Mechanical Engineering Research Guide

Encyclopedias & Handbooks | Books | Citation Indexes & Periodicals
Web Links | Other Local Libraries | Contact us

Encyclopedias & Handbooks : Getting Started

For basic background information, try looking up encyclopedia articles or definitions in Access Science.

Or take a look in a print encyclopedia, like Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia (Q 121 .V3 1995 in the Reference Section) or the Encyclopedia of Fluid Mechanics (TA 357 .E53 1986).

The Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering (TJ 9 .N28 1985) is useful for definitions of words or terms.

Handbooks give concise overviews of key topics, provide quick access to formulae and definitions, as well as other types of data and references. The Mechanical Engineer's Handbook (TJ 151 .M396 2001) and the CRC Handbook of Mechanical Engineering (Call # TJ 151 .C73 1998) are two prominent Mechanical Engineering handbooks.

To see an in-depth overview of important research, take a look at Annual Reviews. CUA subscribes to Annual Reviews of Fluid Mechanics, and other Annual Reviews on topics that may be of interest to engineering students.

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Books : Learning More

Books in the Engineering/Architecture and Math Library will give you more information about broad topics, like Control Systems or Thermodynamics. Try searching for them in the WRLC Libraries Catalog. Here are some ways to search:

Select "Keyword" and try a search like flight and stability. Remember to use and or or between your keywords. This search will return all of the records that have both the words flight and stability, no matter what order they're in. If word order is important, just put quotation marks around the term: "flight stability" or "control systems".
The Subject Search uses Library of Congress Subject Headings. If you know a Subject Heading, like Hydraulics, you can search for that. Click on the button that says "More Information" to see narrower or related terms that you can search for.
On the Search Results screen, select "Publish Date Descending" from the "Sort by:" drop-down menu to see the most recent books first.
Remember that words may be in singular or plural form, depending on how the author used them. With a Keyword Search you can use a ? to truncate words -- a search for damp? and vibration? will return both "damped vibrations" and "vibration damping".
You can also use the drop-down box to search for Title, Author, or Call Number, if you know them already.

Searching the WRLC Libraries Catalog returns catalog records for all of the academic libraries in the Washington Research Library Consortium. CUA students can borrow materials from any of these libraries. You can go to the library and borrow the material directly, or click the Request button at the top of the catalog record and fill out the form to make a "CLS request". The material will be sent to you and can be picked up at Mullen Library (or viewed on the web, for articles).

If you only want to see books in the CUA libraries, you can limit your search by selecting "Catholic" from the drop-down menu on the catalog search page. This option is only available for Keyword and Title searches.

You can also try browsing the shelves in the EAM Library. Most of the books about Mechanical Engineering have call numbers beginning with TJ. Books about vehicles and aircraft can usually be found under TL.

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Citation Indexes and Periodicals : Getting Specific

Periodicals have current information about specific topics. The EAM Library subscribes to many engineering periodicals, including the Journal of Applied Mechanics and Journal of Mechanical Design. To see if the Eng/Arch Library subscribes to a print or online journal, consult the Engineering Periodicals List.

To find information in journals, first use a citation index. Indexes and full text journals on a wide variety of subjects are available through the ALADIN website. Here are a few of the databases on ALADIN of interest to engineering management students:

Compendex: This database indexes over 5000 engineering journals, conferences and reports.

On the basic search page, type in your term. Select "all fields" or "subject/title/abstract" from the drop-down menu for a subject search.
You can also search by author, title, serial title, and other things - take a look at the drop-down menu.
Engineering Village automatically truncates your search terms, that is, a search for "Engineering" returns Engineering, Engineer, Engineers, and Engineered.
Some records have links to full-text articles (look for the blue 'Find It' button at the bottom) but if not, check the WRLC Libraries Catalog or Electronic Journal Title Finder to see if CUA owns the material.

Applied Science and Technology: This database indexes scientific and technical publication, and includes access to some full-text articles.

In the Advanced Search page, type keywords into the text boxes.
Using the drop-down menus, you can search for words in the subject, title, author, and more.
By using the boxes at the bottom, you can limit your search to certain dates, or choose to see only full-text articles.
The results page has icons indicating how to find the article. You can use the different icons to see the full-text (if available) in HTML or PDF formats, or to search for the article in the library catalog, or elsewhere on the web.
Click on a title on the results page to see a full citation and abstract of the article.

Some other indexes also available through ALADIN that may be helpful to you are: IEEE All Society Periodicals, Electronic Collections Online, and ArticleFirst.

If another school in the WRLC owns a journal that CUA doesn't, click the Request button in the catalog record and enter the Volume number, Article Title, Author, and Page Number to have the article scanned and made available to you on the web.

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Web Links : Exploring

engineering.cua.edu/mechanical is the website of CUA's Department of Mechanical Engineering.

www.asme.org is the website of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. There's news, job postings, and lots of information, including Mechanical Engineering magazine online.

www.icrank.com is "The Mechanical Engineering Portal" to the web.

www.mel.nist.gov has information about the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/tutorial/mechanical/index.htm is an online tutorial about finding Mechanical Engineering information on the internet.

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Other Libraries

CUA students can borrow materials from any of the libraries in the Washington Research Library Consortium.

You may also find useful material in the libraries of other local universities, such as Howard University or the University of Maryland (CUA students do not have borrowing privileges at these schools).

The Library of Congress allows the public to use its resources in the reading rooms, but not off the premises.

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Contact Us

Need a hand finding information, or just want to learn more about research in the Engineering/Architecture and Math Library? Contact us at 202-319-5167.

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URL: http://libraries.cua.edu/engcoll/Mechanical.html

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MODIFIED: May-06-2009