You may be
interested to learn about how to read references
before you start searching for your assignment task and collecting
information.
Finding information
To get an understanding of aspects of your topic, some
background information is useful so, try encyclopaedias and
handbooks. (1) and Summon.
For more detailed discussion find other books and handbooks through the
Library
Catalogue (2)
Once you know which aspect of the topic you want to develop for your
part of the report, you will need to read comment and opinion written
in journal
or newspaper articles. Use
specialised indexes, known as Databases, to find out what relevant
articles
are available. (3)
(1)
Handbooks and Encyclopaedias
Handbooks and
encyclopedias can be useful sources of basic information.
Remember that, in engineering
and technical subjects,
handbooks are aimed at professional engineers.
Many encyclopaedias are now available in full text in electronic
format.
A number of encyclopeadias and handbooks are still in print format
for all aspects of engineering
see -
McGraw
Hill encyclopedia of
science and technology. 24 volumes. 10th ed.
2007.
Use the index in volume 24 to trace relevant information.
Reference collection 503 M14.10
for aspects of civil, environmental and mining engineering -
Encyclopedia
of environmental
pollution & cleanup. 2 volumes. 1999
Reference collection 628.5 M613e
Engineering handbook.
2nd ed. 2005
Reference collection 624 C582.4
Standard handbook for
civil engineers. 4th
ed. 1996.
Reference collection 624 M572s
Standard handbook of hazardous
waste treatment and disposal. 2nd ed. 1998
Reference collection 628.42 F855s.2
Water quality and treatment: a
handbook. 6th ed. 2011
Reference collection 628.16 A512m.6
Water treatment handbook.
7th ed. 2007.
Reference collection 628.16 A512w.7
also covering water, energy sources and environmental isses are
In both Kirk-Othmer
and Ullmann's, click on
'Search in this Book>' to bring up the search bar for the individual
encyclopaedia.
for aspects of electrical
and electronic engineering
Wiley
encyclopedia of
electrical & electronic engineering.
24 vols. 2007. Index is in volume 24.
Reference collection 621.303 W381w
for aspects of architecture
and building
Encyclopedia
of architecture,
design, engineering & construction. 5 vols.
1990. Index is in vol. 5.
Reference collection 720.3 W682e.
for aspects of energy
Encyclopedia
of energy
technology and the environment. 4 vols. 1995.
Reference collection 621.042 P622e
for aspects of ergonomics
International
encyclopedia of
ergonomics and human factors. 3 vols. 2001.
Reference collection 620.8203 K18i
for aspects of business,
commerce and economics
Encyclopedia
of business.
2 vols 2000.
Reference collection 650.03 E56
for aspects of the social
sciences
For codes and regulations see
What does the Library provide,
in print or electronic format?
At the Library
Home page there are two search
options; the Catalogue
and Summon.
Summon
The Search bar across the Library home page uses the Summon program to
find a selection of newspaper comment, journal articles and books that
may be relevant
to your topic.
This program searches across a range of databases, of one of which is
the
Library Catalogue, giving a range of materials over some years.
Be careful with this search option; it does not search all of the
content of all of the appropriate databases. 'Find everything' does not mean
that you
will find everything that is available through the Library's resources.
To use Summon,
Leave the default at Find Everything;
then in the search bar, type
in words to
indicate your topic, eg.
Tuesday- nutrient recycling
from organic waste
Thursday- community flood
protection
Friday 11am- sustainable transport
for Adelaide
Friday 2pm- biodigester
Click on [go]
to get a list of results across a range of time and types of
material.
For more information
Put your cursor over the title of
the article to bring up the preview
giving an abstract and all of the subject headings for the article.
Refine
your search
From the column on the left-hand
side, click in the box to the
left of Limit to articles
from scholarly publications to restrict the results to
academic articles only.
Collect a set of
useful articles
Put your cursor over the record
of an
interesting item, to bring up
two icons in the top right hand corner; click on the folder
icon. Before you end your search, scroll down to the bottom
right-hand side of the screen and click on Saved
items to get the Email
and Print
links.
Summon
is useful for a
quick, simple search; to do a specific search with more flexibility and
with the ability to transfer your search strategy to databases, use
the Library
Catalogue.
Catalogue
(2) The Library
Catalogue will lead you to books, in print or electronic format,
about
aspects of your topic, available in or through the Library.
From the rectangular boxes across the top of the screen, click on the
one
labelled [Catalogue]
This will bring up the Catalogue
search bar.
At by:
pull down and select Keyword
(use and, or, not, " ")
In this search
strategy you put the command and between each word that you expect to see in the title of a
work that would be useful to you.
Before you
start a
Keyword search -
Think
about the concepts in your topic
think
of terms, words and phrases,
that could be used in the title of an item that
could provide information for aspects of your topic.
These are keywords
At the Search
for: bar type in the keywords
that you think could appear in the title or subject headings of a
book that could be useful to you.
Type the computer command and
between each keyword
to tell the system to find only those Catalogue records which include
each word you have selected, eg.
Tuesday-
nutrient and recycling and
waste
Thursday-
flood and
protection and community
Friday 11am- sustainable
and
transport
Friday 2pm- biodigester and energy
Click on the [Search]
button to bring up the Search Results:
that is the brief records that match your search
strategy.
The Brief Record
format indicates the location of the book, if it is in electronic
format and whether
it
is on loan.
Click on the title for more details in the Full
Record.
The Full Record
describes the physical format of the book and gives the location and
call number for items in print format. It provides a link to the full
text for items in electronic format.
The Full Record
includes lists the Subject Heading(s):
which can lead to more books on the topic.
Click on a Subject Heading:
to bring up a list of headings that you can select from to find other
relevant material, eg.
Tuesday-
Waste products as fertilizer
Organic wastes as soil
amendments.
Animal waste
Recycling.
Thursday-
Floods
Flood control South
Australia
Urban runoff Management
Gladstone (S.Aust.)
Friday 11am- Traffic
engineering
Transportation and state
Local transit Economic aspects
Transportation Planning
Friday 2pm- Environmental chemistry
Biogas
Waste products
as fuel
Improve your
search
strategy to get 'better' results
Think about other
words that an author might use in their title, which would make you
want to read that paper.
eg.
Tuesday-
animal and
waste and
re-use
Thursday- flood
and
protection and
community
Friday
11am- adelaide and transport and
sustainable
Friday 2pm-
biodigester and
environment
Where the search word could be singular or plural, use the truncation
symbol *
to tell the system to find all words beginning with the
letters you have typed eg.
Tuesday- waste*
and
nutrient*
and
recycl*
Thursday- flood*
and
protect*
and
communit*
Friday
11am- adelaide and
transport*
and
sustain*
Friday 2pm- waste*
and
disposal and
environ*
There might be other words which could be used for each concept so combine
search terms with the
operators and,
or, " "
eg.
Tuesday- (recycle*
or
reuse*
or
"re-use*"
or
treat*)
and
(nutrient*
or
animal*
or
organic*
or
fertili*
or
plant*)
Thursday-
flood*
and
(protect*
or
levee*
or
batture*
or
berm*
or bank*)
and
(communit*
or
town*
or
dwell*)
Friday 11am- adelaide
and (transport* or
transit or bus* or
train* or tram*)
and
(sustain*
or
reliab* or
maintain*)
Friday 2pm- (refuse
or waste*)
and (carbon*
or co2*) and (ecolog*
or environment*)
Remember to use brackets ( )
(parentheses) where
you
separate words with the OR
command
(3) Databases and
indexes to journal articles and papers
You
cannot use the Library Catalogue directly to find out which journal or
newspaper articles are available through the Library.
To find out what relevant
articles or papers have been written, and where they were
published, you need to
search databases. The Library's
subscription to some databases may include access to the
full text of the article.
First,
choose a database
depending on your topic.
Your topic looks at many issues. Consider databases
indexing technological issues, business & commerce, social issues,
psychology, politics,
etc.
Is an Australian database
appropriate?
Examples of possibly useful databases are:
for general issues,
including public comment try
for architecture
and building issues
for business
aspects
for social
aspects
for engineering aspects
CEDB:
civil engineering database 1973-
for an Australian focus
This is
only a selection of available databases. Check the [Resource guides]
on the Library web page,
or contact
the Engineering Librarian
for
more possibilities.
Second,
searching
effectively.
Paste in the search strategy that you developed in the Library
Catalogue by Keyword
(use and, or,
not, " ").
dealing with the results
Look at the titles - are there
other, useful, search terms
in the
titles and
abstracts of the first
articles you retrieve? Consider 'improving' your search strategy
Your initial results give brief
information; in most databases you can click on the title to
display the
full
record. Click on the
subject terms enable to locate other articles
on that topic.
Look for the 'boxes' to mark
useful records.
Look for icons and instructions
for emailing,
printing
or downloading
your
results.
Finally,
once your database search has given references to articles, you
need to find
the full text of the article.
In many cases,
the Library has paid for full text access through our subscription to
the journal or the database, so there will be an .html
or .pdf
link to the full text of
articles.
Alternatively, look for the blue box to [Check fulltext options].
Click on [Check fulltext options] to
see if the Library does provide the article in electronic format.
Remember, the Library may have
the article in print form, so go
to the Library
Catalogue and search by:
journal or newspaper title.
For journals
in print form the
Library
Catalogue record lists the (which library), Location:Call
Number:
(where in that library) and what the Library
Has: (which issue our set starts with, and if it has
finished,
the last issue)
Check
the date and volume number of your reference against the Catalogue
information to make certain that the Library provides access to the
article
you want.
REMEMBER - the Barr Smith Library does
not hold all journals indexed in the databases.
To find out if a journal is
available in Adelaide, you can also try the Other
Catalogues option to search the catalogues of UniSA and
Flinders
University libraries.
Report writing
If you need some ideas for ways of presentating the arguments in a
report or
essay or giving a paper at a seminar, try some of the guides
to report writing and presentation.
Referencing styles
When
you are listing works that you have consulted to write a report or
essay, you
should use a definite referencing or citation style. A
referencing
style is simply a standardised way of writing down the elements of
information about a book or journal or electronic source.
The Library provides a guide with a range of examples in An introduction to the author-date
(Harvard) referencing system which is widely used in
the engineering literature.
Check what style your supervisor expects you to use.
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