Purpose of this Tutorial
Tour of the Site
• Resource Type #1: Organizations
• Resource Type #2: Databases
• Resource Type #3: Electronic Publications
• Resource Site #4: Research Centers and Non-governmental Agencies
• Resource Site #5: Library Catalogs
• Resource Site #6:Internet Search Tools
• Resource Site #7: Online Newspapers and News Services
• Resource Site #8:Current Awareness Services
• Resource Site #9: Learning and Teaching Materials
• Discover How to Search Effectively
• Internet Information Seeking Skills
• Search Tools: Part1
• Search Tools: Part 2
• Subject Tools: Search Engines
• Search Tips
• Review of Web Information
• Quality - Who?
• Quality - When?
• Quality - What?
• Common Pitfalls
• Review Tips
• Appendix A: WWW Addresses Cited

• You can start by going through the Internet Tutorials at Intute's Virtual Training site
• And then you can view the Supplementary Information provided by the following pages on civil engineering resources
• Or you can go through the Tutorial and Supplementary Information at the same time by opening up two browser screens and toggling between the two since pages in the Supplementary Information relate directly to the pages in the tutorial.

• Introduce you to the different types of resources available on the Web
• Identify some of the key resources for civil engineering
• Explore basic search techniques used by general and specialized search engines
• Show you how to evaluate the reliability and/or validity of the information you find
• To start off, you should go to Intute's tutorial for civil engineers
• Click on: Internet Civil Engineer
• This takes you to the "Welcome" page for the tutorial. From here you will take a "Tour of the Sites". Click on the "Tour" section to start the tutorial. The first screen tells you what the tour will cover.
• Select Next.

• NOTE: Additional relevant Professional Societies can be found listed in the Related Sites section of every Community of Practice listed on the ASCE Web Site
• To locate US departments and agencies you can use the U.S. Gov portal
• Additional sources for government information
  1. Transportation Research Board
  2. Science.gov
  3. Fedstats.gov
  4. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
  5. Federal Emergency Management Agency
  6. For Easy Access to State Government Web Sites, go to: State and Local Government on the Net

• NOTE: ASCE's Cybrarian Service can assist you in your research
• The Service has access to other web-based technically-oriented databases such as Ingenta, Center for Research Libraries, and Scirus
• For trade and general information, the Cybrarian Service has access to bibliographic data on articles in magazines covering most subject areas.

• It can be searched by any term in the record, terms in the title, authors' names, and keywords.
• You can limit your search by type of document you want (i.e.: journal article or conference paper) and by year published
• When searching by an author's name, the best thing to do is to type in the last then a comma followed by a space and then the first initial of the first name followed by an asterisk (*)
• Example: doe, j*

• NOTE: ASCE Online Journals now go back to 1990
• Some online journal services, such as ASCE and Ingenta, provide access to a searchable database of their online journals.
• Access to other online journals will be found by using commercial and not-for-profit subject-oriented databases such as PubScience and Engineering Index's Compendex Plus

Additional Resources:

1. Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering and Technology
2. Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information
3. National Science Digital Library

• Additional expert search tools:
  1. Scitopia.org
  2. ScienceResearch.com

Additional Resources:

1. ASCE SmartBrief - delivers civil engineering news that really matters
2. FindArticles.com

There are thousands of electronic mailing lists (also called discussion groups) available covering all types of subjects. Researchers and practicing engineers can use them to keep up on issues or to find out about the latest techniques. Some catalogs of mailing lists are:

1. CataList the official catalog of LISTSERV lists
2. Tile.net

1. ASCE Continuing Education Program
2. LearnOn.org
3. Engineering Degrees and Online Resources

• Before starting a search, decide what you are looking for. If you are paying for connect time, this will save you money.
• When database searching, especially fee-based services, take time of day into account. Online services are slower at certain times of the day such as midday.
• If you come across an interesting site, bookmark it right away or at least print the page so that you may go back to it later.
• Not all information is free. Sites that provide added-value usually charge someone for this value - your company or your library. Whatever payment system they use, make sure it is secure.
• Be on the watch for sites that have the opt-in set as their default setting. This means that if you do not want a site to send you emails, announcements, etc. then you must opt-out. This is usually done by deselecting the opt-in message.

• Different types of search tools available
• Civil engineering search tools
• Tips for improving search techniques

• Searching
  • Use when know what you are looking for but don't know where to find it
  • Use search engines by inputting your own search terms
  • Search engines select sites automatically and usually cover a wide selection of sites
  • Examples: Google, Exalead, Dogpile

• Browsing
• Use when you want to find out what type of information is available on a topic
• Directories: sites are selected and evaluated by human editors; cover a wide range of topics; arranged by subject headings
• Subject gateways: sites selected by subject specialists; much narrower focus and much more specific
• Examples: iCivilEngineer; Ultimate Civil Engineering Directory

• To keep up-to-date on search engines go to AltSearchEngines

Additional Tips

• Remember: Each search engine uses different protocols. Unless you use a particular search engine all the time, ALWAYS read the HELP page before starting your search.
• Remember: Even if you use a certain search engine all the time, search engines keep changing. More and more are accepting payment for placement of search results. To see if the search engine that you use is doing this, check its description now and then.

• Quality of information - how to judge
• Who?
• When?
• What?
• Pitfalls to watch out for
• Review tips

• Who set up the site?
• Is the site academic, commercial, not-for profit or government?
• Is it specialized information or general?
• Where is the site located? Check the extension to determine in what part of the world the site is located.
• Remember: As with any resource always check its credentials - whether the resource is print or electronic

• When were the pages last updated?
• How often is it updated?
• How current is the information?
• Don't just look at copyright dates, check within the documents to see what dates are mentioned. A paper might not have a publication date but its bibliography might give some idea of how current it is.
• If there is no copyright date on the Web pages, this is an indication of a poorly constructed site and should probably not be trusted

• Does the site have what you need?
• Is it presented well or difficult to understand?
• Is it well organized?
• Is the information reliable?

• Think before you do - based on what you need determine what type of resource is best to use
• If doubtful of a source, try to verify using other sources.
• Check the URL's provided by search engines to get quick idea of reliability of source and level of information
• Before you use a piece of information from a Web site, make sure you can cite your source properly
• If you wish to copy an image, presentation, a portion of a Web page, etc., always contact the Web owner and request permission before you do anything

• The Web portion of the Internet is constantly changing
• Just because it is online doesn?t mean it is current or accurate
• Always look for ways to validate your sources - who, what, where, etc.
• If you don?t know the subject well, start with subject gateways
• REMEMBER: The Internet does not contain all the knowledge of the world. Many questions can still be answered by using print resources
• When in doubt, try your friendly Cybrarian for help!

ASCE's Cybrarian Service
http://www.asce.org/cybrarian/

Intute's Virtual Training site
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/

Internet Civil Engineer
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/civil/

U. S.Gov portal
http://www.usa.gov/

Transportation Research board
http://www.trb.org/

Science.gov
http://www.science.gov/

Fedstats.gov
http://www.fedstats.gov/

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
http://www.usace.army.mil/

Federal Emergency Management Agency
http://www.fema.gov/

State and Local Government on the Net
http://www.statelocalgov.net/

ASCE's Civil Engineering Database
http://www.pubs.asce.org/cedbsrch.html

The Infrastructure Security Partnership
http://www.tisp.org

Earthquake Engineering Research Center
http://nisee.berkeley.edu

Linda Hall Library
http://www.lindahall.org

Canada Institute of Scientific and Technical Information
http://cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/cisti_e.html

National Science Digital Library
http://crs.nsdl.org/collection/

Scitopia
http://www.scitopia.org

Science Research
http://www.scienceresearch.com

ASCE SmartBrief
http://www.smartbrief.com/asce/?campaign=ascehomepage

Find Articles
http://www.findarticles.com

CataList
http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html

Tile.net
http://www.tile.net/

ASCE Continuing Education Program
http://www.asce.org/conted/

LearnOn
http://www.learnon.org

Engineering Degrees and Online Resources
http://www.academicinfo.net/engring.html

Google
http://www.google.com/

Exalead
http://www.exalead.com/search/

Dogpile
http://www.dogpile.com/

iCivilEngineer
http://www.icivilengineer.com/

Ultimate Civil Engineering Directory
http://www.tenlinks.com/engineering/civil/index.htm

AltSearchEngines
http://www.altsearchengines.com/

Created: May 2002, revised 2009