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Conference literature is at the heart of engineering and computer science scholarship. In fast moving fields, conference papers can be the sources of the latest technical ideas in a given area. See the ATEIS-Articles visual for a feel of a broader space of all types of resources, including the conference literature. Tracking down conference proceedings may often be a challenging task even for a seasoned researcher. For example, proceedings may be published as government documents, monographs, technical reports, or collected individual papers. For example, some societies such as SPIE -- The International Society for Optical Engineering -- publish conference series in which each volume is the proceedings of a differently named conference and is typically cataloged like books. In this case, it is important to know names of editors who selected papers to be included in such a volume. Editors' names are different from names of the authors who wrote individual papers in the proceedings. Note: if you are looking for individual papers that are included in a conference proceeding, use periodical indexes, also known as databases, not library catalogs. However, if you are looking for a title of conference proceeding, then library catalogs should tell you if your local library carries that proceeding, and if so, you will get call number for that particular volume. Another confusing factor is related to phrases that are used to mean the same thing: Proceedings, Conference Records, Conference Proceedings, Abstracts and Papers, and so on. In addition, titles of conference proceedings are not stable, they continuously change their names, topics become more specialized and so do titles. Last word: check your source of references for conference proceedings. Did you get it from a book, Internet, another bibliography, your friend recommended, etc. Also, while you have a volume with you, take full and complete information about that proceeding including call number and the library you borrowed that volume from. It will save you time! Consider the following title page of a conference proceeding:
Lecture Notes in Computer Science How would you search for this conference proceeding in your local catalog? What follows is a partial listing of sources that are commonly used to locate papers in conference proceedings. ACM Digital Library offers its search and bibliographic database resources to the computing community for free. All you need to do is register with ACMDL. You may browse the Digital Library for ACM journals and magazines, proceedings by subject, by sponsor, by series. Access to full-text is by pay-per-view or subscription only. A subset of papers derived from computer science conferences, journals, series, and books, is maintained by Michael Ley. Conferences and workshops include SIGMOD, VLDB, PODS, ER, EDBT, ICDE, POPL, ... Ley's Computer Science Bibliography is searchable by author, title, via the advanced search, and home page search. ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) offers access to conference papers since 1973 to its database, Civil Engineering Database, free of charge. IEEEXplore provides full-text access to IEEE transactions, journals, magazines, and conference proceedings published since 1988 and all current IEEE standards. Access to table of contents is FREE to all. IEEE members can search and access all IEEE abstracts and articles from IEEE Spectrum free with IEEE membership. Elsevier Engineering Information (EEI) produces Ei Page One(tm), The Engineering Index (monthly and annually), Ei Compendex(tm), and other databases. There are over 1,500 conference series, besides journals, series, and books. Each entry includes conference name, conference sponsor, and meeting date. All indexed and abstracted publications are listed in Publications in Engineering (PIE). Subscription is required. INSPEC consists of Physics Abstracts (Series A), Electrical & Electronics Abstracts (Series B), and Computer & Control Abstracts (Series C). Conference papers are published in all countries and languages of the world. The main access points are under subjects and authors' names; additional indexes are for books, conferences, and corporate authors. Subscription is required. PapersFirst and ProceedingsFirst are available by OCLC FirstSearch by subscription. FirstSearch gives library users online access to over 75 databases, including the Union Lists of Periodicals (titles of journals and magazines). Proceedings in Print. v. 1- Oct. 1964-{Arlington, Mass., etc., Proceedings in Print, inc.} Proceedings in Print (PIP) is an index of conference proceedings in all subjects and in all languages. Under the definition of conference proceedings PIP includes reports or proceedings of conferences, symposia, lecture series, congresses, hearings, seminars, courses, institutes, colloquia, meetings, and published symposia. Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings. Other Title: ISTP Jan. 1978- Philadelphia, Pa. : Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). Published monthly. The Index lists the individual papers with the conference volume, not just the citation for the conference proceedings as a whole. ISTP indexes published proceedings worldwide and in many langauges. See if your library subscribes to Webof Science. It will save your time and sight. Entries are arrnaged by proceedings number. Additional access is provided through category, permuterm (keyword), sponsor, author/editor, meeting location, and corporate indexes. For example, if you wanted to find any conferences on organic synthesis recently, look through the permuterm (keyword index), find proceedings number that is used to uniquely identify each proceeding throughout ISTP issues. P28023 Scientific Meetings. v. 1- Spring 1957- {San Diego, Calif., etc.} Scientific Meetings Publications {etc.}. Note that Scientific Meetings are indexes to future conferences, not indexes to proceedings of conferences that have already taken place. A typical question may be: Find out when and where the next international conference on communication software will take place. World Meetings: United States and Canada. v. 5, no. 2- Apr. 1963- . Quarterly. {New York, etc.} Macmillan Information Continues: TMIS technical meetings index. This
Index contains 7 different access points: keyword index,
data index, location index, Publication Title index,
Deadline index, numerically arranged main entry section
which provides full entries, and sponsor directory and
index. World Meetings: Outside United States and Canada. v. 2, no. 3- July 1969- {New York, Macmillan Information, etc.} Continues: World meetings outside U.S.A. and Canada A hypothetical question might be: Q: What meetings will be held in Davos, Switzerland, in the December of 2000? MIT http://libraries.mit.edu/barker/Subjects/pubyet.html and Georgia Tech http://www.library.gatech.edu/netsubj/conf.liz.html compiled excellent sources for locating conference papers. British Library Document Supply Centre. Index of Conference Proceedings. World Index of Scientific Translations. Vols./Dates: v. 1-5; Jan./Mar. 1967-71. Delft, Netherlands, European Translations Centre. Continued By: List of translations notified to ETC. You may want to visit the following Web pages: http://libraries.mit.edu/barker/Subjects/transl.html Tracking down translations determines existence of translated journals (e.g., cover to cover, CASSI, World Translation Index) Also Alta Vista translates in several European languages free of charge http://www.altavista.com. |