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 books; 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 Mechanical 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)

• Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part A: Journal of Power and Energy is the first in a series of journals covering topics such as tribology, nanoengineering and sports engineering. Subscriptions and pay-as-you-go are available for full-text access but free access to tables of contents, the editor's pick of articles and information about papers awaiting publication are highlights of the site. Occasional papers are available for free through the publisher's Engineering Open Choice scheme.
• ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Transaction Journals are leading titles in the fields of mechanical engineering research available via subscription. Tables of Contents and issue searches are free to access.
• ScienceDirect is a subscription service but with an option to search as a Guest User, which means you can access all citations and abstracts and a limited amount of full-text content for free.

 Electronic Books

You can use the Electronic Books page to access eBooks on Mechanical Engineering. . The most useful collections for textbooks will be EngNetbase. . Also relevant books are 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

• 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.
• Mechanical Engineers Reference Book 621 MEC
  Extensive references and suggested further reading are included.

 Online Bibliographical Databases

Compendex is a huge resource for all engineering topics and available on academic subscription. Use it for a world-wide comprehensive search for abstracts of journal articles, technical reports and conference papers. 

Mechanical & Transport Engineering Abstracts for the Mechanical Engineering Abstracts

ESDU (Engineering Sciences Data Unit)ESDU (Engineering Sciences Data Unit) produces validated engineering methods and data including worked examples, programs and design guides. For the full-text datasheets you will need to find a holding library, but they can be searched, and the abstracts viewed, at this site.

 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

TechXtra
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 including aeronautical, manufacturing and mechanical engineering (US bias)

AERADE
The AERADE portal provides integrated access to key aerospace and defence information including a free collection of nearly 2,000 quality assessed resources that have been created worldwide and assessed by staff from Cranfield University.

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 web sites. 

How Stuff Works
A web site with some good descriptions of how things work - car engines; gears; jet engines; television; mobile phones; diesels; and many more.

Transport Web
A commercial gateway for the transport industry, offering links to a wide range of transport-related resources on the web.

WWW Virtual Library in Control Engineering
Maintained by Cambridge University, this gateway offers links to Control Groups around the world (mainly University-based); Professional Societies; Journals; Companies.

Associations / Institutions

ASME - American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Discussion Groups; Database of conferences, courses, and other events. Industry News; Current catalogue of Codes and Standards; Technical Information - Conference paper abstracts, access to Engineering Information databases.

Engineering Council
The national representative body of the engineering profession.

Institute of Marine Engineers
Information about membership, conferences and meetings; Publications list with abstracts; Links to sites of related interest.

Institution of Mechanical Engineers
The IMechE website inlcudes recent news items, a listing of upcoming events, details about the IMechE library and information services. The library catalogue is not yet available online, but it is currently under review.

European Society for Engineering
SEFI is a non-profit making organisation which aims to promote information on engineering education, develop cooperation between educational engineering institutions, and promote cooperation between industry and educational institutions. This site gives information about the Society, its membership, its Working Groups, its publications, and a diary of forthcoming SEFI meetings and events.

Royal Aeronautical Society
Information about membership, publications and the library

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.

Reference 

Mechanical Engineer's Data Handbook provides quick access to detailed calculations for use by students and professional engineers.

Engineer's Handbook a comprehensive site of reference material for mechanical design, manufacturing and engineering materials.

BSSA (British Stainless Steel Association) offers a free and comprehensive collection of reference articles, a FAQ for regularly asked questions and basic reference information about stainless steel.

eFunda provides limited free searches for higher education level reference information including datasheets, formulae, unit conversions, physical constants and mathematics. Monthly and annual subscriptions to the full service are available.

Online Textbooks

Mechanical Engineering Principles This is textbook provides an introduction to mechanical principles. A limited preview of selected chapters is available.

A Heat Transfer Textbook ia authored by professors at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the USA and provides an introduction to heat and mass transfer for engineering undergraduates. The authors have made the book available as part of a project to explore the potential benefits of free online textbooks.

Basics of Fluid Mechanics is authored by Dr Bar-Meir whose aim is to build open content textbooks for university students. The book covers thermodynamics, statics and mechanics.

Online Lectures

Engineering Subject Centre is provided by the Higher Education Academy to give learning support. The site offers access to guides, reports and case studies.

Computer aided engineering software tutorials provided by academics from CIT (Carnegie Institute of Technology) in Pennsylvania, USA. Tutorials cover packages such as Matlab and Pro Engineer.

iMechanica features lecture notes organised by subject headings such as continuum mechanics and micromechanics.

Scirus makes courseware references available via its advanced search option. Over 1000 results are retrieved for engineering courseware sites.

MIT Opencourseware mechanical engineering provides access to free lecture notes, exam questions and educational resources from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the USA.

E-Learning Materials

PPC online is an open access collection of learning modules which can be viewed in the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) online Student Center. The Professional Practice Curriculum has been designed to complement the US university engineering curriculum and covers topics such as ethics and critical thinking.

Publications

Standards

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) ISO standards are often adopted to become national, European and American standards.

BSI (British Standards Institution) provides limited searching and contents summaries on their public site. Standards can be purchased as hardcopy or in PDF. The ILI Standards Infobase (see later under Bibliographic Databases) includes full contents listings of all British standards.

ANSI (American National Standards Institute) UK engineers often design to American National Standards if the contract requires this. In particular parts of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (revised every three years) are frequently employed.

Patents

European Patent Office This is searchable database contains UK, European and world-wide patents and can provide copies going back almost 100 years.

United States Patent and Trademark Office Thiis site has a search facility and US patents can be displayed as full-page images on demand.

Reports, news and policy

MIRA research reports MIRA (Motor Industry Research Association), as well as providing the database mentioned under Bibliographic Databases, also produces their own series of expert reports on vehicle design and safety. Only a few sample reports are given free.

Royal Academy of Engineering This is a body of considerable stature, researching, reporting and influencing policy-makers at the highest levels on engineering in the UK. It is included in this section because the site includes news articles, free PDF downloads of publications and offers a free subscription to the quarterly journal Ingenia.

Ricardo Quarterly Review Ricardo is a long-established and leading engineering company in the automotive, transport and energy industries. This publication is available to download.

Science in Parliament This bulletin has a wide remit but reports the issues happening at the highest level. Full-text is charged but editorials and contents listings are free.

ePrints

Some specific full-text sources are mentioned elsewhere in this tutorial, but the following offers a service for all subjects.

OpenDOAR offers access to repositories worldwide and provides a trial search service for the full-text of material held in open access repositories listed in the Directory.

Theses

EThOS (Electronic Theses Online Service) is a system to enable users to access the full text of electronically stored theses produced by students at UK Higher Education Institutions, either from the British Library or from institutional (or consortium) repositories.

Advances in Mechanical Engineering is a peer-reviewed, open access journal published by Hindawi, containing original articles and reviews. Journals on specialist mechanical engineering topics such as tribology are also available.

Open Mechanical Engineering Journal is an open access peer-reviewed journal published by Bentham Open which contains research articles, reviews and letters on all aspects of mechanical engineering. Journals on specific engineering topics such as nanoscience are also available.

AZojomo Journal of Materials Online makes available free-to-access, peer-reviewed materials science papers. The papers are edited by materials science experts.

Open Access Journals

IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) library Free to access and lists most library holdings and abstracts of past and present journal and conference papers published by the Institution. Hard engineering topics are supplemented with all matters of interest to the mechanical engineer or student, such as energy, environment, management etc.

Other Library Catalogues

Imperial College London library catalogue Imperial is strong in technology and allows students from other universities to use the library if they are unable to obtain the material elsewhere.

Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology Linda Hall is a well established American resource for science, engineering and technology. Their catalogue can be searched for free.

British Library as one of the official British libraries responsible for holding all major formally published national literature, the British Library is necessarily comprehensive in scope. Apart from individual collections, it now has a searchable 'Integrated beta catalogue'.

Copac National, Academic, & Specialist Library Catalogue is valuable because it gives free access to many university and specialist libraries (all subjects) in the British Isles as well as the British Library and other national libraries. This site is actively acquiring more library catalogues.

Other libraries' web catalogues is a list of other library catalogues on the Internet, including the national libraries of other countries.

Internet Search Tools

TechXtra is a Heriot Watt University initiative that provides a free, comprehensive search facility to find engineering resources. Find articles, key websites, books, the latest industry news, job announcements, ejournals, eprints, technical reports, the latest research, theses and dissertations.

Mechanical Engineering Weblinks by Subject is a collection of web-links sub-divided by mechanical engineering category which are evaluated and selected by a network of subject specialists. The sites are regularly checked and updated by the IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) library team.

iCrank is a mechanical engineering portal providing access to reference data, forums, discussion groups, patents searching and web-links.

AERADE provides access to key aerospace and defence information sources, linking to more than 30,000 quality resources including websites and full-text technical reports.

Organisations

Professional organisations

IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) The UK professional home for mechanical engineers is very student-friendly, offering specialist groups, projects, support and professional recognition. Membership allows use, via the library services, of many of the pay sites mentioned in this tutorial as well as other library facilities; student membership is free!

Engineering Council This body regulates the standards applying to recognised professional engineers of all levels and disciplines in the UK. Their site provides an overview of the structure of the engineering profession.

WES (Women's Engineering Society) Membership is invited for every level of engineering and activities include events, jobs and careers information and a newsletter.

IOM3 (Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining) IOM3 have expanded over the years and now cover just about every kind of engineering material. Their site offers news, events, publications and jobs. As one of the Engineering Council accredited bodies they offer a route to professional qualifications.

ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) The ASME website provides details of programmes, activities, publications and standards in mechanical engineering, together with information on conferences and expositions.

SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) This American society covers all mobile vehicles, including aircraft and railways. Abstracts of SAE technical publications papers, articles, proceedings, standards and e-books are obtainable.

Research organisations

MIRA (Motor Industry Research Association) MIRA is involved with testing, safety and certification of automotive vehicles at the leading edge. Their material includes abstracts of press releases, reports, articles and conference papers in the automotive sector.

TRL Formerly called the Transport Research Laboratory, this is a long-established body conducting research, consultancy, certification and testing. It is involved with all matters concerning transport, both roads and vehicles.

The Welding Institute Now run by TWI Technology Engineering, this body not only provides a qualifying route for aspiring engineers, but also conducts its own research and consultancies. The welding industry can be checked out here.

Energy Institute This is another hybrid organisation offering accredited engineering qualifications as well as being involved in the commercial world. It covers energy in all aspects, from petroleum production through power stations and electricity transmission to applications of power. The site has much information on education, training, news and offers online publications.

Government

DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change) This official body has much on environmental data and statistics and a large number of specialised publications. The latest policies and initiatives can be checked here.

Conferences & Events

IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) Details of past conferences and seminars are available via the Industries web pages. In the Information and Research sections you can find listings of papers with links to abstracts on the library's catalogue.

ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) this site's search facility gives access to details of past, current and future conferences. Listings of papers are available with occasional access to abstracts.

Royal Academy of Engineering: Past Events the Royal Academy of Engineering's lectures, conferences and events are listed with options to view papers, videos and photos from past events.

National Science and Engineering Week is co-ordinated by the British Science Association and is open to all ages. Events and activities are held nationwide.

Formula Student is run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The competition challenges university students to design, build and market a small single-seater racing car.

Blogs, Wikis, Widgets, Discussion Lists

Blogs

Professional Engineering Magazine has a blog from the Editor of the magazine covering developments in engineering and the latest stories of relevance to the profession.

Wikis

Mechatronics Design Wiki is a project from the Laboratory for Intelligent Mechanical Systems at Northwestern University which provides reference material on electronics, sensors and actuators for use in mechatronics research.

Wikibooks: Mechanical Engineering covers topics such as engineering mechanics, statics and fluid mechanics. Free educational textbooks on this website should be used with caution as they can be edited by anyone.

Social networks

Biomaterials network includes lists of books, journals articles, websites and a monthly newsletter.

Substech Substances & Technologies This knowledge-sharing site has illustrated articles on engineering materials topics. Users with specific skills and expertise can add personal pages to share information and submissions of material for inclusion on the site are welcomed.

Message boards

PhysicsForums has a homework and coursework questions forum specifically for engineering.

Podcasts

Engineering Innovation Podcast is a weekly series from the National Academy of Engineering in Washington. The forty second podcasts cover a range of fields and relate to current engineering news stories. The mechanical engineering podcasts give an insight in to materials innovations such as self-healing plastics and memory metals.

Robots provides podcasts on the latest developments in robotics. Provided by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology the podcasts cover topics such as advances in medical engineering, aerial robotics and product development.

Email discussion lists

JISCmail: Engineering & Technology 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 mechanical engineering include topics such as automotive engineering, sports engineering and renewable energy.

News & Media

General engineering

Professional Engineering Online contains recent news and articles on developments and innovation in the engineering industry.

The Engineer Online News, features and new products are supplemented by a database of jobs.

EngineeringUK is of particular interest to aspiring engineers; information is provided on 'Engineering and technology careers, news and events'. EngineeringUK offers an engineering newsfeed by free subscription.

Automotive engineering

Automotive Engineer is a complementary website to the Automotive Engineer magazine.

Automotive Technology provides automotive news, information on events and a suppliers' directory.

Energy, environment and sustainability

Centre for Sustainable Engineering The centre facilitates knowledge transfer in sustainable technologies by bringing together information, expert analysis, and practical applications along with commercial benefit.

Online videos

IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) Playitback gives free access to videos of past lectures on a range of mechanical engineering topics. Lectures are presented by academics and business people.

Royal Academy of Engineering TV gives access to online discussions and debates, seminars and lectures from eminent engineers on topics such as reducing carbon emissions and regenerative medicine.