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Engineering Librarian
This guide provides resources you might find helpful for completing your capstone design project.
Search tips
You will need to search in different places to find different types of information.
The following search tips tend to work across different databases:
- Use the word AND to link concepts together: surgical AND robot
- Use the word OR with parentheses to search for synonyms: surgical AND robot AND (precision OR minimally invasive)
- Use quotation marks to search for a specific phrase: “soft tissue”
- Use an asterisk to search for multiple endings of a root word: prosthes* - to find prosthesis, prostheses, prosthetics, etc.
When searching Google, try adding the following to your topical keywords:
- site:gov, or site:edu, etc.: get results from that specific site type/domain
- filetype:pdf: get only PDFs as results - these can be more in-depth than webpage content
- Add keywords for the type of source you are looking for, for example: data, statistics, report
There is no one perfect search! Change around your search terms, and search in multiple places.
Find background information
- KnovelOnline access to books, databases, and conference proceedings from a number of publishers that cover all areas of engineering and includes content relevant to related sciences (e.g., chemistry and earth sciences). It includes interactive graphs and tables.
- Libraries SearchSearch the University of Minnesota Libraries to find books, scholarly journal articles, news, magazines, media, and other items in the University's collection. To find broader, background information, limit the Material Type to books, book chapters, and reference entries.
Find science and engineering scholarly literature
- Web of ScienceA comprehensive interdisciplinary collection of journal article citations. Subjects generally covered are within science and technology, arts and humanities, and social sciences. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
- ScopusSearch for information from scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Covers the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
- PubMedPubMed is a free database provided through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It indexes life science publications, with coverage back to 1946 for most journals.
- American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME)Search ASME journals from 1959 - present, conference proceedings from 2000 - present plus select proceedings back to 1955, and ebooks from 1993 - present with select titles back to 1944.
- SAE MobilusThe SAE Mobilus platform provides access for the University Libraries subscriptions to the SAE Journals and the SAE Technical Papers from 1998 to present. The Technical papers portion of SAE Mobilus references thousands of SAE Technical Papers covering the latest advances and research in all areas of mobility engineering including ground vehicle, aerospace, off-highway, and manufacturing technology. SAE was previously known as the Society of Automotive Engineers.
- Google Scholar (Setup connection to get to PDFs)Use Google Scholar to find articles from academic publishers, professional societies, research institutes, and scholarly repositories from colleges and universities. If you are using from off-campus access, change the "Library Settings" to University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Look for the "FindIt@U of M Twin Cities" links in your Google Scholar search results to access full text and PDFs. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
Note that Google Scholar is a search engine, not a database. The databases listed above actively index the content within, making for better searching. Please do not rely solely on Google Scholar.
Find standards
Learn about standards:
- Tutorial: Standards: what are they and how can I find them?Discover what standards are, why they exist, and identify major publishers of standards. Recognize where and how to get access to them.
- Anatomy of a StandardHandout created by librarians at Purdue University, going through the different sections of a standard and what the purpose of each is.
Search for standards:
- ASTM Standards and Engineering Digital LibraryProduced by the American Society for Testing and Materials, this resource provides instant access to the current digital edition of the Annual Book of ASTM Standards. To browse the Book of Standards, go to Subscriptions > ASTM > Book of Standards.
- ASME Codes & StandardsSearch the ASME website for information about their codes & standards. You will need to search the Library Catalog and/or ask a librarian for access to individual standards.
- TechstreetTechstreet offers information on over 300,000 standards and codes from over 350 publishers.
- ISO (International Organization for Standardization): Standards searchISO has set over twenty thousand standards covering everything from manufactured products and technology to food safety, agriculture, and healthcare. Search their website to identify relevant standards.
More help with finding standards:
- StandardsFind more information on finding standards through the Libraries on our Find Resources by Format guide.
Find patents
- Patents (United States)The USPTO Web Patent Database offers the full text of all US patents issued since January 1, 1976 and full-page images of each page of every US patent issued since 1790 through the most recent weekly issue date. The Publisher/Producer is the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
- Google Patent SearchGoogle Patents Search is a good starting place for keyword searching to find useful patents and their classifications, helpful for more focused searching.
- EspacenetProvides an interface to the published patent application databases of the European Patent Office and European national patent offices.
Use Zotero to manage & format citations
Zotero (download link) is a free, open-source citation manager that:
- imports and organizes citations and PDFs;
- recognizes and creates citations for wide range of file types;
- formats citations in thousands of styles including APA and Chicago;
- easily adds in-text citations to Word and Google Doc documents, and creates a bibliography from those citations;
- allows you to add notes to your citation information for later use.
Off-campus access to library resources
Current University students, staff and faculty should be able to get full text and online access to the University Libraries from anywhere. Here are three ways to access the library full text from off campus.
- Search the University of Minnesota library website. Log in with your UMN Internet ID and password to access resources.
- Log in using the U of M Virtual Private Network (VPN). You will need to download it VPN software to your computer from campus OIT (Office of Information Technology).
- Install the Libraries' Proxy Bookmarklet to your browser and click it to reload the page with your U of M login to get access to full text. Watch a proxy bookmarklet video (3 min) to learn more.
View examples and learn more on our How to get to full text from on and off campus Guide.
Last Updated: Jul 19, 2024 3:31 PM
URL: https://libguides.umn.edu/course/ME/4054W