Engineering Planning & Design (C&ENV
ENG 1000) semester 2
The aim of these pages is to alert you to the kinds of
information sources that may be useful for aspects of your topic. There
may be no definitive answer to your topic. The information you decide
you need will come out of the ideas you have discussed to solve the
problem presented.
If your ideas have moved beyond the basic sources listed below
and for your topic, please contact me, Kay
Leverett, the Engineering
Librarian, and I can suggest other sources of information.
Handbooks and encyclopaedias are often useful
sources when you are trying to gain familiarity with a topic. They will
not cover all aspects of your topic but they can give you ideas about
its scope and principles. Most are in the Reference Collection, on
Level 3 south of the
Library. These are written at a graduate level.
Covering many aspects of engineering are:
McGraw-Hill
encyclopedia of science and technology.
9th
ed. 2002.
Reference
collection 503 M14.8
Engineering
handbook. 1996.
Reference collection
620
D695e
Kempe's
engineers year-book. 96th ed. 1991.
Reference collection
620 K32
Remember, for all of the encyclopaedias, use the Index first. For
handbooks, check both the Index and the list of Contents.
In addition you may find information through other encyclopaedias and
handbooks -
for Australia's water shortage
For an understanding of water resources see
Encyclopedia of hydrology and water
resources. 1998.
Reference collection
550.3 E56 20
Water
encyclopedia. 2nd ed. 1990.
Reference collection
553.70212 V235w
Water
words dictionary.
From the Nevada Division of Water Planning, this is a
compilation of technical water, water quality, environmental, and
water-related terms
There are a number of useful handbooks dealing with treatment of water,
among them -
Water treatment
handbook. 6th ed. 2 volumes. 1991.
Reference collection 628.19 D321w
Water quality & treatment:
a handbook of community water supplies. 5th ed. 1999.
Reference collection 628.16 A512m.5
From an Australian perspective the National Water Quality Management
Strategy provides guidelines
for fresh and marine water quality; drinking
water guidelines, and draft
effluent management guidelines.
Some aspects of the topic may be found in the Geographical
and Environmental Studies guide. such as for Water
Resources and Australian
Environmental Subjects.
For ocean thermal energy conversion
For background information you
could look at the topical
sections covered in the Geographical
and Environmental Studies guide, such as Coastal
and Marine Environments.
Wiley encyclopedia of
electrical and electronics engineering
24 volumes. 1999.
Reference collection 621.303 W38w
For nuclear power
see
Encyclopedia of energy.
6 volumes. 2004.
Reference collection 333.7903 C6531e
Macmillan encyclopedia of energy. 4 volumes.
2001.
Reference collection 333.7903 Z94m
Wiley encyclopedia of
electrical and electronics engineering
24 volumes. 1999.
Reference collection 621.303 W38w
Some aspects of the topic may be found through other guides, such as Geographical
and Environmental Studies [eg. Environment
Protection, Environmentalism/Environmental
Attitudes], Media,
Law,
Politics.
For all topics, try the wide
ranging mechanical, civil or electrical engineering handbooks on these
lists, since they may include sections relevant to your topic.
Use indexes and databases to see what articles have
been written
Journal
articles, conference papers and reports will all be listed in
specialised indexes or databases. Remember that in most of these
databases you can use search techniques such
as Boolean operators,
truncation etc. to create your search strategy. If you need some ideas
for searching databases, click here.
Choose databases appropriate for the topic you are
searching.
See below for some of the
databases which may be helpful for aspects of your topic. For
full database lists, see
Indexes and Databases for Engineering.
If you know a
database name, you can also link to
it through the Library
Catalogue.
Most of the databases are
international in coverage but may concentrate on English langauges
sources and therefore may reflect 'Western' attitudes. Be aware
of the source and any assumptions. You may need to look for an
opposing opinion!
There are a number of databases covering a wide range of topics,
including social impact and environmental issues, which may
provide comment and ideas. Links to the full text of
many articles are provided.
For access to newspaper articles and letters, see
Australia/New
Zealand reference centre
elibrary
Both of these sources include many national
and regional newspapers. Also cover a number of
journals in the social sciences and some technical journals.
Factiva
is the major source for the full text of newspapers world wide.
Databases with an international coverage of technical issues
include
CEDB:
Civil Engineering DataBase 1973- indexes journals and
conferences papers in civil and environmental engineering. Includes
community services.
Ei
compendex 1969- indexes journals, conferences and
reports in all aspects of engineering
INSPEC 1969- indexes journals,
conferences and reports in electrical and electronic engineering,
computing and communications.
Additional databases may be useful for aspects of a topic, eg.
For mobile phone towers
try
INSPEC 1969- indexes journals,
conferences and reports in electrical and electronic engineering,
computing and communications.
For Australia's water shortage
try
GEOBASE
1980- indexes articles, books and research reports on all aspects
of geography,
including water resources.
For engineering issues see
STREAMLINE
1982- indexes journals, books and research reports on
Australian water
and environmental issues.
Water
resources abstracts 1967- the world index on water issues
CEDB
1958- from the ASCE, covers all aspects of civil engineering
infrastructure such as water treatment .
For ocean thermal energy conversion
try
INSPEC 1969- indexes journals,
conferences and reports in electrical and electronic engineering,
computing and communications.
GEOBASE
1980- indexes articles, books and research reports on geography
and geomorphology.
For economic aspects see
EBSCO
Business Source Premier a large business
database, with a US emphasis.
For engineering issues and implications see
CEDB
1958- from the ASCE, covers all aspects of civil engineering
infrastructure.
For nuclear power try
INSPEC 1969- indexes journals,
conferences and reports in electrical and electronic engineering,
computing and communications.
GEOBASE
1980- indexes articles, books and research reports on geography
and geomorphology.
For economic aspects see
EBSCO
Business Source Premier a large business
database, with a US emphasis.
For engineering issues see
CEDB
1958- from the ASCE, covers all aspects of civil engineering
infrastructure.
If you are considering an Australian perspective there are a number of
small, specialised databases covering
aspects of your topics, eg.
APA-FT
1978- indexes Australian journals in the social sciences, with
links to
some full text articles.
ARCH
1980- indexes Australian architectural, planning, building and design
journals.
BUILD
1989- indexes journal articles, conference papers, research
reports and books on building and planning in Australia.
ENGINE
1980- indexes journal articles, conference papers and reports
published by the Institution of Engineers, Australia.
ROAD
1984- indexes journals, books and research reports on all aspects
of roads; design, traffic,
vehicles, road safety, environment, transport economics, and
communications
technology issues relating to Australian conditions.
STREAMLINE
1982- indexes journals, books and research reports on Australian water
and environmental issues.
Can I find this article/paper/report in Adelaide?
Once your database search has
given references to
articles, you will need to find their full text.
Sometimes you can link directly through an html or pdf
link within the database to the electronic full text of
articles.
If not, always search the journal title (not the
article title) in the Library
catalogue.
The Catalogue shows where the print journal will be found and which
volumes
the Library should have, and for electronic journals provides a
link to the full text
of articles which includes a statement of the range of dates covered.
REMEMBER - the Barr Smith Library does not hold all journals indexed in
databases.
You can also try the Other
Catalogues option from the Library catalogue which enables you
search the three University libraries catalogues at the same time.
If the catalogues do not help you could try Libraries
Australia which for individual journal titles,
lists the libraries that have the
journal, and indicates what volumes/years are kept. The libraries
include government departments and private companies.
Use search
engines such as Google and gateways to find web sites.
Gateways aiming to guide you to
high quality internet
resources in engineering include:
AVEL: Australasian Virtual
Engineering Library
EEVL: Internet guide to
Engineering, Mathematics and Computing
BUBL:
Engineering and
technology
Scirus
search engine
For South Australian interests see:
South Australia Central
with links to information from South Australian government and
organization sites such
as
S.A.
local
government web sites
Online
Water Resources, S.A. Department of Land, Water and Biodiversity
Conservation.
PIRSA, Department of
Primary
Industries &
Resources, South Australia
Transport
SA
Some specialised Australian sites exist freely, such as:
Bureau of
Meteorology Hydrological Services Program
CSIRO Online There are
a number of ways of finding information: use the Search all CSIRO bar;
under Features look at the links from the Research
Divisions; or try the sections under Our Research.
If an aspect of the issue has arisen in other states, the
web sites of other states, such as - New South Wales; Northern Territory; Queensland; Victoria; Western Australia and the Australian Federal government
may be useful sources of comparative information.
Report writing and referencing
For help in writing reports and essays and citing
references, see Report
writing for engineers
REMEMBER - In university work it is important to acknowledge your
sources of information and what influenced your ideas. You
will put a list of these sources at the end of your report and there
are a number of ways to do this.
One of the most widely used is the Author-Date
or Harvard system which is
described in the following
sites, with handy tables of examples of references for different sorts
of publications.
A useful starting point is the Library's -
An introduction to the author-date
(Harvard) referencing system. 2006
Available online or can be downloaded as a PDF.
Provides examples of how to present references for journal articles,
reports, chapters from books, web sites.
A more comprensive coverage is given in -
A
guide to Harvard
Referencing
Also available through this site as a printable document entitled Quote Unquote: the Harvard style of
referencing published material. 2004.
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