Subject Guides: MEE 487: Capstone Design I: Home

What to look for

For your Capstone you'll need to consult many different types of sources. You will be consulting peer-review, scholarly research, popular literature, hobby literature and websites. It's important to be aware of what you are looking at when you search. Four important points and the questions you should ask are:

Accuracy

Is there contact information for the author? Is the author the same person as the Webmaster or Web site administrator?

Authority

Does the author list their qualifications? Is this an organization website? Are there citations or a bibliography? Is this published by an institution or organization?

Objectivity

Are they trying to sell you something? Who wrote this? Why? How detailed is the information?

Currency

How old is it? Has it been updated? Does it have dead links?

Think about the websites you find information at. Read the "about" pages of websites. Who is the intended audience? Look for hobby association websites. Many hobbies, most of things that people do for fun, have a group or association. One example is the AMA (American Model Aeronautics). Many of these groups also have competitions and publicatons. Group/association pages are a good way to find out more.

Search Tools to Find Peer Reviewed Literature

EI Compendex
Comprehensive engineering database
ASTM Compass The ASTM Standards and Engineering Digital Library is a large collection of industry-leading standards and technical engineering information. The Library covers a broad range of engineering disciplines, including aerospace, biomedical, chemical, civil, environmental, geological, health and safety, industrial, materials science, mechanical, nuclear, petroleum, soil science, and solar engineering. Includes more than 12,000 ASTM Standards, six journals, and more than 29,000 symposia and technical papers, handbooks, manuals, and monographs. Locations: UM Journal Coverage List: http://www.astm.org/DIGITAL_LIBRARY/JOURNALS/index.htm Remote Access: Available
1. On the ASTM Compass homepage, Click on the Subscriptions tab
2. Click on the ASTM logo
3. Click on Journals
4. Select journal title of interest to drill down to desired content

Once an individual issue is selected, the page will refresh and it will appear the issue did not open, scroll down to see the contents of the issue.
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect is a platform for full-text journals, e-books, and references from the publisher Elsevier, some of which are accessible through library subscriptions or purchases. The University of Maine System Libraries have access to the Freedom Collection (see list at https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/sciencedirect/content/journal-title-lists) of more than 1,800 journals on science, technology, medicine, and other topics, most with backfiles from 1995 to present. In addition, individual campuses may subscribe to selected journals outside of the Freedom Collection, or may have purchased selected e-books; these selections have been cataloged and linked in URSUS.
Locations: UM, UMA, UMF, UMFK, UMM, UMPI, USM, LAW
Remote Access: Available
Web of Science This link opens in a new window

Google Scholar

Finding Full Text

Tools to help you get past Paywalls and to the full text of an article.

Proxy Bookmarklet
When Fogler Library pays for content this can push you past a paywall.
**If you downloaded this before June 2024, please download again!**
Interlibrary Loan
Can deliver electronic articles we don't subscrtibe to within a day or two.

Patents

Patent Public Search
This government database allows broad searching for patents.

Anatomy of a Patent (Queen's University)
Goes over the sections of a patent

For further assistance, contact patent librarian John Hutchinson
(207.581.3610, john.hutchinson@maine.edu).

MEE 487: Capstone Design I

Librarian

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