ASCE Journals for Members

[techiestruc]

Hi,

Are the journals in ASCE library free for download for members? I am thinking of applying for membership in ASCE just to have access to their vast references/journals. AISC provides free access to their journals for members. Hoping that ASCE would be the same.

Thanks

 

[SlideRuleEra]

No, the ASCE journals are not free for members. I, too, am a member of both AISC and ASCE and have signed up for the "ASCE Library Card". Some ASCE content is supposedly free, but I have not come across any. Prices for ASCE journals, etc. are reduced for members, but still pretty high. See this FAQ about the ASCE Library.

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

http://www.VacuumTubeEra.net

 

[techiestruc]

Thanks for the response. That was sad. I should've maximized my university access of ASCE journals when I was a grad student.

 

[oldestguy]

As I recall years back, the workers at ASCE stated the main purpose of the organization was to publicize. However, paying for them has to be figured in some how AND me, now long retired and still a member, I no longer have a annual membership fee. Join and help them send the magazine to me.
.

 

[Ron]

OG...
As a long time ASCE member, I find that they give away very little and some of their publications are expensive. My former employer had an extensive library of ASCE publications, mostly related to geotechnical; however, as a token gesture to me, the lone structural guy at that time, they also got a few structural pubs and eventually the structural journal. One long-time branch manager there created a publications budget and would purchase various publications each month for the library. As a result, they had the best engineering library in town....even better than the local university's library for such publications.

SlideRuleEra's library is probably the most extensive you'll find and he's great about sharing his engineering wealth of information. He has stuff you can't find anywhere else!

My whole point to this rambling is that as soon as you can afford it, start building your library. You won't regret it. I'm at about 700 hard copy books and thousands of electronic articles, books and publications. I use them a lot and continue to add them! I still have almost all of my books from engineering school.....never sold any of them, but have lost a couple to borrowers over the past 40 years.

 

[maneesha0702]

This is my gripe with ASCE. I will never join them. AISC has a ton of free stuff for members. All PCI journals are freely accessible. How come ASCE keeps their decade old journals still out of reach. The best way to publicize is like AISC. I perfected the steel design by joining them and attending all their Night school. The approach of ASCE is really short sighted.

 

[BUGGAR]

I am impressed by what is available to technical students in China.

 

[wannabeSE]

jassenbrain,

You might check the benefits of being an alumni member at your university. Alumni membership might give you access to their library and periodicals.

 

[techiestruc]

Thanks for your suggestion wannabeSE. I will inquire for alumni library access at my university.

Whenever I'm in the mood to research/study for some topics, I'm hindered by the unavailability of such journals over the internet. At first, I was patient looking for these journals but I realized that I was spending so much time looking for them without even finding any. So now, I'm willing to subscribe as member to have an easy access to these journals but I found out that ASCE journals are too expensive. I hope that they would support those who are willing to study in our community.

 

[IDS]

So now, I'm willing to subscribe as member to have an easy access to these journals but I found out that ASCE journals are too expensive. I hope that they would support those who are willing to study in our community

If they make the journals free, or much cheaper, where do you suggest they replace this income from?

The other bodies mentioned, that supply free publications, are all industry associations whose job is to promote the use of the particular product they deal with. They receive their income mainly from the large companies whose products they promote.

The ASCE is a member based organisation whose purpose is to help their members do a better job. Their main income is from membership fees and fees for the services they provide. If the income from a particular service is greatly reduced, then that income needs to come from somewhere else, or they need to reduce costs, which probably means getting rid of staff.

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/

 

[BigH]

janssenbrian - you might be surprised at how many articles are available from the journals as put out by the particular author's web site. For instance:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Harry_Poulos/publications

- has some ASCE articles in there.

I agree that it is sad that articles are so expensive for members - paying $25 or so for an article that based on the abstract might be a good one for you but when you get it you find it is basically worthy of the circular file. Oh, and I took the geotechnical journal from 1975 through 2012 when I gave up as all the papers were by Professors and in one year there was something like 4 papers on improving the bearing capacity factors! What they don't tell you, and I had some 5 years of the electronic files too, if you stop the journal, you CANNOT access the journals for the years that you did pay for.

Too, ASCE's PDH courses are way too expensive - in Malaysia one can get a 7 hr PDH credit for a workshop (for example as presented by Dr. Poulos (Coffey), Dr. Lacasse (Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Dr. Graham (Manitoba), Dr. Powrie) for about $100 USD.

I agree with Ron - while oldestguy must have a huge library - as does SlideRuleEra - I have, too been collecting. Coming overseas with only 2 books and leaving 50 boxes in storage in Toronto, I now have almost 100 (lived in India for a while and the books there are cheap). I just bought my 1951 edition of Chellis' Pile Foundations Book (I like old books) and I picked up Lancellotta's Geotechnical Engineering 2nd Edition at a KL bookstore. Never had a geo book by an Italian before (McCoy - a good one? - too many differential equations). And to show that I do have other interests I bought Ted Gigio's "The History of Jazz" for $5USD.

 

[BUGGAR]

Some engineers vacation overseas to obtain technical publications.

 

[BigH]

Buggar - you might be right but it would be a very expensive vacation if one were to travel overseas with an idea of saving a few dollars on books. Not all "vacation" spots have university-style book stores.

I have been working continuously in Asia since 1995 and worked there, too, in 1983, 1985, 1987-88. I didn't "vacation" overseas - but I paid the prices at the IIT university bookstore for the books that were being sold. I would love to introduce more engineers to the joy of working overseas - of having to drive 3 to 12 hours just to get to a store that would be likened to a K-Mart . . . I have it nice, here in Malaysia since the big city is only an hour away - but then, I have monkeys jumping over the fence and grabbing our garbage and elephants trumpeting wake-up calls every morning. Oh, and an internet that takes 15 minutes to send a 1 MB file; and no NFL football, no NHL Hockey.

 

[oldestguy]

One more from this OG. Whether or not you ever become self employed or not, being a member of professional organizations brings you into contact with those of similar interests in one form or another. You can't help but benefit from these contacts. However, in business, these relationships do result with an occasional job that otherwise you may not be aware of. Even finding good new employee prospects sometimes comes about. My second job with a consulting engineering firm came about that way.

 

[concretemasonry]

There is a very good way to get free publications from associations.

Just join the organization and get involved in the committees for codes and publications. You also get have some input and learn from others knowledge and experiences.

ASCE is a non-profit organization, so there is no profit incentive, but just a goal of fulfilling its obligation to members. It can take a long time to get on the voting position of the committees. - It took me 20 years of membership and 10 years of waiting to get to be a voting member of ASTM. There is a value of being active in a professional association.

Dick

Engineer and international traveler interested in construction techniques, problems and proper design.

 

[canwesteng]

The Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering publishes all it's articles for free. A nice side effect of being tax funded I suppose. The flip side is they are less industry focused as compared to ASCE articles, although they do drive changes in the building code up here. Gotta stay cutting edge when designing our igloos of course.