Collection Policies

The purpose of the aerospace engineering collection is to support faculty research and course instruction, both on and off campus. Two graduate level degrees are offered: master and doctoral. Both masters and doctoral degrees are offered in aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics. The department offers areas of emphasis in fluid mechanics,  structural mechanics,  flight dynamics and controls, and a new area, experimental methods.   The aerospace engineering degree requires emphasis or specialization whereas, the engineering mechanics degree encompasses all the areas.

Fluid mechanics encompasses: computational and experimental fluid mechanics, fluid and aerodynamics, aerodynamic optimization, sub- super- trans- and hypersonic flow, boundary layer theory, flow stability, transition and control aeroacoustics, and turbulence.

Structural mechanics encompasses: variational methods; theory of elasticity, plates, shells and thin-walled structures; structural dynamics; vibration; finite element and boundary element analysis; structural stability; composite structures; structures optimization, structural acoustics and high-performance computing.

Dynamics and controls encompasses: analytical dynamics, flight mechanics, control systems and theory, and to a lesser degree, robotics.

Other courses include: aeroelasticity, shape optimization and sensitivity analysis, propulsion systems, thermal analysis, and perturbation methods. New areas of research are design of experiments and response surface methodology.

There is overlapping interest with other departments, which include: mechanical engineering, physics, civil engineering, computer science, electrical and computer engineering. The long term goal for the library is to provide research level collections to support this specialized discipline.  

GENERAL COLLECTION GUIDELINES

Languages:  English (or translations into English) is the language of the collection. Other languages will generally not be purchased but may be donated to the collection.

Chronological periods:  Currently published materials will be an emphasis along with retrospective materials, best described as classics in the field. Both are important to the curriculum as well as faculty research. Classics from as early as WWII are important in  structure, fluids, control, and propulsion.

Geographical Guidelines:  United States based research and publications will constitute the bulk of the collection. Foreign based research and publications will not be acquired systematically. Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development (AGARD)/NATO publications may be an important exception to this rule.

Treatment of subject:  Professional research matching the curriculum and faculty research will be the focus of acquisition. Most proceedings and selected textbooks will be useful.  Histories, biographies, bibliographies and translations will not be systematically purchased. There should be an emphasis on aerospace and aeronautics rather than astronautics.

Types of material (formats):  Scholarly materials should be collected in the standard formats.  Journals are of the greatest interest to the faculty and graduate researchers; journal holdings should be expanded whenever and however possible.  The library should acquire monographs, research reports, government publications to provide resources for curriculum support for the students.  Proceedings other than from the large societies (AIAA, SAE) are of lesser importance since most of the significant papers tend to be published in the journal literature.  Print and electronic formats will be primarily selected.

Date of publication:  Collection emphasis will be on both currently published materials and retrospective classics.

Other General Considerations:

Other disciplines related to the aerospace engineering are engineering mechanics and mechanical engineering.

NASA Langley Library - The NASA Langley Research Library is clearly an important resource for students and faculty in the Aerospace Engineering Department.  Its primary strength is its significant holdings in periodical materials. The ODU Library should not strive to duplicate that collection but rather collect in areas where it is not collecting. This would be in the area of monographic titles.

VIVA resources -  The Virtual Library of Virginia strives to build Virginia academic and scholarly research collections across all disciplines.  VIVA currently subscribes to  ACM Digital Library, Annual Reviews,  and online journals from such publishers as Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.  It also subscribes to related databases such as Applied Science and Technology Index, Computer and Information Systems Abstracts, Conference Papers Index, Engineered Materials Abstracts, Mechanical Engineering Abstracts, Corrosion Abstracts, and METADEX.

ODU online resources – Perry Library subscribes on its own to additional significant resources in engineering, including Compendex, INSPEC, NTIS reports, and ScienceDirect.  In addition, the Library will soon acquire access to Web of Science.

Government Publications - Government documents are important in aerospace engineering.  The Library receives about 60% of US depository program documents and has a collection of both print and online resources of interest to this program.  It also has the STAR (Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports), a comprehensive print abstracting and indexing journal covering current worldwide report literature on the science and technology of space and aeronautics. Publications abstracted include scientific and technical reports issued by NASA and its contractors, other federal agencies, corporations, universities, and research organizations throughout the world. Pertinent theses, translations, NASA-owned patents and patent applications, and other separates are also abstracted.

Distance Education - The Aerospace Engineering Department teaches numerous courses at off-campus graduate centers, especially at Langley, the ODU Peninsula Center, and the Virginia Consortium of Engineering and Science (VCES) Langley. In some cases department faculty travel to these sites to teach courses; in other cases, courses are televised to the site.

Doctoral dissertations – Perry Library houses a collection of theses and dissertations written by its students.  There is an archival copy in Special Collections Room and, normally, a second circulating copy in its general collections.  All theses and dissertations are cataloged and can be located by various methods in the library's catalog.  Dissertations from other universities can often be obtained either through the library's interlibrary loan service or through University Microfilms, Inc.

December 2, 2003

Bibliographer:  Ann Pettingill