- Library Liaisons:
Lee_Pedersen@brown.edu
Note: Policy originally written by Mark Shelton
- Description of the Academic Program |
Division of Engineering Home Page
The undergraduate engineering program at Brown University is the oldest in the Ivy League and the
third oldest civilian engineering program in the country. The first specific engineering course at
Brown was established in 1849 in Civil Engineering. In 1916, the separate Departments of Civil,
Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering were combined into one Division of Engineering with a common
core of basic engineering courses. Since this time, the program has expanded. Currently, the
department offers undergraduate programs in biomedical, chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical,
computer, and materials engineering. The curriculum emphasizes an in-depth understanding of the
fundamentals of physical and chemical science, mathematics, and engineering science which underlie
technical work in all fields of engineering. Courses are provided in support of all the areas of
study and the emphasis on fundamentals provides preparation for dealing with the rapid pace of
technological change with the interdisciplinary demands of modern engineering design and analysis.
Graduate students at Brown pursue research in many of the same fields of study as the undergraduate.
Research areas include Biomedical Engineering,
Chemical Engineering,
Electrical Sciences and Computer Engineering, Fluid,
Thermal and Chemical Processes (FTCP), Materials Science and Engineering,
Mechanical Engineering, and
Mechanics of Solids. For graduate education and research the faculty in
the Division can be viewed as organized into four research groups: (1) Electrical Sciences and
Computer Engineering; (2) Fluid, Thermal, and Chemical Processes; (3) Materials Science; and (4)
Mechanics of Solids and Structures. The Center for Advanced Materials Research is presently anchored
within several engineering disciplines.
Database of Honors, Masters, and Ph.D Theses
- Overview of the Collection
The Engineering Collection is an integrated part of the Sciences Collection. Consisting of 37,000
engineering titles, of which almost 1000 are print and/or electronic seriels, the collection is very
extensive in its coverage of all fields of engineering. The interdisciplinary nature of engineering
allows it to benefit from many other science collections. Collections in mathematics and applied
mathematics, physics and chemistry, and geology and environmental studies all contribute support to
meet the needs of the Division of Engineering.
There are three major electronic resources that support research in engineering that are available.
Compendex is the most comprehensive interdisciplinary engineering database in the world with almost
seven million records referencing 5,000 engineering journals and conference materials dating from
1970. Inspec, a bibliographic database providing abstracts and indexing to the world's scientific and
technical papers in physics, electrical engineering, electronics, communications, control engineering,
computing and information technology. Inspec provides coverage from over 3,500 journals, 1,500
conference proceedings as well as numerous books, dissertations and reports. The Materials Science
Collection brings together in one place the majority of the leading materials science databases,
with specialist content on materials science, metallurgy, ceramics, polymers, and composites used in
engineering applications.
Other electronic resources that provide support the interdisciplary areas of engineering include ACM
Digital Library for computer science. and Medline for medicine, and MathSciNet and Zentralblatt MATH
for pure and applied mathematics.
See Library support statement for Graduate Program Review for Engineering
See Link to Brown University
Guide to Electronic Resources for Engineering.
- General Collecting Guidelines
The engineering collection is a strong collection in older and current materials and it continues to
develop. The library attempts to maintain a RESEARCH level collection in support of engineering as
well, except for the area of civil engineering which is supported at the STUDY level since it is
currently taught at the undergraduate level. A RESEARCH level collection includes the major source
materials required for dissertations and independent research, including materials containing
research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other information useful to
researchers. It also includes all important reference works and a wide selection of specialized
monographs, as well as a very extensive collection of journals and major indexing and abstracting
services in this field.
It is an important priority to acquire all important new publications in the field of engineering.
All primary publishers in the field of engineering are to be reviewed in order to ensure that all
works are evaluated. Except for lower level engineering titles, all works are acquired from
publishers such as MIT Press, Cambridge University Press, Harvard University Press, Oxford University
Press, and Yale University Press. Other publishers that should be heavilty evaluated include
Springer-Verlag, Wiley, Academic Press, Clarendon/Oxford, Kluwer, World Scientific, American
Chemical Society, IEEE, ASME, McGraw-Hill, and other university presses. Consideration is given to
works created by all noted authors and researchers in engineering.
- Specific Collecting Guidelines
- Language: English, original or in translation.
- Chronological Span: Primarily contemporary works.
- Imprint Date: Current imprints. As needed retrospective materials in support of research
needs, as well as to replace missing or damaged volumes, or to fill in identifiable gaps in the
collection. Occasional acquisition of out of print material.
- Geographical Range: Primarily United States, Europe, Asia, and India.
- Types of Material Included: Monographs, journals, proceedings, annuals, reference tools,
and web resources. Very limited purchase of audio-visual materials. Excluded: Textbooks, that focus
on low level introductory engineering.
- Areas of Distinction
The very broad based collection serves to cover many of the fields of engineering with significant
titles that cover foundational areas of study. Of note is the growing quality of the collection of
materials science and engineering resources. Since the Brown Engineering program has a very strong
mathematics focus, a strong mathematics collection provides significant support. Brown has been
acquiring materials to support pure and applied mathematics since its founding, making the
retrospective collection quite strong. From very early works found in the Special Collections, to
the most current works published, the whole collection serves as an area of distinction. Of
significance is the coverage of titles published in Europe, especially those published during the
late 1800's and the first half of the 1900's. The collection currently holds all of the major titles
published in all fields of pure and applied mathematics.
- Special Collections
Lownes Collection of Significant Books in the History of Science contains over three-quarters
of those texts recognized by scholars as the "great books" of science published since the middle
of the 15th century. This collection is held at the John Hay Library
John Hay Library History of Science Collection is a major source for the history of mathematics.
- Breakdown of Subjects and Collecting
Levels
- New Engineering Titles Cataloged
- Related Collection Development Policies:
- Related Collections and Other Resources
Brown is a member of the Center for Research Libraries,
which "operates a global cooperative collection development program that assists academic and
research libraries in making otherwise inaccessible and important research materials permanently
available to scholars and researchers." CRL holds collections of international journals, newspapers
and dissertations. The resources of the Ivy League institution's libraries are also available to
Brown faculty and students via the
Borrow Direct service and the Virtual Catalog
makes the resources of the participating members of the Boston Library Consortium available upon request. For further
information, check with the Interlibrary Loan Office (Phone: (401) 863-2750; Email:
sci-ill@brown.edu
- Selected List of Key Internet Resources
Collection Development Footer
This page was last updated on: Friday, 22-Jun-2007 14:36:36 EDT.
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