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Library Research Guides

Engineering (General)

Provides basic resources for locating information related to engineering.

Society Databases

Check these sites for proceedings from the following societies.

If you need further assistance, please stop by the reference desk or ask us for help.

How to Find Conference Proceedings

Conference proceedings are some of the most difficult resources to find in the U-M Library Catalog. 

When searching the library catalog for conference proceedings, always do an "all fields" search. 

That's the rule. It's almost impossible to guess the "correct" title as it will appear in the catalog. 

Suppose you are looking for the proceedings from the 1977 IFAC International Symposium on Information Control Problems in Manufacturing. The words "international," "conference," "symposium," and "proceedings" are too general and common in conference titles. Pick just one of those words, and then use other less common words - in this case, good choices are "IFAC," "information," and "control." If you know the year and/or the place of the conference, try using that in your search as well.

Using the year and/or the city in your keyword search is usually helpful, but sometimes these terms get in the way. If you don't find the proceeding with these in your search terms, try your search again without them.

Search Tip: If you know that some words will appear right next to each other, you can narrow your search by putting the words in quotes. This tells the catalog to search for records with that exact phrase. 

For more information on finding conference proceedings from ASME, IEEE, MRS, and SPIE, please see the box below.

 

Finding ASME, IEEE, MRS, and SPIE Proceedings

Finding ASME Proceedings

We own some proceedings through ASME Digital Collection.

If the proceedings you are looking for is not available online, try a search in the U-M Library Catalog, using "ASME" plus the series abbreviation and the volume number; e.g.:

     ASME HTD 83

Alternately to using the catalog, or if catalog search doesn't work, you can use the ASME Proceedings Call Number Spreadsheet to look up the call number for the proceeding by title words and/or volume number (but note that this spreadsheet will not be able to tell you if it is checked out or not).

 

Finding IEEE Proceedings

Many of the proceedings are available in full-text online at IEEE Xplore.

If you are unable to find an electronic version of the proceeding you need, try a search in the U-M Library Catalog.

Alternately to using the catalog, or if your catalog search doesn't work, you can use the IEEE Proceedings Call Number Spreadsheet to look up the call number for the proceeding by title words (but note that this spreadsheet will not be able to tell you if it is checked out or not).

 

Finding MRS Proceedings

For a proceeding published from 1998 to the present, check to see if there is a digital version in the Materials Research Society Online Symposia Proceedings.

For a proceeding published prior to 1998, or for which there is no electronic version, first try a search in the U-M Library Catalog, using "Materials Research Society" and the volume number; e.g.:

     Materials Research Society 588

If that doesn't work, try a title words search with the title of the Symposium; e.g.:

     Advanced Cementitious Systems

 

Finding SPIE Proceedings

For a proceeding published from 1990 to the present, check to see if there is a digital version in the SPIE Digital Library.

For proceedings published prior to 1990, or for which there is no electronic version, first try a search in the U-M Library Catalog, using 'SPIE' and the volume number; e.g.:

    SPIE 3886

If that doesn't work, try a title words search with the title of the Conference, but without the roman number number; e.g.:

  Lasers in Dentistry

not

  Lasers in Dentistry VI

For further assistance, please contact a reference librarian.