Finding Conference Proceedings in the GT Library Catalog
The proceedings from
conferences, meetings, symposia, etc. can be difficult to find in the GT Library Catalog. Be prepared to try
several approaches and don't hesitate to ask a librarian for help.
If you do not locate the conference
proceeding, keep in mind, that conference papers are also sometimes published
in society journals after the conference.
Also, complete proceedings are not always published – at times just the
abstracts or digests of the papers presented may be published instead of
the complete proceedings. Furthermore, not all the papers that were presented
at a conference always make it into the published proceedings.
If the Georgia Tech library doesn't
own the proceedings VOLUME you need, you may get either a single paper from the
volume or the entire volume through InterLibrary Loan.
The GT Library Catalog contains
records for proceedings in our collections, but it does not contain
records for the individual papers presented at conferences. The easiest way to
find proceedings in our Catalog is to do a Keyword
search on unique words in the title and/or sponsoring organization. Exact title searching is not
recommended due to the variability in the format of proceeding titles.
Conferences
that occur on an annual or other periodic basis may be cataloged under a single
record for the entire series of years, similar to the record for a journal.
This "serial record" does not give the individual theme title or
subtitle specific to each year's conference. When searching keywords in these series
records, the publication year cannot be used as a keyword. For these GT Library Catalog "serial"
records which combine all volumes and years into one record, searching
of specific conference years or unique conference titles is impossible – only
the title that occurs every year can be searched.
To search the GT Library Catalog for a Conference Proceeding:
·
Use
the Keyword search screen
·
Use
keywords from the conference name – do NOT enter the whole title - search for
the most significant and/or unique words in the conference name or title
of collection (use the ‘all of these’ option
when listing these words)
·
Search
for the proceeding's title not the article/paper title
·
Use
the organization (e.g., ASME; American Society of Mechanical Engineers), either
as the abbreviation or spelled out, as keywords (use the ‘as a phrase’ option in the GT Library Catalog when searching for
the spelled out version) [Note: If the citation shows it
abbreviated, try searching first using the acronym. If unsuccessful, spell out
the acronym.]
·
Too many results? to limit your results, include the
year of the conference in your search
·
Too many results? to limit your results, include the city
in which the conference was held in your search
·
Too many results? to limit your results, include the
proceedings editor (not the paper author) in your search
·
Too many results? to limit your results, include words
such as: conference,
congresses, symposia, symposium, meeting, transactions (use the ‘any of these’ option when listing
these words)
Examples:
1. "ieee
fuzzy 2nd" will find IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (2nd :
1993 :
Leads to
11 possible matches …
This is the relevant record.
2. To find the proceedings from the International
Paper Physics Conference sponsored by Technical Association of the Pulp and
Paper Industry (TAPPI), search for keywords “International Paper Physics” (use
‘all of these’ option) and
“Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry” (use ‘as a phrase’ option)
This is the relevant record.
Proceedings
for this conference are cataloged as a SERIES - with one record for all the
years of the conference.
