Research Guides: Engineering (General): Finding Conference Proceedings

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.

ACM Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Full-text archive of ACM publications, including journals, magazines, transactions, proceedings, and newsletters.
AIAA Meeting Papers (Aerospace Research Central) This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text database of all nonclassified papers presented at American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics meetings.
AIP Scitation (American Institute of Physics) This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to recent volumes of scholarly journals in physics and engineering published by the American Institute of Physics.
ASCE Library This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive online tool for locating articles of interest across all disciplines of civil engineering.
ASME Digital Collection This link opens in a new window
ASME's primary repository of current and archival literature (journal articles, conference proceedings and eBooks).
ASTM Compass This link opens in a new window
Provides searching and full-text access to current ASTM Standards, ASTM Special Technical Publications (STPs) and Journal of ASTM International, Journal of Testing and Evaluation, Geotechnical Testing Journal, Journal of Forensic Science, Journal of Composites, Technology and Research, and Journal of Cement, Concrete, and Aggregates.
IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to IEEE transactions, journals, magazines, conference proceedings, standards and online courses, plus related e-books.
Materials Research Society Online Symposia Proceedings This link opens in a new window
Features almost 20,000 peer-reviewed papers presented at MRS Meetings.
SAE Mobilus This link opens in a new window
Includes access to SAE Technical Papers, SAE E-Books, and SAE Standards.
SPIE Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Includes over 70,000 full-text papers from SPIE journals and proceedings published since 1962.

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.