Built environment

The library catalogue will show details of all the library's books and other resources. It will also give locations of the paper copy items and links to the electronic books.

Electronic book collections:

• GCU's Electronic books collections . A list of all the GCU's collections
• Knovel ebooks - The collection covers a diverse range of engineering subjects and contains a lot of numeric and tabular data along with data conversion tools.
• Safari ebooks. A major source of ebooks on computing, technology and business. (Login through the Athens user sign in)
• Cambridge books online - The collections covers a wide range of academic subjects including science and engineering
• IEEE-Wiley. A large ebook collection from Wiley, subjects include power, energy and communications.
• AMS books online - ebook collection of the American Mathematical Society .

Inter library loan - Get books and journals the GCU does not subscribe to.

If you need an item for your coursework, teaching or research, and we don't have it in stock, you can request it through our new inter-library loan (ILL) service, Clio.
For requests for UK theses, please search the Ethos database at http://ethos.bl.uk/ (more information is on their frequently asked questions, FAQs page)

Requesting an inter-library loan

Please remember :

• Before you make a request, check our catalogue (for books) or our serials system (for journals), the Mitchell Library and other local university catalogues. You might be able to consult the item in a library nearby.
• Students need authorisation from their lecturer. (Some Schools need staff requests to be authorised too - check with your library representative.)
• You can normally borrow an item for 3 weeks with an automatic extension for a further 3 weeks. However if the British Library asks us to return it immediately we must do so or risk losing our right to borrow.
• If you are a Midwifery student on a distance learning course, enter Midwifery Department Office, GCU as your address.

Inter-Library Loans has now moved to a new online requesting system, Clio. Here's how to use it.

Getting your citations right is an important part of academic research. It helps you to avoid plagiarism and a good bibliography will help boost your final marks. Your librarians can help you use RefWorks to store your references and create a bibliography. 
Your academic development tutors will help you with manual referencing. The referencing guideleines are on Blackboard. You will also find Turnitin there.

• Harvard referencing - this is part of SMILE, so you will need to log in to GCULearn
• NLM journal title translator - enter abbreviations to find the full journal titles
• What is plagiarism? - this is part of SMILE, so you will need to log in to GCULearn
• RefWorks - store and organise your references and produce bibliographies.
• RefWorks FAQ - for all those tricky RefWorks questions!
• RefWorks handy hints - how to add data from all the main databases into RefWorks
• Short videos from RefWorks. They use sound, so use your headphones!
• Workthrough guides to RefWorks  - these are part of SMILE, so you will need to log in to GCULearn.

 Law

GCU uses the most recent edition (2010) of OSCLOA - the Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities.  This is a very comprehensive guide which takes you through the format for citing many types of information sources that you may use in your legal writing - including case reports, journal articles, books, updating services, government reports, web sites and more. 

• OSCOLA guide  (quick version)
• Full OSCOLA guide
• American Psychological Association Referencing Tutorial created by Cardiff University Information Services.

Use our single search system to search our books, eBooks, journal content and selected other resources. Don't use Internet Explorer with Discover, it does not display full text journal articles properly. Use Firefox or Google Chrome.

You can search serials solutions to check if we have a journal in stock and which years we have. Search by the journal title. Don't use Internet Explorer, use Firefox or Google Chrome - Explorer does not work well with serials solutions when displaying the full text of journal articles.

• A journal, sometimes called a periodical or serial, is published regularly – for example, weekly, monthly or twice a year. So it's a good way of getting up-to-date news and research on a subject. Each new issue has a number of articles written by different people.
• So far, this could also apply to magazines. However, journals are aimed at readers with a more serious interest in the subject.
• Trade journals are written for professionals in that area, for example, Management today or Industrial engineer.
• Scholarly journal articles are written by academics for an audience that is mainly academic. These journals are not usually glossy magazines, and there is usually a list of references at the end of each article. The editors will usually include staff at universities, other academic institutions, hospitals, or learned societies.
• Peer-reviewed journals (also called refereed journals) give all articles sent to them to a panel of academic reviewers. The members of this panel will be peers of the author, that is, recognised experts in the same field. The panel usually review the papers blind, which means that they do not know who the authors are. Panel members may recommend changes to the articles to make them fit for publication. For example, they might say that the author should provide more evidence of an argument or read other material.
• So, peer-reviewed or refereed journals provide quality control for academic publishing. You can look inside the front or back cover of a journal, or its home page on the web, to check whether it is peer-reviewed.
• Some library databases, for example ProQuest, make it easy to select scholarly journals only.
• An electronic journal (or e-journal) is one which is available on the web. Sometimes there is both a printed (paper or a hard copy) and an electronic version of a journal.

We have a step by step checklist for you.

Key databases:

• Compendex.  Over 5 million summaries of engineering journal articles and conference proceedings. Some links to full-text.
• Proquest Central Covers business, social sciences as well as science, construction, design and engineering. Includes newpaper and magazine articles, Most links are to full-text articles.
• Science Direct A large database covering a wide range of subjects including engineering, energy and environmental sciences, social sciences and business.
• CSA Cambridge Scientific Abstracts A wide variety of databases including databases in engineering and environmental sciences and social sciences
• Web of knowledge a large database covering both sciences and social sciences and including the science and social sciences and conference proceedings citation indexes for finding out who has cited each article

Other useful databases:

• ICE Virtual Library.Institution of Civil Engineers (on campus)
• ICE Virtual Library(off campus) Full text of every ICE peer reviewed technical paper since 1836
• Emerald access to full text journals and reviews from the top 300 management journals.
• Planex Covers economic development, town and country planning, housing, urban and rural regeneration, transport, leisure, property development, environment and nature conservation
• Fire Bibliographic databases of worldwide references to fire legislation, research and investigation reports, codes of practice, governmental legislation, statistics, journal articles and conference proceedings.
• Building Law Reports Collection of building law reports and case decisions. Get password from My Caledonian
• Greenfile information covering all aspects of human impact on the environment - global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and recycling and more

Technical databases:

• Construction Information Service. Industry and technical information for the construction industry with full text documents and standards.
• Occupational Health and Safety (OHSIS) Key health & safety information for the workplace.
• British Standards Full text of current draft and historical standards and more than 16.000 BSI adopted European and international standards. Try out the new BSOL single search box.
• ISURV- RICS guidance including the Red Book. Get password from the journals list, Serials Solutions.
• BCIS Building Information Service  BCIS provides up to date detailed building cost information, including cost analysis and tender price information. No password needed. Available on campus only

Map resources:

• Digimap Online maps and spatial data of Great Britain. Ordnance survey collection and historic digimap
• Go-Geo the place to discover geospatial information.#
• USGS Maps, imagery

Web sites:

• Building magazine  The world's leading construction web site. Click here to get password, you need to log in with Athens to see it!
• Estates Gazette Interactive Click here to get password, you need to log in with Athens to see it.
• HSE: information about health and safety at work
• ConstructionSkills
• Site safe This was set up to improve health and safety in the Scottish Construction industry
• Constructing Excellence
• Scottish Government

Organisations:

• Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
• Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers
• CIOB - Chartered Institute of Building
• Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM)
• BRE - Building Research Establishment- The UK's leading centre of expertise on buildings, construction, energy, environment, fire and risk.

Gateways:

• Intute - Civil Engineering
• BUBL Link-Civil Engineering
• BUBL Link-Construction
• Aecporto information portal for the construction industry
• Sapling Architecture, Planning and Landscape Information Gateway

Environment:

• RESTATS renewable energy statistics for the UK
• Environment statistics Scottish Government
• UK National statistics
• ENDS Report European environmental news service with key articles from the ENDS report (UK's leading journal of environmental policy, practice and legislation). Also in print at 333.705 E46 - compact shelving, level 0.
• NetRegs offers guidance on environmental legislation to business.
•  Department of Energy and Climate Change

Environment organisations:

• SEPA Scottish Environment Protection Agency
• Environment Agency
• European Environment Agency
• CIWM The Chartered Institution of Wastes Management
• European Wind Energy Association - EWEA

Gateways:

Use these gateways below to find other useful websites. These link to collections of web sites reviewed by experts so any site you find there will be of good quality

• EarthTrends - environmental Information
• Eldis
• Intute-Environmental Engineering
• GoGeo the place to discover geospatial information 
• SciCentral

• Census Dissemination Unit Census Website
• Estates Gazette Interactive 
• General Register Office for Scotland
• The Lands Tribunal for Scotland
• Planning portal (England and Wales): the UK Government's online planning and building regulations resource for England and Wales.
• Registers of Scotland
• Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
• Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
• Royal Town Planning Institute in Scotland
• RUDI - Resource for Urban Design Information Resource for Urban Design Information
• Scottish Government

The research web pages have more useful tips for more advanced researchers, as well as useful links to help you develop advanced information skills. We are here to help you all the way through your research project, so keep in touch!

 We have written a new online information literacy tutorial called PILOT which is aimed at postgraduate and post-doctoral researchers. It has in depth information on various topics, including a section called MyRI which tells you everything you need to know for the REF. You'll find it in GCULearn, so you'll need to log in.

• ARCOM - Association of Researchers for Construction Management
• How to assess a research article
• Calculate your H-index with the Web of Knowledge (quick guide, more information on PILOT)
• ClinicalTrials.gov
• CORDIS: The gateway to European research and development
• Innovol - research database
• Journal Citation Reports Find journal impact fators and citation information for the REF
• Library research pages 
• NIHR CRN CC - Welcome to the NIHR Clinical Research Network Coordinating Centre
• RDInfo - support services for researchers
• Research@GCU GCU Research repository
• Welcome to Research Councils UK - RCUK
• Research Excellence Framework (REF), replaces the RAE
• Sconul Access will allow you access to, and limited borrowing from, other UK libraries
• Search tips for researchers
• Systematic reviewing
• Trip Database
• UK Clinical Trials Gateway (UKCTG)
• The Web 2 rights project

Short guides:

• Digimap site support
• Emerald
• GreenFile
• Iconda
• Web of Knowledge (Science Citation Index)

Flash movies - you may need to login using your Blackboard details to view these:

• Getting full text articles from ABM and DAAI
• Logging in to BSI with your Caledonian Subscription
• Searching Emerald and exporting references to RefWorks
• Searching Web of Knowledge and exporting to RefWorks

External training materials:

• BSOL training resources
• Compendex training videos
• IEEE Xplore training videos  - scroll to foot of screen
• IOP training videos
• Science Direct training videos

 All of our workthrough guides and online tutorials are now in the finding information section of SMILE. You will need to log in to GCULearn to use them.