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Engineering Communication EAL
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| Useful
Shortcuts Library Catalogue Indexes and databases for sources of general comment see the indexes which cover a wide range of journal and newspaper articles such as - Academic Search Premier eLibrary Expanded academic ASAP Factiva Web of Science from specific publishers are - Academic OneFile ScienceDirect Scopus for engineering aspects try - Compendex: Engineering Index CEDB: Civil Engineering DataBase INSPEC ENGINE (IEAust) for business and management aspects try - Business Source Complete Emerald FullText for social aspects try - ERIC PsycINFO Sociological abstracts for Australian issues try - APA-FT Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre ENGINE Which library has this journal? Intercampus Requests Essay, thesis, report writing - some ideas Harvard reference system Image and Copy Centre Exam papers Ask the Engineering Librarian |
For your assignment
you are expected to use additional sources of information. You may be interested to learn about how to read references and interprete citations before you start searching for your assignment task and collecting information. The Library also provides a Tutorial on Library Skills which includes an interactive section for Understanding Citations: Harvard. The Harvard pattern is widely used with science and engineering writings; but you should check with your supervisor first. Finding information To get an understanding of aspects of your topic, some background information is useful so, try encyclopaedias and handbooks. (1) For more detailed discussion find other books and handbooks through the Library Catalogue (2) Once you know which aspects of the topic you want to develop for your report, you will need to read comment and opinion written in journal articles. Use specialised indexes, known as Databases, to find out what articles and papers might be relevant. (3) (1) Handbooks and Encyclopaedias Many encyclopaedias and handbooks available through the Library are still in print form; we can't afford the electronic subscriptions yet! Encyclopaedias are located by Call Number in the Library's Reference Collection, Level 3, South or in the Main Collection. Remember to use the index in the encyclopaedia in addition to the alphabetical listing of articles. The specialist engineering handbooks are aimed at professional engineers. These are useful sources of information and ideas. for a broad coverage issues in technology see - McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of science & technology. 10th ed. 24 volumes 2007. Reference collection 503 M14.10 Check the index in volume 24 for aspects of alternative energy sources and uses. Engineering handbook. 2n ed. 1996 Reference collection 629 D695e handbooks for specific engineering disciplines may be useful - Civil engineering handbook. 1995. Reference collection 624 C518c CRC handbook of mechanical engineering. 1997. Reference collection 621.02 K922e Electrical engineer's reference book. 16th ed. 2003. Reference collection 621.3 E278 16 Encyclopedia of electrical and electronics engineering. 24 volumes. 1999. Reference collection 621.303 W381w Standard handbook for civil engineers. 4th ed. 1996. Reference collection 624 M572s Encyclopedia of energy technology and the environment. 4 volumes. 1995. Reference collection 621.042 B622e Professional communications: a handbook for civil engineers. 2005. Main collection 808.0666 S5879p Petroleum engineering handbook. 1987. Reference collection 622.338 B811p In electronic form are two of the chemical technology sources - Kirk-Othmer encyclopedia of chemical technology. current Ullmann's encyclopedia of industrial chemistry. current In both Kirk Othmer and Ullmann's, type search words in the "Search this title" bar in the right hand column. (2) The Library Catalogue will lead you to other handbooks and books about aspects of your topic. DO an EFFECTIVE and EFFICIENT search. At the Library web page, from the yellow 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, " ") Before you start a Keyword search - Think
about the concepts in your topic
Think of terms, words or phrases,
that could appear in the title of a book for the book to be useful for
your topic.
Such words may include a place name, company, person, etc. as well as the words which you think indicate aspects of your topic. At the Search for: bar type in the words that you consider could be useful. Type the computer command and between each word to tell the system to find only those Catalogue records which include each word you have selected. eg. employees and
skills
At by: check that you have selected Keyword (use and, or, not, " ") Click on the [Search] button to bring up the Search Results: that is the titles that match your search strategy. The Brief Record format indicates the location of the book 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 lists the Subject Heading(s): which may give leads 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. To improve your search strategy to get more relevant results, think about other words that an author might use in their title, which would still be of interest to you. eg. employees and
skills and
employers
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. employee*
and
skill*
and
employer*
There might be other words which could be used for each concept so combine search terms with the operators and, or, " " eg. employee* and
(skill*
or
aptitude*)
and
(employer* or manage*)
and
(expectation*
or
value*)
Remember to use brackets ( )
where you
separate words with the OR
commandWhere one word will always follow another in your search terms you can use the phrase search command " " eg. "human resource"
other commands and symbols can be used with a phrase search commandeg. "human resource*" and
(skill* or
train* or
aptitude*)
REMEMBER - before you leave the Catalogue, copy your search strategy. (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 subscribes to a number of these commercial services which list millions of articles. Sometimes the Library's subscriptions will provide access to the full text of the article through the database. Where this is not the case, for
an
interesting article, search
the Library Catalogue by:
Title
(for book) or by:
Journal or
Newspaper Title (for an article or conference paper) to find out
if the
Library provides access to that item.
First, which database to use? Your topic looks at many issues so consider using databases indexing business issues, social issues, psychology, politics, etc. Is an Australian database appropriate? Does the database cover recent articles? For ideas for appropriate databases, at the Library web page, from the yellow boxes across the top of the screen, click on the one labelled [Resource guides] and select a relevant subject area. Examples of possibly useful databases are: for a wide range of issues, including public commentary, for business and management aspects for an
Australian focus APA-FT:
Australian Public Affairs, 1978- with full text 1995-
Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre ENGINE: Australian engineering This is only a selection of available databases. Remember, if you need information not covered by the databases above or in the column to the left, check the [Resource guides] on the Library web page, or contact the Engineering Librarian for more possibilities. Second, searching effectively. Search techniques vary in databases but most use the the same basic search principles as used when searching in the Library's Catalogue by Keyword (use and, or, not, " "). Before you start a search -
Next, dealing with the 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, so you can go
directly through a .html or .pdf link to the full text of an
article.
Sometimes there is a blue box labelled Check fulltext options. Click this box to check on the Library Catalogue for the journal in which the article appeared. If there is no link in the database record, you need to always search the journal title (not the article title) in the Library Catalogue to see if the article you want is available. For journals available in electronic form
the Library Catalogue record provides a Link to e-Resource: and indicates
the years available electronically.
For journals in print form the Library Catalogue record lists the Location: (which library), 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, try the Other Catalogues option on our Library Catalogue, to search the catalogues of UniSA and Flinders libraries. Report writing If you need some ideas for ways of presentating the arguments in your essay or seminar, try some of the guides to report writing and presentation. Referencing styles When you are listing works that you have consulted to write an 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. |
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