STLQ

:: Roddy MacLeod sent a note about the new EEVL service, known as EEVL Xtra:

EEVL Xtra is a brand new, free service which can help you find articles, books, the best websites, the latest industry news, job announcements, technical reports, technical data, full text eprints, the latest research, teaching and learning resources and more, in engineering, mathematics and computing.

In many cases, the full text of items should be freely available (e.g. from the following databases/collections: arXiv, CiteSeer, CSA Hot Topics, EEVL Ejournal Search Engine, ePrints UK, EEVL Website Search Engine, NACA, NASA, OneStep Jobs, OneStep Industry News).

In some cases, the full items are just details of books or websites (e.g. from the following databases/collections: Copac, EEVL, Pearson Education, SearchLT Engineering) and to get the full text you will need to click through to the website, or find a library which holds the book, or buy a copy of the book.

In some cases, the full text of items may be available to you if your institution subscribes to the publication (and if your institution has something called an OpenURL Resolver, you should be able to click straight through to the full text), or by pay per view. This is the case with the following databases/collections: Recent Advances in Manufacturing, Inderscience, Zetoc.

The individual collections can be searched in different combinations on the Advanced Search page. Results appear quickly, or take a looong time (CISTI and zetoc searches on "martian atmosphere" are still running as I type this!) The Basic Search allows for a simple phrase or word search, and lets you restrict the search by category, such as articles, key websites, books, industry news, etc. I'm tempted to point out shortcomings as compared to other dbs, but considering it's built with a shoestring budget from seven sponsors, I think it's quite the accomplishment of the EEVL'lites! Roddy notes in an e-mail that "I reckon that this service has lots of potential..." and I agree; he also advised that "More databases are due to be added soon. There's a temporary problem with a couple of the larger databases just now, but this should be fixed in the next day or two."

The one thing I can't determine is the difference between EEVL Xtra and EEVL itself. Roddy, care to elaborate, my friend? Hats off to Roddy & Co for creating another useful and innovative information-finding service for engineers, mathematicians and computer scientists.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 8:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

:: Roddy MacLeod wrote to advise that EEVL, The Internet Guide to Engineering, Mathematics, and Computing, has added the CSA Hot Topics series to their site:

Hot Topics, which give access to in-depth reports on topical engineering and technology issues, have been added to EEVL, the Internet guide to engineering, mathematics and computing. The Hot Topics are freely available, and are provided through CSA.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

:: Four new search engines, indexing freely available e-journals published in computing science, engineering, mathematics, and all three subjects together, are now available from EEVL, the "Internet Guide to Engineering, Mathematics and Computing." The four engines are:

• Computing: searches the content of 60 freely available full-text ejournals in computing.
  
• Math:
  
• Engineering:
  
• An all-in-one search engine that covers the content of >250 journals indexed by all three subject-specific search engines.

When looking for information of higher quality and utility, users are being offered more options to search the 'net than just Googling. These include EEVL's new search engines, Google Scholar, RedLightGreen, the Yahoo! toolbar with OCLC WorldCat searching capabilities, along with Scirus.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)