Reference sheets

If you have citation information for a specific ASCE document, use the following procedure to retrieve the full text.

1. Check for online availability through the ASCE Library. ASCE is continually increasing the amount of material available online.
2. If the material is not available online, you may request the document from Interlibrary Loan. If we have the item in our collection, Interlibrary Loan will scan the item and send it to you as a PDF. If we do not have the document in our collection, Interlibrary Loan will seek it from another university and when found, will send it to you electronically.
3. If you want to retrieve print format material from our collection, see the sections below, which give details about ASCE journal articles, conference papers, standards, and books.
4. If you have incomplete citation information for an ASCE document you can use the ASCE Civil Engineering Database to find more information. The ASCE Civil Engineering Database is different than the ASCE Library. The Database indexes ASCE documents back to the early 1900s, regardless of whether the material is available full text online, and is a much more comprehensive list of ASCE literature. The library only contains material which is available full text online, and therefore contains a much smaller body of literature.

Virginia Tech receives current issues of ASCE journals only online. For most journals, online full text begins with 1983. Publications prior to 1983 are only available in hardcopy, housed at the Remote Storage Building. The easiest way to obtain copies of pre-1983 articles is through Desktop Delivery, which will scan the article and send it to you. If you need to look at a print volume of a journal you can request it from storage. We ceased receiving most ASCE print journals in 2002, and after that time only received the online. Be aware that the title of the ASCE journals may sometimes change. E.g. Journal of surveying engineering is listed as Journal of surveying and mapping division previous to 1983.

Beginning in 2016, the library began obtaining ASCE books only in the online format. As part of the ebook package we also receive access to over 60 ASCE standards. Previous to 2016, we purchased selected ASCE books in print format. The best way to search for the ASCE books and standards is to use Discovery Search. This will give you the call number if we only have the item in print, or will give you the link if we only have the item online.