3.4 Bibliographic databases
Providers of literature databases track their sources from engineering- and materials science journals, books, conference proceedings, government reports, and patents. Major literature databases include METADEX, the science and practise of metallurgy, Engineered Materials Abstracts, the science of polymers, ceramics and composite materials, and Ei Compendex* Plus, engineering disciplines. The first two are produced by Materials Information, a service owned by Cambridge Scientific Abstracts. These three databases are available on CD and can also be accessed online via for example CSA and ESA-IRS. An international team of information and materials specialists is working with acquiring, selecting, abstracting, indexing and compiling a large number of documents each year, this resulting in a comprehensive coverage of the world’s literature on materials and engineering disciplines. Bibliographic reference databases consist of literature references in a particular subject area. This type of databases are free of cost, for example conjugated polymers at the University of Hannover and a composite literature reference database at Durability, Inc.Table 14. Bibliographical and Literature Reference Databases
name/host: main content: available: metals The Copper Page Information on the uses, properties, online benefits and history of copper and copper alloys as a service of the worldwide copper industry. Free access to literature databases on copper technology and copper and the environment. METADEX Coverage of international literature Internet via Cambridge on the science and practice of subscription. CD-ROM Scientific metallurgy. Information on metals and or diskettes. Abstracts alloys; their properties, manufacturing, applications, and development. Subject coverage: steels, microstructure, strength, refining, casting, coatings, heat treatment, metal matrix composites, nonferrous metals, corrosion, extraction and smelting, blast furnaces, machining, welding, testing and analysis, and environmental and safety issues. Titanium and its Information on commonly used Ti-alloys online alloys can be searched. Applications for Int. Titanium titanium alloys, Characteristics of the Association alloys, Selection of forms and properties, Manufacturing techniques, Manufacturers and Suppliers web pages, Economics and availability, References. Eastern Alloys Library of technical information about planned for the Literature Library zinc and zinc alloys. This information web is not currently online. Printed copies of documents may be ordered. Including Material Properties, Processing Technology, Finishing, Design Information, Case Histories, Quality and Statistics, and Machining. Pocket Guide to Principal facts about properties and online World Zinc applications as well as production- Eastern Alloys and trading info, among other things. corrosion Active Library on A multimedia CD-ROM resource featuring CD-ROM Corrosion the text of several books, standards NACE and other reference material. MatWeb Information on materials and their online METALogic n.v. corrosion: metals; ferrous and nonferrous alloys, plastics, and ceramics. Each material category is coupled with information on corrosion hazards and performance in various corrosives. ceramics, composites, and plastics CERAB The Ceramic Abstracts database produced online via Internet STN International by the American Ceramic Society covers or Telnet scientific, commercial, and engineering literature on ceramics and related materials. Sources for CERAB include books, journals, conference proceedings, U.S. and U.K. patents, reports, and trade literature. Coverage is from 1976 to date with updates bimonthly. composites literature reference database, online Durability, Inc. covering the years 1985-96. conjugated polymers Bibliographic reference database. online Univ. of Hannover Engineered Materials Provides coverage of the world’s Internet via Abstracts published literature concerning the subscription. CD-ROM science of polymers, ceramics and or diskettes. Cambridge composite materials intended for use Scientific in the design, construction and Abstracts operation of structures, equipment and systems. Subjects covered include materials, properties, processes, products, and forms of these engineered materials. GlazeBase An international database of glaze online Ceramics Web recipes. A source for recipes for educational and studio use, no recipes for commercial glazes, and also a resource for historical and technical glaze research. Intro to Polymers A project to enhance polymer education online Univ. of Missouri- using hypertext technology. It includes Rolla the basics of polymer and coatings science, and polymer chemistry. Rapra Technical, academic, commercial, and CD-ROM and WWW via Rapra Technology marketing aspects of the rubber and various online plastics industries. hosts Technical Ceramics Index of Noncommercial Technical online Library Ceramics Sites, Commercial Sites, Fraunhofer IKTS Journals, Societies, Conferences, Other Services, Information Providers. Also Conventional Ceramics and Ceramic Arts. various Ei Compendex*Plus Computerized Engineering Index Internet via database. Contains citations from subscription. CD-ROM Various Hosts worldwide engineering and technology or diskettes. journals and conference proceedings. It covers all engineering disciplines, including chemical, computer, electrical, civil, and mechanical engineering in significant depth. Thermodoc Bibliographic references pertaining to Transpac, Internet Thermodata the thermodynamic properties of elements, stoichiometric substances, alloys and non-stoichiometric phases of interest to dry mineral chemistry. WeldaSearch Database containing abstracts to online or in-house TWI journal articles, research reports, for leasing. books, standards etc. in the areas of One-call; they search joining metals, plastics and ceramics, the database for you metal and ceramic spraying, thermal cutting, brazing, soldering and related topics.The Copper Page
is a centre for information on the uses, properties, benefits and history of copper and copper alloys as a service of the worldwide copper industry. There is free access to all information. The standards & properties segment include cross specification index (United States), a searchable database on corrosion protection and resistance, compositions of UNS alloys, and information on fabrication practices and typical uses of copper alloys, among other things. There is also access to literature databases on copper technology and copper and the environment. Copper Centers around the world. The centers answer user’s technical questions, help develop standards for copper based products, and develop and distribute technical and promotional material. Links to other copper information sites are provided.METADEX
The METADEX database provides comprehensive coverage of international literature on the science and practice of metallurgy. Information on metals and alloys; their properties, manufacturing, applications, and development. Subject coverage: steels, microstructure, strength, refining, casting, coatings, heat treatment, metal matrix composites, nonferrous metals, corrosion, extraction and smelting, blast furnaces, machining, welding, testing and analysis, and environmental and safety issues. Begun in 1966, METADEX contains over 950,000 references and is the database equivalent of Metals Abstracts, Metals Abstracts Index and Alloys Index.Engineered Materials Abstracts (EMA)
Engineered Materials Abstracts corresponds to the print publication of the same name. EMA provides comprehensive coverage of the world’s published literature concerning the science of polymers, ceramics and composite materials intended for use in the design, construction and operation of structures, equipment and systems. Subjects covered include materials, properties, processes, products, and forms of these engineered materials.ALC (Active Library on Corrosion)
is a commercial CD-ROM product which act as an information system for corrosion engineers, designed as a library with background information, case studies and guidelines for prevention. A free demo is available. This was an ESPRIT project at K.U Leuven, Dept. MTM, Belgium in co-operation with Elsevier Science Publishers b.v., Amsterdam (The Netherlands).MatWeb
Online materials information system. It is described as "an on-line information service supporting a virtual center of competence and documentation for corrosion- and material experts". MatWeb is an in-house MIPS group applied research project at K.U. Leuven. Elsevier Science Publishers has contributed the material. The system is located at METALogic N.V., Heverlee Belgium, a spin-off company of K.U. Leuven Dept. MTM. This system provides information on materials and materials selection criteria for corrosive applications, including a selection of case histories. It includes metals; ferrous and nonferrous alloys, plastics, and ceramics. Each material category is coupled with information on corrosion hazards and performance in various corrosives. closer descriptionEi Compendex* Plus
It is produced by Engineering Information, Inc. The Computerized Engineering Index database contains citations from worldwide engineering and technology journals and conference proceedings. It covers all engineering disciplines, including chemical, computer, electrical, civil, and mechanical engineering in significant depth. Coverage is from 1970 to date with updates weekly.Information Providers and Engineering Libraries
Here follow some examples of providers of information and data online (via subscription).Cambridge Scientific Abstracts
This is an U.S. privately owned company. They offer subscribers access to bibliographic databases including Mechanical Engineering Abstracts, Metadex, Engineered Materials Abstracts and Materials Business File. Materials Information (former joint service of ASM International and the Institute of Materials) teamed up with Cambridge Scientific Abstracts to provide Internet access to their bibliographic databases through CSA’s Internet Database Service (IDS). Suscribers to Materials Information on IDS receive WWW access to the most current and a 25 year backfile of METADEX, Engineered Materials Abstracts, the Materials Business File and/or several subset databases. A free demonstration file can be accessed by visiting the CSA WWW Site. CSA lists Other Online Vendors through which their databases are available.Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library
is a gateway for higher education and research to information resources in engineering. It includes a search system for the engineering newsgroups. This is a searchable archive of messages from a selected group of 125 engineering Newsgroups. There is free access to all files for those from a UK University, others by subscription.ESA-IRS
The European Space Agency Information Retrieval Service provides comprehensive scientific and technical aerospace information online. Users including companies, research centres and universities can take advantage of a broad range of online information services from national centres and ESA-IRS offices in 13 European countries. The collection of databases offered covers a diverse scope of information. ESA-IRS has particular strengths in the fields of aerospace and its applications such as earth observation and microgravity. Numerical databases concerning metals, metallurgy, materials science and mechanical engineering include e.g.; Metals Datafile, Hydrogen Data, Rapra (rubber and plastics), and Cetim (info useful to the mechanical industry, in French) among many others. Bibliographic databases covered; e.g. Aluminium, Metadex, Engineered Materials Abstracts, Compendex*Plus, Nasa, Weldasearch, Materials Business. Search languages and interfaces include common command, menu-driven and a MS-Windows based search interface. The cost to search ESA-IRS databases is debited according to the information you actually retrieve. The access is arranged free of telecommunication charges via national data networks in most European countires. In addition to hosting its own files, ESA-IRS provides access to databases on other computers, so called distributed databases.STN International
offers an extensive database-catalog online in science, technology, patents, and business with several material property databases, and other materials-related subjects. These databases can be accessed online via Internet or Telnet (by subscription). STN is operated cooperatively by Fachinformationszentrum (FIZ) Karlsruhe, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) of the American Chemical Society (ACS), and the Japan Information Center of Science and Technology (JICST).Questel-Orbit
is an international online information company specializing in patent, trademark, scientific, chemical, business and news information. A member of the France Telecom Group. Many databases in French language or concerning french matters.3.5 Electronic media for literature publication, online journals
The emergence of the Internet as a medium for publication has brought some significant advantages. For example; continuous publishing via Internet allows each title's content to be updated on a much more frequent basis than the print version, ensuring that those with a particular interest in a subject are being kept informed of the very latest developments. It is an unfortunate fact that many journal issues are only fully exploited whilst they are the current issue. Lack of simple search and retrieval mechanisms combined with an unwieldy format means that back volumes of titles become an under-used asset. Creating archives on CD-Rom or on Internet allows easy retrieval of previously published articles with the help of sophisticated search techniques. These techniques allow a user to refine the search in such way that e.g. for a subject on which little has been written the search include all material, whereas when a subject has been well covered the user can specify only the material which scores highest on, e.g. academic rigour. CD-Rom's are also being used in other ways to refine and render the reading of print journals more effective. With CD-Rom readers are provided access to the wider literature as published in other journals, e.g. in the form of abstracted articles. The same service can of course be applied on Internet. A way of utilizing the Internet is to freely search tables of contents and article abstracts for journals and books. The Journal of Materials Science published by Chapman & Hall may be taken as an example of a true electronic journal, i.e full- text in electronic format. Papers span a wide range of materials including metals, ceramics, glasses, polymers, electrical materials, composites, etc. Subscription is necessary for full access, but if one wishes to download papers from any specific issue, special arrangements may be settled. Free samples in PDF format enable potential subscribers to assess its quality. The Journal of Corrosion Science and Engineering is another online journal published on a trial basis by members of the Corrosion and Protection Centre in Manchester on behalf of the International Corrosion Council (ICC). It gives authors a possibility to present their scientific work on the World-Wide-Web, and thereby perhaps reach a wider audience than in other case. Papers are viewed at no cost since the service is idealistic. Hardcopy and disk versions of papers including colour graphics and video sequences can be purchased for a small fee. Elsevier Science is another publisher of scientific literature. Elsevier Electronic Subscriptions now offers their journals in electronic form on a licensed, subscription basis. Work has been going on with libraries and technology providers to create the necessary infrastructures to move journals to the desktop. This program is the commercial extension of TULIP (The University Licensing Program), a collaborative project between Elsevier Science and nine U.S. universities which researched the technical, economic, and user behaviour issues in the digital library environment. The Elsevier Science home page system provides access to their catalog of books and journals and to ESTOC, the Elsevier Science Tables of Contents service. It also provides access to the home pages for each of the journals. Online full-text journals as exemplified above are so far not widely spread, even if their number is increasing fairly rapidly. However it is common to arrange licensing agreements with academic and industrial networks, these involving electronic subscription series, where the journals are moved to desktops with the help of necessary infrastructures (local and remote). The competing form of electronic media as mentioned above, CD-Rom, being used in libraries etc. either in lieu of or in addition to paper journals, can in cases where the hypertext functionality is not of main importance or for single edition issues, often be seen as the most practical (and cheapest) solution, considering that the online-format provides more convenient delivery but no additional benefits. Full hypertext functionality enables users to jump to references, figures, tables and related articles, etc. Some electronic journals in Materials Science & Engineering are listed in the Univ. of Pennsylvania electronic library. The main part of these are accessible through the Academic Press Ideal service, a project that aims to exploit the Internet to expand and improve access to scientific journals. Through licensing agreements with academic and industrial networks or consortia of libraries, the Ideal library of online full-text research journals becomes accessible to end users. There are issues of 175 journals available. NEXT PREVIOUS TOP Contents