for beginning your search. It is not as comprehensive as the following indexes but avoids some of the more esoteric materials and provides access to to news and editorial materials. Selective coverage (about 335 journals).
• Applied Science and Technology Abstracts Journal List

• Coverage: 1980-present. Updated Quarterly.
• Available in print as Engineering Index
• This along with INSPEC are the principal indexes to the Engineering literature. Although there is considerable overlap--especially in the coverage of the Electrical Engineering Literature--it is generally advisable to search both of these indexes in cases where there is a need to be comprehensive. "Compendex covers the entire spectrum of engineering, in depth, with abstracts from over 2,600 international journals, conference papers and proceedings, and technical reports." Provides subject, author, title, and keyword indexing. Abstracts for each of the articles improves recall and offers added information.

• Coverage: 1969-present. Updated quarterly.
• Available in print as Science Abstracts from 1898-1965. QC1.S3.
• Split to become Electrical & Electronics Abstracts, Control Abstracts, and Physics Abstracts, these cover the intervening years. INSPEC covers the literature of physics, electrical engineering and computer science. In these areas there is considerable overlap in coverage with Compendex, with the coverage in INSPEC generally being more complete. "Over 4000 scientific and technical journals and some 2000 conference proceedings, as well as numerous books, reports and dissertations are scanned each year by INSPEC staff for relevant articles to abstract and index for inclusion in the database." Provides subject, author, title and keyword indexing. In addition, there is specialized indexing for chemicals.

• Coverage: 1962-present. Updated weekly. NASA Holdings File is available with coverage from 1915 - 1960.
• The database is divided into two main series. Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports (STAR) and Open Literature. There are over 1.6 million records. The subject coverage is aeronautics, chemistry and materials, engineering (including communications and radar, electronics and electrical engineering, fluid mechanics and heat transfer, instrumentation and photography, lasers and masers, mechanical engineering, quality assurance and reliability, structural mechanics), geosciences, life sciences, mathematical and computer sciences, physics (including acoustics, optics and thermodynamics), social sciences and space sciences. The NASA Thesaurus is also available via the STI Home Page. An excellent and freely available source of current and historic information.

• From here you can search for articles in the journals that are received by OhioLINK. This database is constantly being updated with new articles as tapes are received from the publishers. Because these are the articles, the entries you find here will usually represent the most recently available information on a topic. However, this is not a replacement for other searches, and it does not represent all of the electronic resources Ohio University has available.

• Coverage: 1980-present. Updated weekly.
• Available in print as Science Citation Index, the printed version coverage is from 1969 to 1979.
• Although it is possible to search the Science Citation Index using keyword, author, or title, the unique aspect is the ability to search a cited reference. Though the number of engineering periodicals indexed here is far less than in either of the above indexes, its currency (which is not just because it is updated frequently but also because its method of indexing requires much less time, articles are indexed faster as well) and the ability to search cited references are its advantages.

SciFinder Scholar

• SciFinder Scholar is a desktop research tool designed especially for use by students and faculty to easily access the information in the Chemical Abstracts database.
• SciFinder Scholar is the premier abstracting service for the field of chemistry and related areas. It covers around 8,000 journals and coverage goes back to 1907. SciFinder Scholar also includes the MEDLINE database. Because of licensing agreements SciFinder Scholar may only be used by current Ohio University students, faculty, and staff for academic purposes only. SciFinder Scholar may not be used for commercial purposes.
• Access requires a specialized client software, which can be downloaded onto your computer. Contact Andrew Stuart, Chemistry and Biochemistry Bibliographer (stuarta@ohio.edu or 593-2698) for information on loading the client software on a computer in your office.
• Access restrictions:
• On-campus only.
• Only one person can be using the database at a time.
• The client software will also be available on the standalone computers in the Reference area on the 4th floor of Alden Library.

• Coverage: 1960s-present.
• TRIS Online is a web version of the bibliographic database Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS), created in order to enhance research, safety, and operations in all fields of transportation. TRIS Online holds over 400,000 bibliographic records covering journal articles, technical reports, books and other media. It gives links to a selection of full text documents or sources of full text documents. This is a good place to look for transportation research of interest to mechanical, industrial and civil engineers.

Reference Sources

Encyclopedias

AccessScience
For off-campus access, login through OhioLINK.
This is a general science encyclopedia. It contains good articles on basic and applied science and it is electronic. The print version is "McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of science and technology" (Ref Q121 .M3 1997).
This is surpassed by the following encyclopedia, which does not have an electronic version.

Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology
Call Number: Ref Q123.E497. 2nd Edition. In 18 volumes.
Fully referenced and signed articles written at the level of practitioners in the field the article covers. The introductory materials for each of the articles, however, are still intelligible to the general reader. This is a good basic source with links to the literature.

Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Call Number: Ref TK9.E53 1999. In 20 volumes.
Articles by major researchers in each of the fields covered, all articles signed, all fully referenced. An excellent source for current information with many links to the literature. This is a place you could begin both to identify relevant terms and relevant references (to use in databases such as INSPEC and Science Citation Index).

Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of chemical technology
Call Number: Ref TP9 .E685 1991. 4th ed. 1991- In 24 volumes.
This is the major encyclopedia for chemical engineering. It continues to offer an excellent beginning point for any topic in this field as well as those in related areas. All articles are signed and fully referenced and many are near monographs on the topic they cover. Just as with the above encyclopedia, this is an excellent place to identify relevant terms and possible citations for further research in the appropriate indexes (Science Citation and Compendex).

ASM Handbooks Online
Prepared under the direction of the ASM International Handbook Committee, is available to Ohio University only.
Printed Volumes:Alden Library also has the print edition of the ASM Handbook; the calll number is: Ref TA459.M43 1990.
In 21 volumes, formerly known as the "Metals Handbook." The new title reflects the broader scope of its coverage: all types of materials with an emphasis on metals and excellent technical articles by experts in each of the areas that are covered. Excellent source for reference data for such materials, all fully referenced with a wide range of charts, tables and diagrammatic presentations of the information. These are as much data source volumes as they are descriptive articles. There is a separate volume that serves as a comprehensive index to the entire set. Each volume in the set deals with a specific topic, for instance volume 20 is on "materials selection and design."

Tool and Manufacturing Engineers Handbook
Call Number: Ref TS176.T63 1983. In 8 volumes.
Contents V.1 Machining - V.2 Forming -V.3 Materials, finishing and coating - V.4 Quality control and assembly - V.5 Manufacturing management - V.6 Design for manufacturability - V.7 Continuous improvement - V.8 Plastic part manufacturing.
Like the above this is an excellent source for background material with good coverage of the literature and with chapters written by experts in their respective fields. The title for the series is the best description of its coverage.

ASTM standards source
Call Number: TA401 .A643x. Ask for disks at Alden Reference Desk.
There are 9 CD-ROM disks plus an index disk. The index disk will allow you to search for standards on the other disks. The ASTM Standards cover materials from cloth to steel; almost any material of interest can be found in these standards. There are 48 parts, whichcover "specifications, methods of testing procedures and recommended practices, definitions and proposed methods". They are revised annually, but we do not purchase them annually. Many of the engineering handbooks make reference to these.

S.A.E. Handbook
Call Number: TL151 .S62. Current edition in Alden Reference; earlier editions in General Stacks; see ALICE record for complete holdings.
Standards for automotive engineering. We receive these on an annual basis. They are generally in three volumes. Cover materials and practice in the area of automotive engineering.