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Getting started

Welcome

Welcome to the Engineering Research Guide! Here you can find tips on how to find and use information pertaining to Engineering. Please explore the links and feel free to contact us for any additional information or help using our resources.

Library Instruction

Basic online library instruction is available in either official language using Laurentian's Desire2Learn platform. You can self-register for the Research Skills Tutorial.

For special instruction in this subject during class time, ask your professor to arrange a class by contacting Alain Lamothe, ext. 3304.

For instruction on archival materials, ask your professor to arrange a class by contacting Ms. Marthe Brown, ext. 3339.

Cite your References!

Find information on popular reference styles through our "Citation Style Guide." Remember to use the style asked for by your professor, and to check your work.

Use the online reference tool Zotero to help import, manage and export bibliographic references in various styles.

Subject Librarian

Alain Lamothe, BSc., MSc., MLIS
Associate Librarian
alamothe@laurentian.ca
Book a research consultation
705-675-1151 Ext. 3304 


For Distance Education students :

Telephone : 1-800-661-1058, Ext. 2

Fax : 705-671-3803 (Attention: Off-Campus Library Services)

Email : bibdesmaraislib@laurentian.ca

More Help

In the library: The Library User Assistance Desk to your immediate left as you enter the library is a good place to start.

By email: Email the librarian responsible for your faculty for a reply during regular working hours.

Research consultations: Book a research consultation with the librarian responsible for your faculty by Zoom or phone.

By chat: With our "Ask the Library" service. For more information, see About Ask a Librarian.

For Distance Education students: Telephone: 1-800-661-1058, ext. 2 or email: bibdesmaraislib@laurentian.ca

Getting articles

Engineering Recommended Databases

  • Civil Engineering Database ?

    Description: Free bibliographic database offering over 200,000 records of all publications by American Society of Civil Engineers. It is updated at the end of each month. The update includes the journal content for the following month and all other content published in the previous month.

  • Compendex ?

    To capture citations in Zotero, download the citation(s) for a single item or a set of search results in BibTex format.

    Description: Compendex is an engineering literature database with over 17 million records from 73 countries across 190 engineering disciplines.

Theses and Dissertations

For additional information on advanced research as well as theses and dissertations, please consult our Research Guide for Advanced Studies.

Engineering Related Databases

  • ASTIS Arctic Science and Technology Information System (ASTIS) database ?

    Description: The ASTIS database contains 16,200 records describing research projects conducted in Canada's three northern territories since 1974. Coverage of publications include reports from government agencies, industry, First Nations, and universities as well as journal articles, conference papers, theses and books. ASTIS is maintained by the Arctic Institute of North America at the University of Calgary, and is part of the Canadian Polar Information Network.

  • ASTM Standards ?

    Description: The ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) Digital Library provides you instant access to the digital edition of nearly every ASTM International book and paper spanning 140+ industries and 100+ years.

  • ETDEWEB ?

    Description: The gateway to energy technology discoveries, ETDEWEB includes information on energy R&D; energy policy and planning; basic sciences (e.g., physics, chemistry and biomedical) and materials research; the environmental impact of energy production and use, including climate change; energy conservation; nuclear (e.g., reactors, isotopes, waste management); coal and fossil fuels; renewable energy technologies (e.g., solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, hydro.

  • Google Scholar ?

    Description: "Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature... across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites."

  • Scholars Portal - Ejournals ?

    Description: Scholars Portal is a digital repository of over 20 million scholarly articles drawn from journals covering every academic discipline.

  • ScienceDirect ?

    Description: A full-text scientific database offering journal articles and book chapters from nearly 2,500 journals and 26,000 books in the fields of physical, life, health and social sciences, engineering and the humanities.

  • Web of Science ?

    Description: A comprehensive research platform that brings together many different types of content including journal articles, patents, websites, conference proceedings, and open access material. Web of Science is located within Web of Knowledge. This resource offers access to journal articles in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Web of Science contains over 100 years of research, fully indexed and cross-searchable.

Searching for books

Searching the Catalogue

The catalogue is your primary tool for finding books in the J.N. Desmarais Library. You can also use the catalogue to find other materials, including government publications and journals (including individual articles).

You can search the catalogue by:

  • Title
  • Author/Creator
  • Subject
  • Call Number

When you know the book you are searching for, pick Title or Author; when you are searching for a topic, start with Keyword unless you know the exact Subject heading describing your topic.

More on searching the Catalogue is available in Module 5 of the Research Skills Tutorial in D2L.

Shelf Searching

Laurentian uses LC Classification. Some patrons may wish to browse for books in the stacks; Engineering is classified under Technology (T).

Example of shelf searching is shown below:

Subclass TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering

TA 168 - Systems Engineering

TA 170-171 - Environmental Engineering

TA 177.4-185 - Engineering Economy

TA 190-194 - Management of Engineering Works

TA 213-215 - Engineering Machinery, Tools, and Implements

TA 401-492 - Materials of Engineering and Construction, Mechanics of Materials

TA 501-625 - Surveying

TA 630-695 - Structural Engineering (General)

TA 703-712 - Engineering Geology. Rock and Soil Mechanics, Underground Construction

TA 715-787 - Foundations, Earthwork

TA 715-787 - Tunnels, Tunneling

 

 

WorldCat

With nearly 200 million records representing titles held by nearly 75,000 libraries you will find almost any book ever published in the English language in WorldCat.
 
 

Getting e-books

E-books

E-books are located in two different places:
  • Some may be located by using the library’s catalogue and selecting "Books & eBooks" as the "Material Type" and then further filtering your results by "Available online". 
  • E-books can also be located by searching in e-book collections. Searching in these collections is the same as searching in a database.

Recommended E-book Collections for the Sciences

  • ForensicNetBase ?

    Description: Over 700 ebooks in the forensic and criminal science

  • Books at Ovid ?

    Description: over 450 ebooks in the health sciences

  • Ebook Central ?

    Description: close to 40,000 ebooks in multiple subject areas

  • Oxford Scholarship Online ?

    Description: Over 13,960 ebooks in multiple subject areas.

  • ScienceDirect ?

    Description: A full-text scientific database offering journal articles and book chapters from nearly 2,500 journals and 26,000 books in the fields of physical, life, health and social sciences, engineering and the humanities.

  • Springer LINK ?

    Description: SpringerLink currently offers 2,777 fully peer-reviewed journals and over 151,000 books online.

  • Scholars Portal - Ebooks ?

    Description: Over 345,000 ebooks in multiple subject areas. Select Full Text Only to find only those ebooks with full text.