Transcript Presentation

Access to Scientific/Technical Information
Needs and problems
Fernão D. Magalhães
Assistant Professor
Chemical Engineering Department, FEUP
Electronic resources used in Teaching
(course preparation, supervision of undergraduate student projects,
...)
• Manuals (CRC Engnetbase, Knovel, …)
• Reference encyclopedias (Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical
Technology, Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry)
• Standards (ESDU)
• World Wide Web (Google, …)
Electronic resources used in Research
(project preparation, state of the art reviews, supervision of
graduate students, ...)
In addition to the previous:
• Full text journal collections (ScienceDirect, KluwerOnline, Wiley
Interscience, …)
• Technical publication databases (Current Contents, Web of
Science)
• Patent databases (Espacenet, …)
Needs
???
We have everything already…
Problems
…we just don’t know how to use it.
• Beginners have difficulties structuring effective searches.
• In a short term project, finding relevant information in a short
time is critical.
• Undergraduate students should receive training, in the context of
their classes, on searching and accessing technical information.
• University libraries should study carefully how to structure the
user interfaces for accessing electronic information resources.