Guide to Shelfmarks
Journals
Electronic Books
Key Reference Books
Online Bibliographical Databases
Other Useful Library Resources
Useful Web Links

 Guide to Shelfmarks

The main collections of books can be found on Levels 4 and 5 of the Library.

Books in heavy demand are placed in the Short Loan Collection on Level 1. The Short Loan Collection contains 1 day loan items; 7 day loan books are shelved with the ordinary loan books on the upper levels.

Use the Library catalogue to find the exact shelfmark and location for each book. If you are searching for books on a particular topic, use a keyword search.

The main collection of books for Civil Engineering has shelfmarks beginning 62

 Journals

Printed Journals

These are kept in the library. Search by the journal title on the Library Catalogue to find out where a journal is shelved. Some current issues are shelved on Level 1.

Electronic Journals

The ejournals@surrey portal links to the full-text electronic journals available from the University of Surrey. You can view the full-text articles on screen and save, email, print them, create alerts for searches etc. Collections of Science e-journals are available at these sites (follow links from the ejournals@surrey portal)

• IEEE Xplore browse journals and magazines.
• Construction Information Service (CIS)A major document library for civil engineering, containing the full text of standards, government and industry reports, Building Regulations and much more.
• CSA / ASCE Civil Engineering Abstracts :Abstracts from 1966 onwards. Covers civil engineering and its complementary fields, including forensic engineering, management and marketing of engineering services, engineering education, theoretical mechanics and dynamics, and mathematics and computation.
• ICE Virtual Library : The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Virtual Library contains every peer-reviewed paper produced by the ICE since its first meeting in 1836.

 Electronic Books

You can use the Electronic Books page to access eBooks on Civil Engineering. The most useful collections will be EngNetbase. The full text of 358 books in the field of Civil Engineering. Relevant books are also available via Safari Books online, Ebrary and Knovel.

For dictionaries try Credo Reference.

There are also links from some titles on the Library catalogue to electronic versions of the text - look for "e-link"

  Key Reference Books

• Civil Engineer Reference Book 624 BLA
  Theory and practice in the profession. Contains good bibliographies.
• Engineering Tables and Data QR 62.01 HOW
  Useful figures, values, data, equations.
• Kaye & Laby’s Tables of Physical and Chemical Constants. QR 53.081 KAY
  Compact and easy to use source of physical and chemical data.
• Kempe’s Engineers Year-Book QR 62 KEM
  Excellent references to relevant standards and Codes of Practice.
• Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. 66 ENC
  This comprehensive, multi-volume work is the place to look first.

 Online Bibliographical Databases

Online databases are the best way to search by topic for journal articles. Some databases will link to the full text of articles, others will only supply bibliographic details. Key databases for Civil Engineering are:

INSPEC  has journal articles, conference proceedings, technical reports and patent details covering physics, electrical engineering, electronics, communications, control engineering, computers and computing, and information technology.

 E-print Network is based in the US and covers sciences, engineering, energy research, computer and information technologies.  

ISI web of knowledge is a provider of some major bibliographic databases including the Science Citation Index, and contains references and cited references taken from a large number of leading international engineering journals. If your university has a subscription to the Web of Science you can access its databases using your university password - contact your library to check availability.

Engineering village provides access to Compendex, a major interdisciplinary engineering database including over three million abstracts from journals and conference proceedings.

American Society of Civil Engineers Civil Engineering database provides free access to over 80 thousand abstracts taken from ASCE publications since 1973.

Institution of Civil Engineers publications index is a free database which indexes all ICE journals. 

Great buildings online provides a database of buildings around the world and across all historical periods. You can search the database by building name, place or architect name. It provides access to 3D models, photographic images and architectural drawings, commentaries and bibliographies.

Resource for urban design information (RUDI) is a site for those learning about, or interested in, urban design (the physical design, management, planning and use of buildings). Note: you will need to subscribe to access all of the useful information on this site. A free two week trial is available.

Cities / buildings image database is a collection of images of buildings and cities from around the world aimed at students, researchers and educators

 Other Useful Library Resources

Newspapers

The Library takes certain daily British broadsheet newspapers. Recent copies are on Level 1 of the Library and older copies are kept on Level 2.

British newspapers and a huge variety of international papers can also be read electronically on Nexis.

Times Digital Archive, 1785-1985: The complete digital edition of The Times (London) capturing the entire newspaper, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching.

Also of interest may be The Times (1910-1999) and The Sunday Times (1970-1999) which are held on microform on Level 2 of the Library.

Statistics

The Library's printed statistics collection is on Level 2. The collection includes statistics from the British Government and international organisations. There are two sequences in the statistics collection, books/monographs all with the shelfmark beginning 31 and also statistical periodicals shelved in A-Z order by title.

Check StatnetBase The full text of 70 books in the field of statistics

Some useful websites are:

National Statistics - The site for the UK's official statistics, it includes information on the economy, population, and society.

ESDS International This is a database only available by using your Athens username and password. ESDS International provides access to a range of datasets including macro data from OECD, IMF, World Bank and IEA.

Eurostat -The EU Statistical Office. It is possible to view structural, long, and short term indicators free of charge as well as the online version of Statistics in Focus which provides information on key statistical surveys.

EDC

The EDC collection is on Level 2 of the Library and contains a variety of materials produced by the Official Publications Office and other agencies and institutions of the EU

Standards and  Patents

The Standards and Patents page tells you which sets of standards are available for use in the Library and on the web and where to find them. The University Library subscribes to the complete set of British Standards Online.

The library does not keep copies of patents. You can search for worldwide patents via the UK Patent Office web site but you cannot obtain the full text online. Once you have identified a patent you want, you can obtain a copy through the Interlibrary Loan service.

Exam Papers

The Exam Papers Database offers past papers from 1998.

Guides to Referencing

Look at the help pages provided by the University of Surrey.

Further guides are available from:

University of Birmingham and Bournemouth University (especially useful for citing electronic references.)

Also look at Pears, R. A and Shields, G. (2010) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 8th ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. which is available in the Library at 808.02 PEA

 Useful Web Links

Gateways

Journal TOCs  is a free service which provides Tables of Contents to the latest scholarly journals.

TechXtra is a free service where you can find books, articles and websites. There is also industry news, technical reports and technical data.

Academic Info The Engineering Gateway to resources in civil engineering, architecture and water resources (US bias)

Bridge Engineering SC Solutions has created this site with the aim of linking to all bridge engineering related subject matter on the net. US Bias.

Construction WebLinks American gateway for construction information.

EELS - Engineering Electronic Library, Sweden Quality assessed Internet resources in the technical sciences.

The Engineer Includes industry news items, an events listing, a company directory and links to websites

Intute

Intute Gateway to subject catalogues (including Civil Engineering) with links to high quality Internet sites, selected and described by specialists from within British academia.

The Virtual Training Suite offers free tutorials on Internet research skills to help with your university course.

See list of Intute weblinks below:

Reference

Water words dictionary covers environmental and building related issues of water.

Paint and coatings glossary is a glossary of technical terms.

FreeCalc applications for engineering design has a range of online calculators for engineering.

Eurocodes expert covers the new European structural design codes and how to apply them.

Online Textbooks

Environmentally sustainable buildings published in 2003 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Life-cycle assessment in building and construction published in 2003 by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (Europe).

Online Lectures

MIT open courseware is provided by one of the leading US universities. You can access course material for civil and environmental engineering from current and previous teaching sessions.

E-Learning Materials

MAST: concrete covers the definition and history of concrete and includes a glossary and references.

Build a bridge includes definitions of different types of bridge and a game to test knowledge of their applications.

Bolt science includes articles on bolt technology as well as a FAQ and glossary.

WSDOT pavement guide includes a series of articles and a glossary of terms.

Engineering subject centre includes resources for civil engineering along with other types of engineering. It is aimed at lecturers and deals with teaching practice.

Centre for education in the built environment is one of the UK higher education academies and covers the teaching of civil engineering in general, rather than course content specifically

Publications

ScienceDirect is a full text journal and book service from Elsevier covering a range of subjects, including civil engineering.

Wiley InterScience is a full text journal and book service from Wiley with around two hundred civil engineering related resources.

ICE virtual library contains full text access to all Institution of Civil Engineers journal articles published since 1836. Many university libraries will have access to some or all of this.

ASCE research library has full text journal and conference articles provided by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Many university libraries will have access to some or all of this.

Tech xtra is asearchable database of resources in engineering, mathematics and computing.

British standards online provides full text access to all British Standards and Eurocodes - check with your library to see if they have a subscription.

Department for transport statistics and other publications are freely available online, as are many other government departmental publications, including legislation.

Open Archives

OpenDOAR is a directory of worldwide institutional repositories.

The Directory of open access journals

Journals

Building Sustainable Design is a free journal with full text articles. It includes a section on regulations and legal issues.

Structural engineering / earthquake engineering is published by the Japan Society of Civil Engineers. It includes papers and technical notes on structural and earthquake engineering.

Builder and engineer online is a good Web site for both the construction and engineering industries. You can freely access articles from the Builder and Engineer magazine and locate information on current projects as well as company profiles, products and industry news.

Building talk is an email newsletter for Architects, Civil Engineers and Building Services Contractors. The news is updated daily and you can also register for your own free copy to be delivered to your mailbox.

Other Library Catalogues

COPAC is a union catalogue, giving free access to the merged online catalogues of many of the largest university research libraries in the UK and Ireland plus the British Library. It contains records of over 31 million library resources.

British Library catalogues on the web is provided by The British Library which is the national library of the UK and receives a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland. Their catalogues list over 150 million items held in the collections - most of which can be ordered by inter-library loan from your local library. Other libraries' web catalogues is a list of other library catalogues on the Internet, including the national libraries of other countries.

ICE virtual library contains full text access to all Institution of Civil Engineers journal articles published since 1836. Many university libraries will have access to some or all of this.

ASCE research library has full text journal and conference articles provided by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Many university libraries will have access to some or all of this.

Internet Search Tools

Intute: civil engineering would be the best place to start searching for civil engineering resources. It includes freely available resources as well as those which a majority of UK universities subscribe to (making them effectively free to students and staff). This is part of Intute - a UK guide to high quality Internet resources. All resources are checked for relevance and quality by staff in UK universities.

Sapling.info an Internet gateway for architecture, planning and landscape, similar to the Intute service, which includes sections on sustainability, transport, construction, planning and more. It's independently run, with volunteer experts who assess the sites, and is aimed at the academic and professional communities.

Planning portal includes a glossary of planning terms and a guide to the planning process in England and Wales.

Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) includes a library, a listing of journals, news stories and an events listing as well as details of member companies.

Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) has a listing of publications and information on conferences and events.

Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) is a UK site that has information about careers, qualifications and training. There are details of the latest research, news and links to other construction-related sites.

Federation of Master Builders provides information on issues relating to the construction industry. Although you are only able to access all the information on the site if you subscribe to become a member of the Federation, there is still a lot of information freely available here.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is  the main UK website to visit for all matters relating to health and safety, and is particularly useful for information relating to the construction industry. Here you will find information on accident statistics, free fact sheets on hazards in the industry, information on legislation and a database of companies who have been prosecuted for breaking health and safety laws.

Timber Research and Development Association (TRADA) is regarded as the leading independent timber research, consultancy and information provider for the construction industry and the site contains a wealth of information. As long as you are registered on a current course of further education and have an email address, you can register free and can access the entire library of information! Even without registering you can still find fact sheets about timber and its uses, a glossary of key terms and access to company information.

American Society of Civil Engineers this site has abstracts of articles from the Society's magazine and journals. Information on education, careers and also news about civil engineering in the USA is provided.

ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) conference listing and NCE (New Civil Engineer magazine) events include listings of forthcoming events.

ZETOC: z-electronic table of contents is a searchable database of the British Library's Electronic Table of Contents. This includes around 20,000 current journals and around 16,000 conference proceedings published per year dating back to 1993, and is updated on a daily basis. It includes an email alerting service.

Blogs

Not only bridges is a provided by an engineer working in Spain

Wikis

Leeds civil engineering wiki is provided by Leeds University and includes resources which are useful for undergraduates, postgraduates and staff.

Widgets

Widgetbox has a listing of:

Civil engineering widgets  Some of these are advertisements, but others might prove useful.

Social networks

Engineers and engineering is a community on a blog site. Not a lot of technical content, but general discussion of the life of engineers.

Online chat

Civil engineering community chats

Civil engineer chatroom

Message boards

Civil engineers discussion forum has fairly low traffic, but does stay on topic.

Photo and video sharing sites

Flickr (images tagged "civil engineering") can be searched for Civil Engineering related images and videos.

Youtube education includes videos of lectures from universities (currently mostly American universities). A search for "construction engineering" produces a wide range of useful results.

Virtual Worlds

A bridge to somewhere: real life engineering with Second Life tools An article on the use of Second Life by engineers.

Podcasts

ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) podcasts obviously focuses on the USA.

Email discussion lists

JISCmail is the national academic mailing service for the UK. Check its directories for relevant lists. It is possible to search descriptions of lists and archived messages before you decide to sign up.

JISCmail lists relevant to Civil Engineering include:

•  FRP-construction mailing list covers the use of FRP (Fibre Reinforced Composite) materials in construction and concrete in particular as structural reinforcement or for repair/strengthening.
• Urban drainage provides a discussion forum for those working in all aspects of low-cost sewerage in both industrialised and developing countries. The aim is to facilitate information sharing and to promote collaborative working, joint problem solving and mutual support.
•  Engineering-geotech is aimed at geotechnical engineers in research and industry. It covers soil mechanics and related fields, such as soil science; foundation design; soil works; physical and numerical modelling; and environmental geotechnology.
•  Water-and-san-applied-research list covers applied research in the water supply and sanitation sector as part of the development plans for GARNET (the Global Applied Research Network) initiated by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council