Engineered cross search switches on

Staff from the Institute for Computer Based Learning and the library at the Heriot-Watt University in Scotland have developed TechXtra, an engineering cross search service for academics and students.

TechXtra is a free service providing access to e-prints, technical reports, theses, articles, news, trade magazines and job announcements.

Roddy MacLeod, senior subject librarian at Heriot-Watt , said engineering is a difficult information landscape because of the wide scope of information – encompassing patents and news through to technical reports. “There has been a need for an engineering cross search site, but engineering doesn’t get talked about because it’s not sexy.”

www.techxtra.ac.uk