A new search engine for transportation

Transportation Meta Search is a Google-enabled search engine, set up and maintained by transportation librarians in the USA and abroad. There is nothing fancy here, just a single search box, and no "advanced search", but it's pretty effective. A search on "asphalt rubber pavements" pulled up 265 documents, including many PDFs.

Though TMS searches only on the Web, it could serve as a useful starting point before moving on to more comprehensive and detailed databases such as TRIS (available on the Web) and Transport (available in the Transportation Library.)

New bibliographies from the Transportation Library

Library staff members Seyem Petrites and John Gallwey have recently compiled bibliographies that may be of interest to our readers. Seyem compiled Sources of Information in Intelligent Transportation Systems, a solo effort, while John engaged the help of several members of the Special Libraries Association's Transportation Division (including our own Kendra Levine) to assemble Sources of Information in Highways.

These bibliographies are part of the 6th edition of the SLA Transportation Division's "Sources of Information in Transportation." The new edition will become available on the National Transportation Library website in summer 2007.

The Great Quake of '06

In 2006 the Transportation Library participated in The Great Quake: the Legacy of Disaster exhibition in UC Berkeley's Main Library in 2006. The exhibition was part of the campus's recognition of the centennial of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Focusing on themes such as transportation, water resources, public policy, and earthquake preparedness, the exhibits gave a glimpse of how UC Berkeley researchers and local agencies have worked to reduce risks and improve disaster management.

Staff member Seyem Petrites selected items from the Library's collections to arrange an exhibit featuring programs developed by Bay Area agencies and transportation providers to reduce the region's vulnerability to earthquakes. The exhibits were on display from April 18 through the end of August 2006 in the Bernice Layne Brown Gallery in Doe Library. An expanded version of the exhibition continues online, courtesy of the Bancroft Library.

Bay bridges exhibit

From 2002 to 2004 the Transportation Library and the Water Resources Center Archive ran a joint exhibit on the history of Bay Area bridges with sections on the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge, and the Carquinez bridge; the new east span of the Bay Bridge; unbuilt projects; and the Golden Gate Bridge in popular culture. The site was created by Randal Brandt, formerly of the Water Resources Center Archive and now chief cataloger at the Bancroft Library.

Futuristics

If you liked the previous entry on technological forecasts from 1900, you may well enjoy Engineering Futuristics, an online exhibition of weird and wonderful transportation ideas from the past. Assembled by our Operations Manager Paul Hernandez from items in the Transportation Library's collections, the physical exhibition was originally displayed in the lobby of UC Berkeley's Main Library. It reopened on Cal Day, April 16, 2005 on the ground floor of the breezeway between McLaughlin Hall and O'Brien Hall.

Paul talks about the exhibition in an interview in the online magazine The High Hat.

Welcome!

Welcome to TransBlog from the Institue of Transportation Studies Library at UC Berkeley. TransBlog will discuss new developments in transportation research, as well as highlight services and resources for those interested in transportation engineering and planning. Stay tuned!