ENGINEERING: Find Background Information

Search 500+ reference works in all disciplines.

Fully-indexed, extensively linked, up to date, and cross-searchable dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press

Search across more than 100 encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference books.

Search across more than 100 encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference works.

The Library of Congress holds one of the largest and most accessible collections of technical reports in the world.

The Technical Report Archive & Image Library (TRAIL) identifies, acquires, catalogs, digitizes and provides unrestricted access to U.S. government agency technical reports. TRAIL currently consists of over four dozen member institutions whose annual membership fees and volunteered staff time further the efforts of the project.

View all of RAND's publications grouped by topic. Most titles published in 2000 or later are available online, along with selected earlier products.

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), a unit of the Office of Science, fulfills agency-wide responsibilities to collect, preserve, and disseminate both unclassified and classified scientific and technical information (STI) emanating from DOE-funded research and development (R&D) activities at DOE national laboratories and facilities and at universities and other institutions nationwide. OSTI provides access to DOE STI through a suite of web-based, searchable discovery tools and through other commonly used search engines, offering ever-expanding sources of R&D information to DOE, the research community, and the science-attentive public.

The National Technical Reports Library (NTRL) is a service of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) which helps federal agencies make better decisions about data, with data. NTIS provides the support and structure that helps their partners securely store, analyze, sort, and aggregate data in new ways.

The National Information Standards Organization is a not-for-profit membership organization that identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards to manage information.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. NIST measurements support the smallest of technologies to the largest and most complex of human-made creations—from nanoscale devices so tiny that tens of thousands can fit on the end of a single human hair up to earthquake-resistant skyscrapers and global communication networks.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Incorporated by Reference (IBR) Portal provides a one-stop mechanism for access to standards that have been incorporated by reference in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Standards available on the ANSI IBR Portal include those developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and other standards developing organizations (SDOs) that have signed a terms and conditions agreement with ANSI.

The DOE Technical Standards Program (TSP) promotes the use of voluntary consensus standards, manages and facilitates efforts to develop and maintain necessary technical standards, and communicates information on TSP activities.

W3C standards define an Open Web Platform for application development that has the unprecedented potential to enable developers to build rich interactive experiences, powered by vast data stores, that are available on any device.

The Library of Congress standards collection contains publications that have been deposited at the Library of Congress to meet copyright registration requirements.

In accordance with ISO/IEC JTC 1 and the ISO and IEC Councils, these International Standards are publicly available for Standardization purposes.