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Research
Guides |
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COURSE: EID
101 / Engineering Design and Problem Solving |
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Contact
Library
Web Site
Online
Catalog
Book Collection (print and electronic)
Article Databases
Newspapers and News Wires
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General Research Information
Patent Searching
Company &
Product Information
Google Tips
Other Libraries
Interlibrary
Loan / Referrals
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Contact
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Julie Castelluzzo, Electronic Services Librarian
email: juliec (at cooper.edu) |
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Library
Web Site |
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http://www.cooper.edu/facilities/library/library.html
(Sept. 16, 2008)
This Research Guide: http://www.cooper.edu/facilities/library/research_frameset.html
(Sept. 16, 2008) |
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General Research Information |
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See our General Research Information page for guides such as these:
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How to Find an Article (or Book) from a Citation
because sometimes you don't have an online link to the full text!
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Distinguishing Scholarly Journals from Other Periodicals
Instructors may require that a certain percentage of your sources come from 'peer-reviewed' or scholarly sources.
- Citing sources
and citation styles (more than one Web site)
Look at the examples for different types of sources, such as a Web site. There are many elements or fields that should be included in the citation, including the date accessed.
- Recommended Search Strategy
Analyze your topic, pick a good starting point for your search, vary your approach, don't get bogged down in a strategy that isn't working.
- Evaluating
Web sites and other information sources (more than one Web site)
Is the source authoritative? How recent is the information? What is the point of view or bias of the author?
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Searching
for Books (and more): the Online Catalog |
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The online catalog (aka BobCat)
for our Library Consortium contains records for books,
journals, newspapers, and other materials owned or selected by the Consortium
libraries. Our Consortium includes the Cooper Union Library, most NYU
libraries, and The New School libraries.
Records for electronic books and journals are included in the online
catalog. You may see multiple formats for the same title.
We now have a site for the online catalog that is customized for Cooper Union:
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http://www.bobcat.nyu.edu/cooper (Sept. 12, 2008) |
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Tips: |
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- Always follow the "GetIt" link to see detailed holdings information, including circulation status (whether an item is checked out or not, when it is due back, etc. It may say "Available in your library (GetIt)" or "Available in the consortium (GetIt)" or "Online access (GetIt)."
- If an item is checked out, you can request that it be returned specifically for your use. Use the Request link in the left-most column of the item record.
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Generally,
you will not find specific articles from journals or conferences in
the catalog. For that, use one of the article databases listed later in this
document. In those databases, some full text articles are included, but
often your search results will contain citations and abstracts without
full text. For instructions on how to find an article from a citation, see the research guide How to Find an Article (or Book) from a Citation.
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The default search is a keyword search for your query words wherever they may appear in the record. If you get too many results, try limiting the search to a specific field, such as title or subject. You can also search for an exact phrase instead of keywords The exact phrase search is equivalent to putting quotes around your query words.
- You can refine your results using the categories to the right on the initial results screen. For example, refine by subject, call number group, or resource type.
- To sort a result list so that the most recent publications are at the top, change the drop-down sort at the top of the results list from relevance to date-newest.
- Searches ignore
punctuation and are not case sensitive.
- Some, but
not all, electronic books and journals owned by the libraries have
records in the catalog. See also the CU Library Web site and the Consortium
libraries' sites for links to many other electronic resources.
- BobCat contains
records for some libraries not in the Consortium (e.g., NY School of
Interior Design and NY Historical Society). You do not
have borrowing privileges at those libraries.
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Book
Collection (print and electronic) |
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Knovel:
Engineering & Scientific Online References
Offers
the full text of over 1600 titles in Engineering and Chemistry.
Most titles have records in the online catalog.
NOTE: Try to remember to use the Log Out link when
done with the Knovel site. Our license does not allow unlimited simultaneous
users.
- Links to electronic books and resources in the online catalog.
Some of these are free and publicly available, and some are purchased by one or more of the libraries in our Consortium.
On the first results screen, the GetIt link for an Internet resource will be either "Online access (GetIt)" or "Check library holdings (GetIt)." Follow that link. If this does not take you directly into the resource, look at the "Holdings List" tab or the "Check a vailability and location" tab on the next screen. You may see more than one type of electronic location:
Unrestricted: The resource is free and publicly available. The link should work from any computer.
NYU Restricted: You must be at a computer within the NYU network to follow the link (e.g. at Bobst Library)
Cooper Union Restricted:
You must be at a computer within the Cooper Union network to follow the link.
Many records for books contain an unrestricted link to the Table of Contents at loc.gov (Library of Congress). These are not links to electronic books, just to the tables of contents. In those cases, check the Location, Call Number, and Status to locate a copy of the physical book.
- On Reserve for this class
Reserves may be borrowed 2 hours during the day, and
overnight after 4pm. Bring the call number to the Circulation Desk to
request the item.
Ecological design /
Sim Van der Ryn et al
GE170 .V36 1996
The white man's burden :why the West's efforts to aid the rest have done so much ill and so little good / William Easterly.
HC59.7 .E22 2006
Mastering the machine revisited : poverty, aid, and technology / Ian Smillie.
HC60 .S546 2000
The ecology of commerce :a declaration of sustainability / Paul Hawken.
HD60 .H393 1993
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed / Jared Diamond.
HN13 .D5 2005
Challenging the professions : frontiers for rural development / Robert Chambers.
HN49.C6 C53 1993
The cognitive style of PowerPoint / Edward R. Tufte.
P93.5 .T848 2003
A guide to writing as an engineer / David Beer, David McMurrey.
T11 .B396 2005
How to write and publish a scientific paper / Robert A. Day and Barbara Gastel.
T11 .D33 2006
Engineering fundamentals and problem solving / Arvid R Eide.
TA147 .E52 2008
Engineering fundamentals: an introduction to engineering / Saeed Moaveni.
TA147 .M63 2008
Studying engineering: a road map to a rewarding career / R.B. Landis.
TA157 .L32 2000
Engineering communication: a practical guide to workplace communications for engineers / David Ingre.
TA158.5 .I53 2008
Sustainable development in practice / Adisa Azapagic et al., eds.
TA160 .S87 2004
Engineering design :a materials and processing approach / George E. Dieter.
TA174 .D495 1991
Engineering by design / Gerard Voland.
TA174 .V65 2004
Cradle to cradle : remaking the way we make things / William McDonough et al.
TD794.5 .M395 2002
Energy systems and sustainability / edited by Godfrey Boyle et al.
TJ808 .E54 2003
The introspective engineer / Samuel C. Florman.
TS157 .F63 1996
Thomson Engineering guide to web research / Grant Heckman and David Ingre.
ZA4228 .H42 2008
- Browse books
in these sections (Library
of Congress classification system):
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Other
Libraries (See our Web site for links to other
library catalogs.) |
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Consortium
Libraries
Cooper Union students may borrow books at most consortium libraries and use other materials while there. Your Cooper Union ID gets you in to the
Consortium libraries and serves as your library card. Be sure
you have a current validation sticker and register with our
library before going there. If you already registered with the Library but have not used your account recently, check with someone at our Circulation Desk to be sure your record is up to date.
Bobst Library
– NYU's main library.
70 Washington Square South
http://library.nyu.edu/
(Sept. 15, 2008)
Fogelman Library
-- one of The New School libraries, specializing in social sciences.
65 Fifth Avenue (at 13th Street)
http://library.newschool.edu/fogelman/ (Sept.15, 2008)
- New York Public Library: The Research Libraries
Science,
Industry & Business Library (SIBL) -- actually a combination
of research library and lending library.
Open to the public.
188 Madison Avenue, at 34th St.
http://www.nypl.org/research/sibl/index.html (Sept. 16, 2008)
Most of the collections at SIBL are for research on site only (non-circulating).
The Library is open to the public, but you need an Access Card to
use most materials, which are in closed stacks. You submit a call
slip to an information desk and wait for someone to retrieve the item.
For information about the Access Card, see
http://www.nypl.org/research/general/access.html
(Sept.16, 2008)
Some items at SIBL may be borrowed, so it would be a
good idea to get an
NYPL Borrower's Card as well.
- New York Academy of Medicine Library
1216 Fifth Avenue, at 103rd St.
http://www.nyam.org/library/ (Sept. 19, 2008)
The second largest medical collection open to the public in the United States. (The largest is the U.S. Government's National Library of Medicine.)
Before you go, review their policies regarding Security and Stack Retrieval.
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Article Databases -- articles from Journals and Conferences |
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Why Bother tracking down articles? |
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Why bother to find articles that are not immediately available online in full text? The answer is simple: If you limit yourself to free, publicly available online full text sources, you will miss most of the published material that exists on your topic. Most full text sources are not publicly available online for free. Many are available online for a fee, and libraries are paying those fees, but you must go through a campus network as an authorized user in order to reach them. Most publishers and authors do not give away their copyrighted material.
Taking the extra time to find the authoritative sources will give you a competitive edge over others who decide not to bother. Instructors can easily tell the difference between a 'quick and dirty' search and a more thorough one. |
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Searching for Articles |
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Use an article database to start searching. (See below for descriptions of specific databases.) The search results will show records with an article title, the name of the source (e.g., journal, magazine, conference proceeding) it appeared in, and the specific date and page numbers. Be sure to keep track of all that information, not just the authors and titles of the articles you want. Some of the databases include the full text of the article as well, but often getting the full text will require another search. Some of the databases also have a feature to search only peer-reviewed journals. |
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Peer-reviewed articles |
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Within the broader category of periodicals, those called 'journals' are usually more scholarly than those called 'magazines.' However, calling something a journal does not make it scholary. Some publications have a much more rigorous and formal process to decide what gets published and what does not, and peer-review is the gold standard. Any article submitted to a peer-reviewed publication is read by a group of professionals in the field the article pertains to. That group of professional peers either rejects it or approves it for publication.
Some material presented at conferences is later submitted for publication in a journal. If the conference proceedings are published in book form, often not all of the material presented will be published. Bottom line: it is easier to get your material presented at a conference than to have it published afterwards. |
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Getting the Article |
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See our General Research Information page for the guide on How to Find an Article (or Book) from a Citation.
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The CU Library |
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Our library subscribes to many different article databases. Those listed below should be particularly useful for this course. See our Web site under Article Indexes · Internet Resources for more electronic offerings.
Tip: Because our library is highly specialized, many sources you'll want will be at other libraries. However, we have many databases to use for your initial searching and our librarians will spend considerable time with you when you need help. We communicate with your instructors, and find out as much as we can about your needs for course assignments.
Tip: In some databases, the result lists may indicate that our library owns the item (or does not). This is not always accurate, for a variety of reasons. There are delays in uploading our data; it only indicates that we own a journal, not necessarily the specific issue you need; and to further complicate things, it may not list Cooper Union at all even though we do have the issue. Check the online catalog (BobCat) for library holdings to be sure which libraries have what.
Remote access to CU Library databases: All Web-based databases from our Library are available campuswide at Cooper Union. Off campus access is available via the Library Web site – follow the link to- Off Campus Database Access. Be sure that your library registration is up to date and that there are no blocks on your account. (The most common reason for a block is having $5 or more in fines.)
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Professional Engineering Societies (ASCE, ASME, AIChE, IEEE)
The Cooper Union Library subscribes to all journals published by the major Engineering societies. Articles from these journals are indexed in Applied Science & Technology Abstracts and Compendex (see below), but you can also access the electronic journals directly from the Library Web site. See the page for Article Indexes -- Engineering & Science -- e-journals / e-texts.
- IEEE
Xplore
Full-text articles from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers. PDF full text is included for IEEE
journals (e.g. IEEE journal of solid-state circuits, IEEE
transactions on microwave theory and techniques). For conference
proceedings, standards, and IEE publications, citations to the articles
will appear in search results, but no full text links.
Starting date: 1988, with select content from 1913-1987.
NOTES:
Does not include Proceedings of the IEEE or Spectrum Magazine.
Try to remember to use the Log Out link when done with the IEEE Xplore
site. Our license does not allow unlimited simultaneous users.
A CD-ROM version containing full text for all 1988-1999 documents
(including IEE and conferences) is available in the
Library: the IEL. The workstation is located at the back of the main reading room.
This is one of the most expensive subscriptions maintained by the Library (> $30,000 per year).
- Applied
Science & Technology Abstracts
Includes some full text. Covers scientific and technical publications,
including trade and industrial publications, and journals of professional
and technical societies. Updated quarterly, begins with 1983.
- Compendex on Engineering Village
Abstracts and citations of journal articles, conference proceedings, etc. Updated weekly, begins with 1969.
- PubMed / MEDLINE
Produced by the National Library of Medicine, PubMed / MEDLINE covers the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences. Contains citations and abstracts from current biomedical journals. Starting date: 1949.
- EBSCOhost
Masterfile Select
Full text from over 700 periodicals, some including images; indexing
and abstracts for over 2,000 periodicals covering nearly all subjects.
Starting dates and update frequencies vary.
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Newspapers and News Wires |
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General Tips |
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Many news sources are publicly available online. For the current day's news, it is easy to read from major news agencies all over the world. However, there are some drawbacks to these 'free' sources:
Most news sources that are free do not provide their entire archive for free. Some articles must be purchased.
Most major sources (e.g. The New York Times, The Washington Post) require some kind of individual registration in order to retrieve full text articles. They will probably track your usage for marketing purposes, sell that data to third parties, and bombard you with advertising which can be extremely distracting and contain possibly malicious software (spyware and adware). It would be wise to read those lengthy usage agreements carefully before agreeing to their terms.
- Most libraries subscribe to many newspapers online, with full text articles going back for many years. These usually contain minimal advertising, if any. They also usually have more features on their search screens..
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The CU Library |
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Our library subscribes to over 150 full text newspapers online, from the United States and around the world. We also have the A.P. (Associated Press) Images database. See our Web site under Article Indexes-Internet Resources -- General Interest. Most include full text. See the descriptions below for more details.
Tip: All Web-based databases from our Library are available campuswide at Cooper Union. Off campus access is also available from the Library Web site – follow the link to Off Campus Database Access from our main page. (Be sure that your library registration is up to date and that there are no blocks on your account.) |
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New York State Newspapers (including the New York Times)
Includes full text from The New York Times (1985- ), the New York Post (2000- ), the New York Observer (1999- ), and some others.
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National Newspaper Index
Includes citations and abstracts from the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Christian Science Monitor. Starting dates vary (earliest are 1980).
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AP (Associated Press) Images
News stories and headlines (1997- ), one million photographs (1826- ), more than 4,500 hours of audio files (1920s- ), and tens of thousands of graphics.
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Custom Newspapers
Over 1000 newspapers and news wires, many including full text articles. Starting dates vary (earliest are 1995- ).
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The Historical New York Times
Full text with images. If you want background information, this is a wonderful source. The time period covered is 1851-2005.
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NYU's Bobst Library and The New School's Fogelman Library |
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The Wall Street Journal (at Bobst/NYU only)
Full text, 1889 to the present (except for financial tables).
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Alternative Press Index
Some full text included, 1991 to present. Over 450 periodicals covered.
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Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe
Nearly 5,000 publications span news, financial, medical, and legal information. Mainly full text, but some records have at most abstracts.
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Publicly Available Sources |
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Company
and Product Information |
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Business
& Company Resource Center
Available from the
Library Web site, under Article Indexes · Internet
Resources – General Interest – Basic Reference
Sources.
Includes company profiles, industry ranking,
products and brands, stock prices, investment reports, industry
statistics, corporate chronologies and histories, consumer
marketing data, emerging technology reports, industry newsletters
and business journals, press releases, and more.
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Thomas
Register of American Manufacturers
Information on companies and their products, with contact information and direct links to the manufacturers' Web sites.
On the Web at www.thomasnet.com
(Sept. 16,
2008)
or in print in the Library: Reference /
T12 .T6
- Global Market Information Database (at NYU only)
Strategic analysis and market statistics for dozens of global industries. Reports are available on the following subjects: Detailed Market Size Data; Country Marketing Parameters; Marketing Forecast Data; Brand and Company Information; Business Information Sources.
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Google Tips |
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- Advanced Searching in Google
On the main Google search screen, to the right of the search box is an Advanced Search link. Use the Advanced Search to limit by date, domain, format, usage rights, and more.
- Google Scholar (BETA)
Searches scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports. Includes some full text, but most results will contain only citations and abstracts. There is no list of included publishers, titles, or dates of coverage.
- Google Book Search (BETA)
Note: Due to pending lawsuits charging copyright infringement, Google has not fully implemented its plans for this project.
Google has scanned the full text of entire books and made that text searchable. The book content comes from two sources: publishers and libraries.
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