Engineering Collection Policy

OVERVIEW

subject description and guidelines

 

  • The Libraries seek to support research, informational, and instruction needs in all fields of engineering from the undergraduate to graduate to post-graduate level. The library collects research journals of most engineering societies and high quality, relevant, and high use peer-reviewed journals published by commercial and non-profit publishers in engineering. The focus is on electronic format; print subscriptions are retained when no online exists or where there are licensing restrictions. The vast majority of current journals held are electronic and may or may not include deep archives; therefore paper backfiles are kept in the annex for rapid scanning and document delivery. More electronic back files are being added each year. Trade journals are collected, but not comprehensively and electronic access is always sought. Many engineering societies have created digital collections of their publications and most are collected to comprehensiveness. This includes the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Society of Automotive Engineers, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Association for Computing Machinery, ASM International, American Society for Testing and Materials, American Society for Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning, American Ceramic Society, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Society of Petroleum Engineers, and SPIE International. Documents by government agencies and their contractors, such as NASA, EPA, Department of Energy, etc. have been collected in the past. There are some two million technical reports from various government agencies on microfiche at the Library Annex, which can be scanned. New documents are now online and those not freely available are ordered upon request. Databases leading to the discovery of these resources are also collected. These include Engineering Village, IEEE xplore, and Web of Science among others. E-book (and handbook) collections are also heavily collected. These include Knovel, Safari O'Reilly Higher Education, Springer, and Morgan & Claypool. Standards and codes are collected but not comprehensively. These include complete collections of IEEE, and ASTM. We do not have complete collections of SAE, ISO, ANSI, nor ASME standards but will order them on demand and have them cataloged. Online phase diagrams databases are available for the American Society for Metals and American Ceramic Society. Over the years skyrocketing journal prices have forced cancellations and the journal titles or databases with low use have been targeted. The Libraries have approval plans with many publishers to supply engineering books to the collection, which came automatically. Since 2011 the majority of these books are supplied electronically instead of in print. We will buy print books on demand and when not available online.

 

constituencies

The fourteen major departments served by the Engineering Library are located on the Ithaca campus and include:

 

    • Applied and Engineering Physics (AEP)
    • Biological and Environmental Engineering (BEE)
    • Biomedical Engineering (BME)
    • Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
    • Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CHEME)
    • Computer Science (CS)
    • Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS)
    • Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
    • Engineering Management (ENMGT)
    • Information Science (IS)
    • Material Science and Engineering (MSE)
    • Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE)
    • Operations Research and Information Engineering (ORIE)
    • Systems Engineering (SE)

 

COLLECTION SCOPE

collection strength

 

  • Overall, the collecting goals for Engineering are for dissertation-level research and undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate education.

 

collection level

 

  • research 

 

geographical guidelines

 

  • Most materials in the collection pertain to engineering published in English in North American, Europe, and Asia. Some foreign-language material used to be collected prior to 1995 and again in 2009, when budget cuts forced cancellations.

 

areas of significant geographic coverage

country (self-governing)

 

  • Canada 
  • Great Britain 
  • United States of America 

 

language guidelines

 

  • English is the main language of scholarly communication in Engineering. Publications in other languages are acquired very selectively.

 

language

 

  • English 

 

chronological guidelines

 

  • General collection from 1868 forward.

 

exclusions

 

  • Non-english material is not usually collected.

 

material types

 

  • Engineering emphasize scholarly communication through academic and specialized journals, trade journals, books and e-books; conferences, standards, patents, databases, and technical reports. There are some two million technical reports from various government agencies on microfiche at the Library Annex, which can be scanned.

 

COLLECTION CONTEXT

housed in

 

  • Albert R. Mann Library
  • Clark Physical Sciences Library
  • Engineering Library
  • Library Annex
  • Mathematics Library
  • Uris Library

 

special collections or noteworthy resources in the field

 

 

related library subject collection

 

 

AFFILIATIONS

academic department

 

  • Applied and Engineering Physics (A&EP) 
  • Astronomy (ASTRO) 
  • Biological and Environmental Engineering (BEE) 
  • Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CHEM) 
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) 
  • Communication (COMM)
  • Computer Science (COM S)
  • Design and Environmental Analysis (DEA)
  • Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS)
  • Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
  • Materials Science and Engineering (MS&E)
  • Operations Research and Information Engineering (OR&IE)
  • Physics (PHYS)
  • Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (M&AE)

 

graduate field/program

 

  • Aerospace Engineering 
  • Applied Physics 
  • Biological and Environmental Engineering 
  • Biomedical Engineering 
  • Biometry 
  • Biophysics
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Computational Science and Engineering
  • Computer Science
  • Conservation and Sustainable Development
  • Design and Environmental Analysis
  • Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Information Science
  • Materials Science and Engineering
  • Mathematics
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Operations Research and Information Engineering
  • Physics
  • Science and Technology Studies
  • Statistics
  • Systems Engineering
  • Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

 

academic unit

 

  • Cognitive Science 

 

cornell college or professional school

 

  • Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences

 

organization

 

  • Biomedical Engineering (BME)

 

RESPONSIBILITY

library contact

  • Powell, Jill H. -  Engineering Librarian