ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


3 5 2 /C&RL News

Internet resources for 
engineering
By Thom as P. Dowling

An overview of basic resources

T he Internet, with its ability to link counless users to each other and to inform
tion resources, excels at providing very cu
rent information. Engineering, with its need t
coordinate current research, excels at using ve
current information. Not surprisingly, it tur
out that there are many sources of engineerin
information on the Internet.

Lists and new sgroups
A large number of lists and newsgroups car
engineering information. The most complet
directory of mailing lists is the D irectory 
Scholarly Electronic C onferences. Of particul
interest are sections 6 (physical sciences) an
8 (computer science). To retrieve the most cu
rent version of the directory, either send ma
to listserv@kentvm.kent.edu with no subje
and with the two lines “get acadlist file6 / g
acadlist file8” as the body of the message, 
use anonymous ftp to get the files fro
ksuvxa.kent.edu in the library directory.

One list which does not show up in the
sections of the directory is ELDNET-L, the li
for the Engineering Libraries Division of t
American Society for Engineering Educatio
To subscribe, send e-mail to listserv@vm
cso.uiuc.edu with the single line “subscrib
eldnet-1 <firstname lastname>”.

Many engineers rely heavily on Usen
newsgroups. While the specific newsgrou
available vary from site to site, most grou
related to engineering will be commonly avai
able. Especially helpful will be groups in t

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hierarchies of sci.engr (sci.engr, sci.engr.

biomed, sci.engr.chem, sci.engr.civil, sci.engr. 
control, sci.engr.manufacturing, sci.engr.mech), 
sci.space (sci.space, sci.space.news, sci.space. 
policy, sei.space.science, sei.sp ace.shuttle, 
sei.sp a ce .tech ), and ieee (ie e e .announce, 
ieee.general) and the groups comp.org.ieee, 
com p.org.acm , sei.aeronautics, and misc. 
books.technical.

D atab ases of interest
A number of specialized databases are avail­
able on the Internet with implications for engi­
neers. Some of these are either databases of 
special library, collections, or are available 
through library catalogs, and others are avail­
able as separate services.

Buckyballs. The University of Arizona’s on­
line library catalog provides access to the 
Buckyball database, a bibliographic database 
on the literature of buckminsterfullerenes, a 
family of carbon molecules with implications 
for research in chemical engineering and su­
perconductivity.

To use the d atabase, teln et to sabio. 
arizona.edu. Press O (the letter “o,” not zero) 
to use other databases, and then enter 1 for the 
buckyball database.

Technical reports
Stanford Technical Reports Database. One 
of the chronically difficult challenges in using 
engineering literature is finding technical re­
ports. Stanford University’s online library cata­
log offers a connection to the Stanford data­
base of technical reports. The database provides 
keyword searching by author, organization, 
title, subject, and report or contract number.

T o u se th e d a ta b a s e , te ln e t to 
forsythetn.stanford.edu and login with the ac­
count “socrates”. At the response prompt, en­

Thomas P. Dowling is engineering computer-based services librarian at the University o f  Washington, Seattle; 
e-mail: tdowling@lib.washington.edu

mailto:listserv@kentvm.kent.edu
mailto:tdowling@lib.washington.edu


Ju n e  1 9 9 4 /3 5 3

ter “select technical reports”. To exit, enter th
command “end” at any prompt.

Full-text reports v ia  gopher
A growing number of universities and corpo
rations are making the full text of their techni
cal reports available online. Most frequently
they are distributed via gopher servers i
PostScript format. While these gopher server
are themselves scattered around the entire In
ternet, a server at the University of South Caro
lina provides pointers to them; the server is a
gopher.math.scarolina.edu, port 70, under th
menu choice labelled “Distributed Multi-Topi
Infor Resources.”

Another important set of technical report
available via the Net is at NASA’s Langley Re
search Center; it is available for anonymous ft
at te ch re p o rts.larc.n asa.g o v  in the /pub
techreports/larc directory. These reports hav
recently been made available for searching vi
the W orld W ide W eb (WWW) at http:/
mosaic. larc.nasa.gov/ltrs/ltrs. html.

G overnm ent information
EPA. The Environmental Protection Agenc
(EPA) offers an Internet connection to severa
o f its databases, including its national librar
catalog, a database of hazardous waste materi
als, the Access EPA database o f directory infor
mation, and several others. To use the service
telnet to epaibm.rtpnc.epa.gov. Enter 4 fo
public applications, then 1 for the library sys
tem, and then optionally enter your name.

STIS. The National Science Foundation’
(NSF) Science and Technology Information Sys
tem (STIS) provides information about NS
awards, programs, guidelines for proposals
publications, and other information. STIS pro
v id e s c o n n e c tio n s  via te ln e t; te ln e t t
stis.nsf.gov, login as “public”, and enter “new
to register as a new user. STIS is also availabl
as a gopher server at stis.nsf.gov, port 70.

NASA. SCAN. Selected Current Aerospac
Notices (SCAN), NASA’s current-awarenes
bibliographies, are available online in severa
formats. They are available via a listserv (sen
the message “lists” to listserv@sti.nasa.gov
be aware that SCAN can generate a lot o f e
mail); they are available via gopher at gopher
sti.nasa.gov, port 70; and they are availabl
via WWW at http://www.sti.nasa.gov/scan
html.

NASA. RECON. As of this writing, NASA i
providing access to three years’ worth of it

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RECON database. Citations from In tern ation al 
A ero sp a c e A bstracts and from Scien tific a n d  
T ech n ical A erosp ace Reports can be searched 
by keyword. This is available within WWW at 
http://www.sti.nasa. gov/ recon-wais. html.

O ther NASA WWW serv ers. NASA main­
tains a number of other WWW resources; the 
NASA home page is at http://hypatia.gsfc. 
nasa.gov/NASA_homepage.html. Links to serv­
ers at the Kennedy Space Center provide a large 
amount o f technical information on space 
shuttle missions, and historical information on 
NASA space flight missions.

Fedworld. Fedworld is a bulletin board sys­
tem run by the National Technical Information 
Service (NTIS). Telnet to fedworId.gov; you will 
need to register to use the service. In addition 
to the Fedworld information itself, there are 
gateways to over a hundred other federal bul­
letin boards, ranging in coverage from defense 
co n v ersio n  to rules for decom m issioning 
nuclear power plants to offshore oil and gas 
data. Many of these bulletin boards will also 
require you to register as a user.

N a tio n a l I n s titu te  o f  S ta n d a rd s  an d  
T ech n ology  (NIST). NIST maintains a WWW 
server at http://www.nist.gov/welcome.html 
which leads to information on NIST programs, 
including the Malcolm Baldridge National Qual­
ity Award, and descriptions of research at NIST 
laboratories.

Standards
A small number of services are starting to pro­
vide information about industry standards via 
the Internet. Document Center provides a free 
index for searching its document delivery in­
ventory by standard number. Subscribers can 
also search by keyword and place delivery 
orders online. In addition, Document Center 
is planning to add the full text o f standards 
from participating industry and government 
organ ization s. D ocu m ent C e n te r’s WWW 
server is at http://doccenter.com/doccenter/ 
home.html.

Professional o rganizations
A number of engineering organizations are pro­
viding information via the Internet, especially 
through gopher servers.

Association fo r C om puting M achinery: 
includes a calendar of forthcoming conferences, 
calls for papers, publication lists, and member­
ship services (gopher.acm.org, port 70).

(Internet cont. on p a g e  3 57)

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/scan
http://www.sti.nasa
http://hypatia.gsfc
http://www.nist.gov/welcome.html
http://doccenter.com/doccenter/