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5 things you should know about the library as a new user in 5 minutes

The La Trobe University Library has a wide range of resources that will help you with your studies in the Science, Technology & Engineering faculty. Use this subject guide as a starting point to find relevant resources and how to make use of the Library.

Click on the tabs at the top of the guide to navigate between pages.

Use the links below for online tutorials to teach yourself library research skills.

Specialist resources are available online and in the library, including Standards, Company Reports, Maps, Patents, Video Content, etc. across many subject areas.

For further information about specialist resources, speak to your Faculty Librarian, explore the Library Catalogue or take a look at Subject-specific Library Guides.

At the Library we endeavour to build our book and journal collections around the needs of researchers and we value the input from academic staff and researchers when purchasing new titles.

If you identify books or journals which would be of value to yourself and other researchers in your department, please contact your Faculty Librarian to request a copy be ordered or a new journal title considered.

Alternatively, you can use this online form to request a book be purchased for the library.

Patents are legal documents that protect intellectual property rights. 

Inventors and researchers obtain patents on new product and process ideas, effectively preventing other inventors and manufacturers from using the same idea. It also prevents unnecessary research and the 'reinvention of the wheel'.

A patent must be accepted as a novel idea and it must be of practical use.

A patent is often the first publication of an idea. It must contain sufficient detail about the product or process, and as a result can be quite informative.

Facts and natural phenomena cannot be patented. Concepts cannot be patented. A scientist cannot patent a naturally occurring gene. However, the way the scientist identifies or makes use of the information contained within the gene may be patented. For example, genetically modified crops are patented.

For further information see the page for Finding Patents.

A peer reviewed journal (also known as refereed) publishes articles that have been critically assessed by other scholars in the author's field.

Peer review is the accepted method for ensuring that information is of the highest quality.

A peer reviewed journal will have:

• a copy of a reviewer’s assessment relating to the article;
• a statement in the journal certifying that contributions are peer reviewed; or
• a statement by the journal editor certifying that contributions are peer reviewed.

If you don't have access to a copy of a journal and it is not listed in Ulrich's Periodicals Database index, visit the journal homepage online to access the submission guidelines and other indications of status.

Your Faculty Librarian can also help you find quality resources in your discipline.

Ulrich's Periodicals Database

This bibliographic database provides detailed, comprehensive and authoritative information on serials published throughout the world.

Use Ulrich's Periodicals (Ulrich's Web) to search for peer-reviewed (refereed) journals in your subject area.

Select Advanced Search:

Set your search parameters

Type in your subject area in the search box next to Subject

Under Sort results by, choose Relevance from the drop-down menu

Under Features, tick Refereed

Under Serial Type, tick Academic/Scholarly

If you only want to view Active journals, tick Active under Status, or leave blank

If desired, choose English from the Language menu on the right

Australian Zooarchaeology is a bone image database contains over 580 skeletal images of 26 Australian mammal species.

Images include fauna, skeleton, animal remains, taphonomy, Marsupialia, Antechinus, Bettongia, Canis, Cercartetus, Dasyurus, Felis, Hydromys, Isoodon, Macropus, Mastacomys, Ornithorhynchus, Oryctolagus, Perameles, Potorous, Pseudocheirous, Sarcophilus, Sminthopsis, Tachyglossus, Thylogale, Trichosurus, Vombatus.

You need to register to use this database.

Then follow these instructions to download the Insight Database. Once you have installed and loaded Insight, choose the Australian Zooarchaeology database.

Another database within Insight is called Zoology and is an image research collection created by Honorary Senior Research Fellow Dr. Patricia Woolley. You can also access this database by registering and downloading the Insight Database.