What's New @ Engineering & Computer Science Library

University of Toronto Libraries have purchased an institutional subscription to ASTM Standards online.  U of T students, staff and faculty can now access the complete set of active standards from on or off campus.

ASTM International is one of the largest voluntary standards development organizations in the world. ASTM standards cover a very wide range of materials, products, systems, and services.

Engineering & Computer Science Library has hardcopy ASTM Standards up to 2008. They are in the Reference section of the library, on the main floor, on the ‘standards’ shelf.

From Jannean Elliott on OSTIBlog <http://www.osti.gov/ostiblog/>

If you’re ready to discover data, then OSTI’s newest product is ready for
you! The DOE Data Explorer (DDE) <http://www.osti.gov/dataexplorer> is a
unique tool that identifies collections of Department of Energy sponsored
numeric files, figures and data plots, multimedia and images, computer
simulations, specialized databases, and interactive data maps. Browse,
run a quick search, or advanced search, then click a link to results.
You’ll be amazed at the data you can freely see and use, the highly
specialized interfaces developed by the owners of the data that will help
you delve deeper into their collections, and the software toolkits that
allow you to manipulate, compare, visualize, download, and re-use the
data.

The DOE Data Explorer will guide you to data collections at national
laboratories, data centers, scientific user facilities, colleges and
universities …and across all of the science areas with DOE involvement.
The DOE Data Explorer development team sifted through hundreds of these
websites so that you would not have to, selecting each collection for
inclusion according to strict criteria.
<http://www.osti.gov/dde/faq.html>

The Department of Energy has several data centers
<http://www.osti.gov/dde/datacenter.html> that provide excellent
collections and expert services. Each of these centers specializes in
data belonging to a specific subject area or scientific discipline. The
DOE Data Explorer will help you find those centers and their collections.
However, its unique usefulness is in helping you find the collections
that are NOT in a data center. In addition, what if you want to do
cross-disciplinary research? Or what if you don’t even know what data
might be out there or what discipline it might belong to? You need a data
discovery tool that will allow you to see ALL of DOE’s data – regardless
of scientific discipline, regardless of format, and, even, regardless of
where the data collection resides. The DOE Data Explorer can do that.

U of T Libraries has just purchased a subscription to the complete collection of CSA Standards online. The Canadian Standards Association is one of the premier standards-producing bodies in Canada.

The online collection is available to U of T students, faculty and staff on and off-campus. To connect off campus, just type your utorid and password, or your T-Card barcode number and PIN.

This online collection includes hundreds of standards, including important documents such as the Highway Bridge Design Code and Canadian Electrical Code.

The Engineering and Computer Science Library also has an extensive collection of current and superseded CSA standards in hardcopy. You can drop by the library, call us at 416-978-6578, or email engincs.lib@utoronto.ca to ask about specific holdings. Other standards collections held at our Library are listed in this online guide.

The 2006 Ontario Building Code is now at Engineering & Computer Science Library. You will find it on our Standards shelf, at the centre of the Reference Area.

The call number is TH226 .O65212. It is a large two-binder set.

The 2006 Building Code is written in an objective-based format to promote innovation and flexibility in design and construction. The objective-based Code will continue to contain prescriptive requirements known as “acceptable solutions” that serve as benchmarks for evaluation.

The 2006 Building Code also includes over 700 technical changes. These changes include:

• Significant increases in the energy efficiency requirements for buildings;
• Increased accessibility requirements for buildings;
• More flexibility in the design and construction of small care homes; and
• Updating/simplifying the requirements for small buildings, including houses.

source: http://www.obc.mah.gov.on.ca/Page1402.aspx

U of T students, faculty and staff can now find older engineering articles using the Engineering Index Backfile (EI Backfile). This outstanding index covers the information from the printed Engineering Index from 1884-1969. It provides engineering researchers with the most comprehensive overview of engineering literature available from that period.

After 1969, Engineering Index Backfile is continued by the Compendex database, which covers engineering literature from 1969 to the present. Both these databases run on the same platform and can be searched simultaneously.