Books are useful for background information and for getting an overview of your topic. While journal articles will have the latest research and developments, they are often focused on a very narrow aspect of a topic. So start your project by looking for books on your topic. Get an overview and learn about the terminology used to describe your topic. Once you have the "big picture" you can then use the engineering databases (Find Articles tab) to find journal articles on your topic.
Handbooks can also help you get an overview or background on a topic. Here are a few of the many available for Civil Engineering topics:
Bridge Engineering Handbook, Second Edition by 
The Civil Engineering Handbook by 
Handbook of Structural Engineering by 
Standard Handbook for Civil Engineers by 
Structural Engineering Handbook by 
The Water Encyclopedia by Knovel is an online collection of over 600 engineering handbooks and reference sources. Search or browse individual books or search across the entire collection. Many of the handbooks in Knovel feature interactive tables and graphs and you can export data to Excel and other programs.
Our subscription includes the civil engineering & construction materials, electrical & power engineering, mechanics & mechanical engineering subject collections. Machinery's Handbook and other popular mechanical engineering references are in the Knovel collection.
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Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences is a collection of 17 electronic encyclopedias and reference works from Elsevier. Broad topics covered are atmospheric sciences, biosciences, energy and natural resources, geosciences, global change, hydrology, and oceanography.