Research Guides: Building Construction: Recommended Resources

General Research Resources

Academic Search Complete from EBSCOhost
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Academic Search Complete indexes citations, abstracts, and full text from journal articles, books, reports, and conference proceedings in all subject disciplines. Full text provided in PDF and HTML. Searchable cited references are provided for nearly 1,000 journals. Searches can be limited to peer reviewed sources. Indexing 1887-present, most full-text content 1980s-present.
Scopus
Scopus indexes citations of journal articles, conference papers, and books in the sciences, medicine, social sciences, arts, and humanities. You can perform cited reference searches. You can compare authors, institutions, and journals using various metrics. 1800s-present

Building Construction Resources

ASCE Library
The ASCE Library contains the full text of journals (from 1983), conference papers (from 2000), standards (current and historical), and ebooks.
Construction Criteria Base (CCB) from the National Institute of Building Sciences
onstruction Criteria Base (CCB) is an extensive electronic library of construction guide specifications, manuals, standards, and other essential criteria documents. Published and updated continuously, CCB contains the complete unabridged, approved, current electronic equivalents of over 10,000 documents direct from participating federal agencies. CCB is an effective tool for finding and using current, approved U.S. construction criteria. Documents are available as PDFs and as word-processing formats or in the SPECSINTACT specification processing program used by the Army, NAVFAC and NASA.
DETAIL Inspiration
DETAIL provides reports on construction solutions, including photos and architectural plans.

ICONDA
International Construction Database developed, coordinated and hosted by Fraunhofer IRB

Building Codes Resources

ASTM Compass
ASTM Compass is the portal for the ASTM full-text standards, technical engineering reports, journals, manuals, ebooks, and data series. These materials cover a wide range of engineering disciples: aerospace, biomedical, chemical, civil, environmental, geological, health and safety, industrial, materials science, mechanical, nuclear, petroleum, soil science, and solar engineering. The site includes all current issues and backfiles of all ASTM journals, all symposia papers (published in book format as Special Technical Publications), and all ASTM manuals and monographs. The library also includes current and historical ASTM standards. 1931-present.
MADCAD
MADCAD indexes full-text building codes, evaluation standards, design standards, and technical bulletins from ASCE, ASHRAE, ASME, ASTM, FEMA, NFPA, and SMACNA, plus state codes from Virginia in HTML and PDF. 1981-present

Building Materials Resources

Material ConneXion
Material ConneXion provides full-text data on materials used in architecture, interior and industrial design, fashion and apparel, and landscaping. Materials include polymers, ceramics, glass, metals, cements, and natural materials. Processing and sustainability information, physical and usage properties, and manufacturers are listed.

Green Building Resources

Building Green
BuildingGreen includes online versions of GreenSpec, "Environmental Building News", a database of green products (product descriptions and articles about the products), and a database of more than 160 high-performance building case studies (all in HTML). This information is searchable and cross-referenced by CSI MasterFormat division, LEED credit, or green building topic. 1992-present.

Building Green Case Studies Online

GreenFILE from EBSCOhost
GreenFILE indexes citations, abstracts, and full-text articles, books, case studies, conference papers, speeches and interviews, letters, and reports covering all aspects of human impact to the environment including agricultural, architectural, engineering, education, and the social sciences. Full text is available in HTML and PDF. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources. Free access version is also available. 1913-present.
SmartBuilding Index from Reed Construction Data
SmartBuilding Index provides architects, spec writers, engineers and contractors with in-depth information on commercial building products - including technical data, sourcing, cost data, project use examples, and downloadable specs, CAD and BIM objects.

Engineering Resources

AccessEngineering
AccessEngineering provides engineering handbooks and textbooks, plus instructional videos.
ASCE Civil Engineering Database
The Civil Engineering Database (CEDB) indexes citations for all ASCE publications. The database covers all the journals, conference proceedings, books, standards, manuals, magazines, and newspapers published by ASCE. Journal papers with abstracts go back to 1970. Non-abstract journal records go back to 1958. The book records are complete dating back to the early 1900s.
ASCE Library
The ASCE Library contains the full text of journals (from 1983), conference papers (from 2000), standards (current and historical), and ebooks.
Engineering Village
Engineering Village is the search interface to three engineering databases: Compendex, Inspec, and Knovel. Compendex (1884-present) indexes citations and abstracts from over 5,000 engineering journals, conference papers, books, patents, dissertations, and technical reports. Inspec (1898-present) indexes citations and abstracts from journal articles, conference proceedings, books, and dissertations in engineering and physical sciences. Knovel provides ebooks on engineering and related subjects.
Knovel Library
Knovel provides a large collection of ebooks on engineering and related subjects. Each chapter is presented as a separate PDF. The entire collection is full-text searchable, and many results include interactive tables. Includes tables of properties for over 13,000 chemical compounds. Knovel is also searchable through the Engineering Village interface.

Our subscription includes:
Adhesives, Coatings, Sealants & Inks
Aerospace & Radar Technology
ASM International Alloy Information
ASM International Handbooks Online
Biochemistry, Biology & Biotechnology
Ceramics & Ceramic Engineering
Chemistry & Chemical Engineering
Civil Engineering & Construction Materials
Composites
Computer Hardware Engineering
Earth Sciences
Electrical & Power Engineering
Electronics & Semiconductors
Engineering Management & Leadership
Environment & Environmental Engineering
Fire Protection Engineering & Emergency Response
Food Science
General Engineering & Project Administration
Industrial Engineering & Operations Management
Manufacturing Engineering
Marine Engineering & Naval Architecture
Mechanics & Mechanical Engineering
Metals & Metallurgy
Mining Engineering & Extractive Metallurgy
Nanotechnology
Nondestructive Testing & Evaluation
Oil & Gas Engineering
Optics & Photonics
Pharmaceuticals, Cosmetics & Toiletries
Plastics & Rubber
Process Design, Control & Automation
Regulatory Information
Safety & Industrial Hygiene
Software Engineering
Sustainable Energy & Development
Textiles
Transportation Engineering
Welding Engineering & Materials Joining

Business Resources

Business Source Complete from EBSCOhost
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Business Source Complete is a citation, abstracts, and full-text database that indexes journals; books; financial data; reference works; conference proceedings; company, industry, investment, marketing, and country reports; SWOT analyses; and case studies. Full text is provides as HTML and PDF. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources. 1886-present; most content is 1980s-present.

Business Source Complete is a scholarly business database, providing the leading collection of bibliographic and full text content. As part of the comprehensive coverage offered by this database, indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals back as far as 1886 are included. In addition to the searchable cited references provided for more than 1,300 journals, Business Source Complete contains detailed author profiles for the 40,000 most-cited authors in the database. Journal ranking studies reveal that Business Source Complete is the overwhelmingly superior database for full text journals in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. Additional full text content includes financial data, books, monographs, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses, faculty seminars (videos), and more.

RSMeans Online

The Art & Architecture Library provides access to RSMeans Online. Email cathryn@vt.edu for login information.

Print copies of the most recent editions are available on Reserve.

Building Construction Cost Data Get the confidence and know how you need to deliver more accurate cost estimates and improve profitability. The 76th edition of this bestselling cost guide has been updated and expanded to provide you with the information you need to estimate projects with confidence and accuracy, improve project planning and budgeting, and reduce risk.
Call Number: TH435 .B84
ISBN: 9781946872012

Scott Fralin

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Interlibrary Loan Services

All current Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff, regardless of your location, may request through ILLiad for materials:

not owned by Virginia Tech (books, articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)
owned by Virginia Tech but are unavailable for use (print books)
owned by Virginia Tech and available in print (scans of articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)

We ship requests via UPS to users outside the immediate Blacksburg area (Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties).

Articles, book chapters, and many technical papers are delivered in PDF format to your ILLiad account. Occasionally, due to copyright restrictions, a paper copy of an article or standard is held for your at the Newman User Services Desk or sent o the mailing address listed on your account.