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I'm writing a dissertation without access to a library, please help!

As the title says, I'm trying to write a dissertation without being able to access my university library. As a result I'm finding it very hard to find the literature to do so, it's advised to not use many internet websites, the bulk of my references should come from books, journals and reports. Right now I am having a very hard time with where to find these, and it is not an option for me to buy every book that I may think will be useful, as that would cost me 1000's by the end. Can anyone offer any suggestions of as to where I can find what im looking for? It's a chemical engineering dissertation and the topic is hydraulic fracturing for gas.
Original post by ElChapo
As the title says, I'm trying to write a dissertation without being able to access my university library. As a result I'm finding it very hard to find the literature to do so, it's advised to not use many internet websites, the bulk of my references should come from books, journals and reports. Right now I am having a very hard time with where to find these, and it is not an option for me to buy every book that I may think will be useful, as that would cost me 1000's by the end. Can anyone offer any suggestions of as to where I can find what im looking for? It's a chemical engineering dissertation and the topic is hydraulic fracturing for gas.


I don't know about your university/ course. But for lots of my research and references I use the online versions of books that are in the library which I can access through the uni database on my laptop. Is that a possible option for you?
Reply 2
Original post by SophieSmall
I don't know about your university/ course. But for lots of my research and references I use the online versions of books that are in the library which I can access through the uni database on my laptop. Is that a possible option for you?

I shall look into that now, but I doubt they will have online versions of the books I need access to, since its quite a specific topic you see. Have you had experience writing a dissertation before may I ask?
Original post by ElChapo
I shall look into that now, but I doubt they will have online versions of the books I need access to, since its quite a specific topic you see. Have you had experience writing a dissertation before may I ask?


Nope not yet, this was just for general papers. And yeah specific topics can be a pain to find online copies of, but worth a try.
Reply 4
Original post by ElChapo
As the title says, I'm trying to write a dissertation without being able to access my university library. As a result I'm finding it very hard to find the literature to do so, it's advised to not use many internet websites, the bulk of my references should come from books, journals and reports. Right now I am having a very hard time with where to find these, and it is not an option for me to buy every book that I may think will be useful, as that would cost me 1000's by the end. Can anyone offer any suggestions of as to where I can find what im looking for? It's a chemical engineering dissertation and the topic is hydraulic fracturing for gas.


Heya! You should be able to find some published journals and articles on the web, even without access to your library. I've recently completed my own dissertation (in mechanical). Try using google scholar and searching for key words. It's a bit hit and miss at times with some articles (they may be behind a pay wall), but perseverance is key! Hope that helps you :smile:

P.s. Try using the references within useful articles/journals to find other materials that could prove useful to read!
Reply 5
Original post by Anexe
Heya! You should be able to find some published journals and articles on the web, even without access to your library. I've recently completed my own dissertation (in mechanical). Try using google scholar and searching for key words. It's a bit hit and miss at times with some articles (they may be behind a pay wall), but perseverance is key! Hope that helps you :smile:

P.s. Try using the references within useful articles/journals to find other materials that could prove useful to read!


Thanks, I'll give google scholar a try. And yeah that was the first thing I tried actually, using other articles references, but I found it almost impossible to find online versions of the books.
Reply 6
Original post by Anexe
Heya! You should be able to find some published journals and articles on the web, even without access to your library. I've recently completed my own dissertation (in mechanical). Try using google scholar and searching for key words. It's a bit hit and miss at times with some articles (they may be behind a pay wall), but perseverance is key! Hope that helps you :smile:

P.s. Try using the references within useful articles/journals to find other materials that could prove useful to read!

Did you find that with google scholar, it tends to link you to many pages which are looking for payment before you view the pdf's? If so that isn't really what I was looking for, I can't afford to do that unfortunately
Reply 7
Original post by ElChapo
Did you find that with google scholar, it tends to link you to many pages which are looking for payment before you view the pdf's? If so that isn't really what I was looking for, I can't afford to do that unfortunately


Yes, it does tend to do that. But I then proceed to search the article/journal name (after reading the abstract to make sure it suits my needs!). Generally it is possible to get the free pdf's, though it does require some perseverance :smile:

Of course, if you were able to access your university (internet) network, it would be possible to get the pdf's a lot easier, as most universities have subscriptions to most of the websites seeking payment.

P.s. After searching the title, I contain my search to only the 1st-2nd page of google results before proceeding to the next article/journal.
There should be an online version of your uni library with plenty of e-books on it. If you have friends at other unis they might be kind enough to allow you access to their account too.
Reply 9
At my undergrad uni, the library's web page had free e-jourmal access for students, which you could access off-campus. Look for that where you are -these days it would be a very backward uni library which didn't offer something similar. Journals will generally be more up-to-date than books as well.

ETA: Try this:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/library/online/ejournals/

You'll probably reach points where you have to log into the various journal provider sites, but this will be using your uni ID/password. If you run into trouble, the contact details for support staff are on that web page.
(edited 8 years ago)

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