Engineering Library Blog

TechXtra - TechXtra is a free service which can help you find articles, books, the best websites, the latest industry news, job announcements, technical reports, technical data, full text eprints, the latest research, thesis & dissertations, teaching and learning resources and more, in engineering, mathematics and computing. This engine enables deep mining because of its selective files.

All searches are done in ‘All Fields’. There is a basic search, and advanced search mode which is very user friendly. Some of the databases searched by this resource do not support truncation. Phrase searches are not supported as part of an AND Boolean search. Only last name searches are supported in Author search.

More details and instructions can be found at this URL: http://www.techxtra.ac.uk/index.html?action=about#extras

An important caveat: Do search Princeton’s subscription databases first, because we may have paid access to some of the resources you will find on TechXtra. Many sources are free though, regardless. Also remember that if they are not free, and we don’t have a subscription either, you may always make a request through Document Delivery (Interlibrary Loan or Article Express).

Online Ethics Center at the National Academy of Engineering [pdf]

“Engineering is a key part of the modern world, and many engineering students (and teachers) crave high-quality materials on engineering ethics. Fortunately for such individuals, the Online Ethics Center (OEC) is a great place to find such materials. The OEC became an activity of the National Academy of Engineering in March 2007, and since then their online offerings have grown significantly. The teaching and educational materials on the site are organized into sections that include “Safety and the Environment”, “Employment and Legal Issues”, “Professional Practice”, and “Responsible Research”. Visitors can also click on a glossary of terms, and even suggest a resource that might be helpful to other users.”

Source: The Scout Report — September 7, 2007

Publications of the Headquarters, United States Army Corps of Engineers can be searched and found at this website only. “This collection of publications is the only repository for all official USACE engineering regulations, circulars, manuals and other documents originating from HQUSACE.” Google, or perhaps another search engine, will find them, but you have to know exactly what you are looking for.
Library services and publications of the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center can be found at this link: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers technical and laboratory publications:

“TechXtra is a free service which can help you find articles, books, the best websites, the latest industry news, job announcements, technical reports, technical data, full text eprints, the latest research, thesis & dissertations, teaching and learning resources and more, in engineering, mathematics and computing.’ Many items are full text. The contents are described specifically in a table found here:

Do read the “about section”. It will not take the place of Library subcription indexes/databases, like Engineering Index, which should be searched first, but it does provide “deep web” searching of collections missed by Google. Where the Library has subscriptions to series, there should be a link. When you can’t find full text access without logging in or paying, do request papers, etc., via Interlibrary Loan or Document Delivery. TechXtra’s search engine is still under development for more refinements, truncation, for example. There is a slight emphasis on the United Kingdom.

We now have access to the Society of Petroleum Engineers(SPE) eLibrary which is a repository of technical papers presented at SPE-sponsored conferences and in SPE’s technical journals since early 1950s. Access requires Princeton authentication (no walk-ins allowed) and individual user registration. Once an individual account is created, login, then go to the Papers/Publications/Authors section at the top menu and click on eLibrary/Technical Papers to search. You must save papers of interest to cart and complete the check-out process (the cart will show $0.00 at check-out) to download the papers.

From Adriana Popescu, Engineering Librarian, Jan. 30, 2008

LHC Technical Reports published in the Journal of Instrumentation - 26 Aug 2008

The Journal of Instrumentation (JINST), jointly published by IOP Publishing and the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), has announced the publication of the complete scientific documentation of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) machine and detectors, which is claimed to be the world’s largest experimental facility in particle physics. The seven major articles, covering the entire LHC project, are published as a special issue of the Journal of Instrumentation and are available online at http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.lhc/jinst.

In time for the LHC start-up on September 10, the articles form a complete scientific documentation of the design and construction of the LHC machine, and all six detectors (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, LHCf and TOTEM). These articles will serve as key references for the stream of scientific results that will begin to emerge from the LHC soon after the first collisions expected later this year.

Journal of Instrumentation is a peer-reviewed journal created by the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) and IOP Publishing. The journal covers major areas related to concepts and instrumentation in detector physics, accelerator science and associated experimental methods and techniques, theory, modelling and simulations.

Press release.

Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter, August 26, 2008