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Services for SEAS Undergraduate Students, Offered by the Engineering Library

Welcome to the Engineering Library

The Engineering Library offers a multitude of resources to assist you in your study and research while you are at the University of Pennsylvania. Below is a brief overview of the services the library offers to SEAS undergraduate students. Please contact Doug McGee, Head, Engineering Library, for a more in-depth introduction to the materials and services available to you.

Course Reserves

• Professors may place books, articles, homework solutions, videos, etc. on reserve for your class. These are typically available for two hour in-library use at the Engineering Library circulation desk. To look up the call number of the item you need, use the Course Reserves tab in Franklin. You can consult the User Guide for specific instructions on how to look up course reserves.

SEAS Tutoring Center

• The SEAS Tutoring Center is located in the Engineering Library. Several tables are reserved for evening tutoring sessions (usually Mondays - Thursdays, 7:00-10:00pm).

• This joint venture of the Engineering Deans Advisory Board (EDAB) and the Penn Engineering Library consists of 45+ supplemental textbooks for in-library use. The collection is located near the entrance of the library.

Using the Physical Library

The Engineering Library is located on the second floor of the Towne building. The library houses an extensive collection of circulating books and non-circulating print journals and reference books, in addition to its many electronic resources. Undergraduate students are given a 28 day loan period and may renew materials in person or online. Tables, carrels, and lounge seating are all available. A portion of library seating has been designated for quiet individual study, but the remainder of the space accomodates group study and/or individual study. Two televisions equipped with VCRs are available for videos on reserve at the circulation desk.

Computing Resources include 8 Dell workstations equipped with CD-RW drives. Access to the library's web site, online catalog, electronic resources, Internet, e-mail, MS Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Photoshop, RefWorks, DrJava, Maple, MDL ISIS Draw, and NCBI-Cn3D is provided. Additionally, 8 laptop computers are available for checkout and use within the library. Wireless connectivity for laptops is available throughout the entire library (and Towne Building); in addition we have several data and power ports available. Ethernet lines and earphones may be borrowed from the circulation desk.

Workshops covering a variety of databases and other electronic products are offered each semester by the Science & Engineering Libraries. They are targeted specifically to Penn's sci-tech researchers and are excellent introductions for new users, as well as being great refreshers for familiar resources.

Penn's Electronic Library

Electronic Information Resources Explore our digital databases, e-journals, e-books, e-reference works, and more. Click here for an overview of electronic scitech holdings at Penn, or peruse E-Resources in specific subject areas. Most resources, with the exception of the Cambridge Engineering Selector, are also available off-campus via the Library's Proxy Server. For information on using specific resources from off-campus such as SciFinder Scholar, Beilstein or Gmelin CrossFire, please refer to http://www.library.upenn.edu/proxy/remoteuse.html or contact chemistry librarian Judith Currano at (215) 898-2177 or currano@pobox.upenn.edu

New Books Plus allows you to virtually peruse new books received, either by subject area or by campus library.

Obtaining Material Not Held at the Engineering Library

Even if the Engineering Library does not have the information that you need, we can get it for you from another campus location or another university's library. Visit http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/reference/howunder.html for a list of delivery and access services available to undergraduate students at the University of Pennsylvania.

• Penn Library Delivers items from other campus libraries to the Engineering Library for your convenience.

• BorrowDirect+ is an "expedited interlibrary loan" comprising two reciprocal borrowing services, E-Z Borrow and BorrowDirect. Both services let you search the combined catalog of member libraries and directly request books not currently available at Penn; most books arrive within 4 working days.

• Interlibrary Loan If you need a book or journal article that neither Penn nor any of its Borrow Direct+ partners owns, the Library's Interlibrary Loan department will be happy to help you obtain it in a timely fashion.

• Purchase Requests If the Engineering Library lacks a critical text or reference item in your area of research, we will consider purchasing it for our collection. Contact Danianne Mizzy (215) 898-5700, danianne@seas.upenn.edu with purchase requests.

Need Further Assistance?

One-on-one personalized research consultations/orientations are available to you at the library on a walk-in or appointment basis, over the phone or by e-mail. Contact Danianne Mizzy, Asst. Head, Engineering Library at (215) 898-5700, danianne@seas.upenn.edu to set up an appointment.