Civil and Environmental Engineering

You might have the impression that for serious research, scientific articles are the only place to look. While they are important, you can find more explanation and context for non-experts in other sources. Many of these are also available electronically through the library, just like articles.

• Academic textbooks, handbooks and encyclopedias usually give more background information on a general topic (such as the Handbook of Engineering Hydrology) to get you started. You can also reference them in your work. If you are brand-new to a topic, you can start with a broad textbook from AccessEngineering below. But note they aren't considered peer-reviewed. They also may not be as cutting-edge as papers. 
• Other academic books: These are usually more on a more specific topic than handbooks/encyclopedias, so they usually go into more depth (for example, 'Hybrid models for hydrological forecasting').
• Reports and information from the internet. Webpages from government bodies, institutions, universities, industry groups will often be good sources, depending on the topic. Our library search will find some of them. Even Wikipedia can be a good place to educate yourself and see what sources are recommended by an article on your topic (but never reference a Wikipedia article itself!)

If you are looking for a book on a topic, the easiest way to find it is to search the library's online catalogue. Our catalogue includes only books from good-quality publishers. This custom search box will show e-books that you can read right away on your topic.

If you're looking for an intro to a topic, the books in the results with a more general title will be more useful, because they will usually give a overview starting from zero. See this page for advice; or email me, your engineering librarian for help!

We have hundreds of thousands of E-books on specific and multidisciplinary subjects. Most can be found by searching the library's main search portal, Search+. Below are some of the specific Ebook collections.