The library has a number of databases with resources to help you complete your technical report. Through our databases, you have access to the Toronto daily newspapers which cover local infrastructure, regulatory and legislative issues. We also offer a number of trade and academic journals to help you with your topic. Outlined below are the ways in which a trade or an academic journal can help you with your research. See our Library Research Videos for help searching for these resources.
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In order to search for trade journals, academic journals or newspaper articles, you will need to create a search string to use in the library databases. Below is an example of how you take a research topic and create a search string for use in our database.
Sample Topic: The cost benefits of Building Information Modeling
Identify key concepts
Building information modeling
Cost benefits
Identify “like concepts”
Building Information Modeling OR BIM
Cost-benefit OR cost analysis OR “return on investment” OR roi
Look at words you want to truncate *
Effect*(effective or effectiveness)
Combine key concepts AND – all these words (implied in most databases)
Combine like concepts with OR and ()
Use “ “ for phrases (“return on investment”)
Decide where you want to look (limit to ABSTRACT, SUBJECT HEADINGS)
Search String
Once you have identified key concepts…….
Be willing to play around with keywords - especially in trade journals, magazines or newspapers
Sample Topic: Risk allocation in Public-Private Partnerships for infrastructure projects.
Once you have developed your search string, you can enter it in the box below to search a number of library databases simultaneously. These include key databases like Applied Engineering and Technology and Science Direct.
Many of the topics for the technical report have a specific Canadian focus. You may need to find information at the provincial or municipal level. While a search in the main library search box will retrieve some of the resources available in our collection, you will want to use the built-in CBCA Complete and Canadian Newsstand buttons to search these two databases, both of which have a strong focus on Canadian content.
Image 1. International Broadsheet Newspapers On Wire Rack Outside News Agent's Shop. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 24 Mar 2014. http://quest.eb.com/images/118_796253
Image 2. Toronto Life. (2014). Magazine Cover from September 2013 issue [digital image]. Retrieved March 24, 2014 from http://www.torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/toronto-life-september-2013-sm.jpg
Image 3. Reed Business Information. n.d. Daily Commercial News Magazine Cover . [digital image]. Retrieved April 14, 2014 from https://cps.cstonecanada.com/dcn/frmCustomerCareAdv.aspx?lng=en&pg=register2
Image 4. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. n.d. Journal Cover. [digital image]. Retrieved March 24, 2014 from http://ascelibrary.org/na101/home/literatum/publisher/asce/journals/covergifs/jcemd4/cover.png
Image 5. Asphalt Contractor. (2015). Screenshot of pages #6 and 7 . [digital image]. Retrieved November 25, 2016 from Applied Science and Technology Database
Image 6.. Building and Environment (2014). Journal Page #317. [digital image]. Retrieved November 2016 from the Science Direct Database.