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Electronic Library Resources: Going beyond our Library Buildings

Besides the physical items found on our shelves (printed books and periodicals, CDs, DVDs, Videos, etc.) the library also gives access to electronic online information.

The library subscribes to the following six databases:

  1. EBSCO Academic Search Ultimate;
  2. EBSCOhost eBook Collection;
  3. Elsevier ScienceDirect Complete – College Edition;
  4. Emerald;
  5. IEEE Xplore;
  6. ProQuest Ebook Central; and
  7. Weblinks Online.

To access the above-mentioned databases you must be registered library users. If you have not done so, you can register by clicking on Registration on the left hand Library menu or by filling in the Microsoft form. If you require any assistance, please contact us on llrc@mcast.edu.mt.

Brief Information about the Subscription-based Databases

EBSCO Academic Search Ultimate offers students an unprecedented collection of peer-reviewed, full-text journals, including many journals indexed in leading citation indexes. The combination of academic journals, magazines, periodicals, reports, books and videos meets the needs of scholars in virtually every discipline ranging from astronomy, anthropology, biomedicine, engineering, health, law and literacy to mathematics, pharmacology, women’s studies, zoology and more.

EBSCOHost eBook Collection consists of around 3,300 e-books of various subjects which can be read online.

Elsevier ScienceDirect Complete – College Edition provides access to peer-reviewed journal articles across a wide spectrum of subject areas, such as the physical sciences and engineering; life sciences; health sciences; and social sciences and humanities.  In addition, approximately 1.4 million articles on ScienceDirect are open access and freely available for everyone to read, download and reuse in line with the user license displayed on the article.

Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice. The MCAST library subscribes to journals in the fields of management and engineering.

IEEE Xplore digital library is a powerful resource for discovery of and access to scientific and technical content published by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and its publishing partners. It provides web access to more than four-million full-text documents from some of the world’s most highly cited publications in electrical engineering, computer science and electronics, in the fields of:

Aerospace & Defence • Artificial Intelligence • Automotive • Autonomous vehicles • Biomedical • Biometrics • Circuits & Systems • Communications • Computer Hardware • Computer Software • Cyber Security • Engineering • Energy • Imaging • Information Technology • Internet of Things • Medical Devices • Nanotechnology • Optics • Petroleum & Gas • Power Electronics • Power Systems • Robotics & Automation • Semiconductors • Smart Grid • Sustainable Technology • Wireless Broadband … and many more.

The content in IEEE Xplore comprises:

• 195+ journals
• 1,400+ conference proceedings
• 5,100+ technical standards, and
• Approximately 20,000 new documents are added each month.

ProQuest Ebook Central offers more than 171,000 multi-disciplinary ebooks from highly regarded publishers in the academic subject areas of Arts, Business, Education, Health & medicine, History, Law, Literature & Language, Religion & Philosophy, Science & technology, and Social sciences. You can quickly and easily find relevant ebooks and chapters; read online; search within the ebook; and highlight, take notes and bookmark pages in your online copy, stored on your bookshelf for you. You can also share your research with others, download ebooks and chapters to your laptop or mobile device, and more.

Weblinks Online is a searchable online database of thousands of teacher-reviewed, approved and annotated websites useful for College students and lecturers.

Some other useful free websites are the following:

Brief Information about the Free Access Websites

A+ Research and Writing provides tips on how to research and write assignments.  The website has now closed permanently and it will no longer be updated.  However, the content is still available for use.

DART-Europe is an E-theses portal that provides researchers with a single European portal for the discovery of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs).  Dart-Europe is a partnership of research libraries and library consortia who are working together to improve global access to European research theses.

DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) is an online directory that indexes and provides access to quality open access, peer-reviewed journals.  It aims to be comprehensive and cover all open access scientific and scholarly journals that use a quality control system to guarantee the content.

Electronic content to in-house subscribed Periodicals in Print form – The MCAST Library subscribes to some periodical publications in print form.  Electronic content, either as full-text or summaries of main articles of many of these publications can be found on the respective websites.  The MCAST library online catalogue provides a direct link to these websites.  Click on the ‘Advanced Search’ of the catalogue and choose ‘Shelf Mark’ from the ‘Search In’ field and type ‘P’ in the ‘Search Terms’ field.  The search can then be further restricted by choosing any of the other fields:  Library, subject, class, etc.  Once the periodical required is identified, click on the title, and the ‘MCAST Library-View Item’ web page is displayed.  Clicking on ‘Digital (www)’ will display the respective periodical website from which the electronic content, if any, can be accessed.

Elsevier offers free access to archived material in 140 journals. Articles featured in the archives are free for everyone to read and download and are made available after an embargo period.  Please note that the library will not process any requests for the purchase of any journal articles for which access is against payment.

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature.  From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other websites.

National Statistics Office, Malta publications provide a wide range of statistical information on the economic and social spheres in Malta.

ResearchGate’s mission is to connect the world of science and make research open to all.SpringerLink provides open access (that is, free) to a number of journal articles, e-books and protocols in various disciplines.  This material can be accessed by unticking the Include Preview-Only content box at the bottom of the page, before pressing the Search button.  Please note that the library will not process any requests for the purchase of any journal articles or e-books for which access is against payment.

Teach with Movies provides lesson plans and learning guides based on movies and films; full length and snippets (video clips) for classes in English, Health, Science and the Arts.

Wiley Open Access Journals publishes authoritative peer reviewed open access journals across many research disciplines.  All research articles published in Wiley Open Access journals are immediately freely available to read, download, and share.  Wiley Open Access publishes a number of online journals across biological, chemical and health sciences.

Last updated:  14th December 2023