Open Access (OA) means free unrestrectriced online access to peer-review scholarly research, including scholarly journal articles, theses, book chapters and scholarly monographs. For more information about open access and how it applies to you please view the Open Access Library Guide.
Besides engineering virtual libraries or library journal subscriptions/databases, there are engineering portals that provide access to a broad array of resources and services, such as e-mail, forums, search engines, online product catalogs and job information. Listed below is a short list of these portals. While less research oriented than engineering virtual libraries, they are important sites for engineers in obtaining information. Roddy MacLeod covers many more portals in his "Panorama of Engineering Portals" article (MacLeod, 2000) just page down to the "TIPS AND TECHNIQUES" section.