Introduction to Online ResourcesAeronautics & Astronautics, Mechanical Engineering and Ship Science

Michael WhittonFebruary/March 2013

University Library

Objectives

Evaluation of web materials

Web Subject Gateways

Finding Journal articles & Conference Papers

The Web – Google etc.

General search engines can be useful for finding general info & company sites– No quality controls– Limited types of information– Need to evaluate

Evaluation

Authority– Who is the author? What are their

credentials?– Type of site (e.g. .gov/.gov.uk/.edu/.ac.uk)– Who is the publisher?

Objectivity & Purpose– Why / for whom is the site written for?– Links to other viewpoints?– Trying to: persuade, sell you something,

inform or misinform?– Country of origin - affects the slant of the

information?

Evaluation - continued

Currency– When was the site produced / last updated?– How current are references / links?

Accuracy– Are there supporting links / references to

quality information?

Relevance– Content is appropriate for your purpose?– Content is relevant to your topic?

Internet Gateways

Gateway sites– Aerade, iCrank, Naval Technology

Works like a small search engine– Quality control– Abstracts / Summaries

Your Subject Page

Contain links to the best electronic resources for your subject

One for each discipline

Also Collection Pages:– Patents, Standards– Newspapers, (Statistical) Data

Resources

Or direct URL: www.soton.ac.uk/library

Useful resources for Engineering, and how

to use them

Break

Evaluation exercise

Finding journals/conferences (from a reference)

Search by journal or conference title (NOT article title)

Webcat (journal title search for journals)– More complete for conferences and print

journals– More forgiving of small errors

TDNet– Clearer when online access has multiple

links– More password information

Finding Articles on a topic

Journal Articles, Conference Papers, etc.

Quick subject search for journal articles …

Full Text sources (IEEEXplore, Sciencedirect)– Limited range of journals (one publisher

etc.)– Generally get the full text– Search facilities vary

Scientific Search Engines (Google scholar, Scirus)– Search fairly widely– You will find things we don’t have access to– More need to evaluate results

Detailed search for journal articles

Databases & Indexes (Compendex & Geobase; Web of Science & Inspec)– Well indexed, good search facilities– References and abstracts (many try

to link to the full text)– We won’t have every journal they

index– Our Inter-Library-Loans service can

probably get a copy

TDNet– Search many of our journals– Generally get the full text– Only search the last few years

Also be aware of …

Sample Search

Engineering Village (Compendex & Geobase)

Routes to full text

Database full text links

Sometimes links to journals we don’t buy

TDNet links (from database or library web pages)– doesn’t have all print journals

If the above do not exist or don’t work always …

Routes to full text (cont.)

Search WebCat– Journal articles by the journal title

(use full title not abbreviations)– Conference papers by the conference

title– Reports: try author and title (may

need to search by organisation name)

There may be an automatic link

Exceptions

Items not on Webcat & TDNet– Patents & standards– Free online: NASA Technical Reports;

Organisations eprint servers

Items not in UoS Libraries– Inter Library Loan (ILL)

Access - on campus

Generally no passwords are needed– A few need your Institutional (email)

username & password– A handful have special

usernames/passwords

If you have problems– For journals check our access on

TDNet– For other resources use links on the

library website

Access – off campus

For many resources Institutional Login is an option

VPN will give you the same access as on campus

Some TDNet functions do not work off campus without VPN

Look for ‘Institutional Login’, ‘UK Federation’ or ‘Shibboleth’ links

You often need to select the UK (or UK Federation)

Then find ‘University of Southampton’

(If you can’t find us look for

Southampton University)

VPN

Virtual Private Network

Link to University network

When connected your computer appears to be ‘on campus’

Managed by iSolutions. Instructions on iSolutions web pages at: www.southampton.ac.uk/isolutions/services/vpn_service/index.php

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Setup instructions

Search Tips

Identify Keywords describing your topic– Leave out very common terms– You should end up with a few terms

not a sentence

Simple searches in WebCat & Gateways

More Complex Searches in journal databases

Think about alternative words for the same thing

Want to know more?

Library Website > Information Skills– Generic guides on searching

databases– Database Tutorials

Engineering Subject Page > Infoskills– Links to many of the above– Handouts and powerpoints from

library sessions

If you need help…….

Subject Enquiry Desk, Level 3 – Open Mon-Fri 9 am-5 pm

Contact Me– M.Whitton@soton.ac.uk– 023 8059 2709