Guides & Tutorials: Building &amp; Real Estate: Find Databases

Find Databases

Agricultural & Environmental Science Collection (via ProQuest)
Includes AGRICOLA, TOXLINE, ESPM (Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management) and EIS (Environmental Impact Statements) databases and provides full-text titles, including scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, and government publications.
ASCE Library
A comprehensive online tool for locating articles of interest across all disciplines of civil engineering.
Civil Engineering Database
Covers article bibliographic records of all ASCE publications.
Earth, Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Collection (via ProQuest)
Contains full text articles from scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, conference proceedings in Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA), Oceanic Abstracts, and Meteorological & Geoastrophysical Abstracts (MGA).
ICE Virtual Library
Contains full-text of journal articles, conference proceedings, and books published by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in the UK.
ICONDA CIB Library
An open access online repository for CIB (International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction) and CIB related publications.
IEEE Xplore
provides full text access to IEEE journals, transactions, letters, magazines and conference proceedings, IET journals and conference proceedings, and IEEE Standards.
SciTech Premium Collection (via ProQuest)
A collection in the natural sciences, technology, engineering and related disciplines.

ABI/INFORM Collection (via ProQuest)
An index to publications on business management and administration. Subject coverage includes economic conditions, finance, accounting, corporate strategies, management theory, management techniques, business trends, competitive landscape and product information.
Business Source Complete (via EbscoHost)
Provides full text for over 2,800 scholarly business journals covering management, economics, finance, accounting, international business and much more.
Emerald Insight
Provides full text articles to Emerald journals, books, and case studies mainly on business and management subjects.
GreenFILE (via EbscoHost)
Offers information covering all aspects of human impact on the environment.

Academic Search Premier (via EbscoHost)
A multidisciplinary research database containing full text articles in a wide range of topics -- business, education, social sciences, health, science and technology etc.
CNKI 中國知網
largest database to cover academic journals in Chinese.
IGI Global InfoSci Platform
Provides full-text access to peer-reviewed journals and ebooks in a wide range of subjects.
ScienceDirect
Contains full text articles from Elsevier journals in multidisciplinary subjects.
Scopus
A multidisciplinary, bibliographic database that indexes the content of over 23,700 peer-reviewed journals.
Springer Nature Link
provides access to abstracts and full text of millions of documents from journals, books, reference works, proceedings accros various disciplines, including life sciences, chemical sciences, geosciences, computer science, mathematics, medicine, physics & astronomy, engineering, environmental sciences, and economics.
Web of Science
contains articles from over 12k peer-reviewed journals in multidisciplinary areas. Include indexes: SCIE, SSCI, CPCI-S, etc.
Wiley Online Library
Contains full text articles from Wiley journals in multidisciplinary subjects.

Bills Database (The Legislative Council)
Contains key dates and the amendment history of Bills considered by the Legislative Council since 1844
Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
Allows you to search the full title of legal publications
Gazette (HKSAR Government)
Official channel for promulgating legislation, public notices and appointments
Hong Kong e-Legislation
Official database of Hong Kong legislation maintained by the Department of Justice
Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (HKLII)
Provides primary legal materials of Hong Kong
Judgments & Legal Reference (Judiciary)
Search judgments by Case Number/Neutral Citation Number, parties, court levels, Reasons for Verdict, Reasons for Sentence and keywords
Lexis Advance Hong Kong
Provides a user-friendly search interface to access Hong Kong law cases, legislation, commentary, journals, and source directory
i-law (Part of Lloyd's List Intelligence)
Provides access to law reports, journal articles and texts on the areas of Construction, Dispute Resolution, Financial Crime, Insurance & Reinsurance, Maritime & Commercial, Medical, Tax & Finance.
PrimeLaw
Covers legislation and cases in Hong Kong, UK and Australia, and commentary and journals of legal topics
Westlaw Asia
Provides a unique collection of cases, legislation and other legal materials
北大法寶 (pkulaw.cn)
A comprehensive bilingual database of law in the Mainland

How to Access Legal Databases

From OneSearch

1. Go to OneSearch, enter the database title (e.g. Lexis Advance), hit “SEARCH”

2. Or Click “Databases" tab, find databases by name or browse databases by subject (e.g. Law)

Click here to see screenshot

Lexis Advance HK

1. Basic Search: Enter your search term (e.g. keywords, case citation, legislation title or publication) on the red box, click “Search: Everything” to limit your result by HK cases, HK legislation or others

2. Quick Find: Access law reports, legislation, secondary materials or the legal definitions much faster

3. Publications: Browse /search a publication by clicking its title

4. Advanced Search: Conduct a more refined search by different aspects of cases, legislation, secondary materials etc

Click here to see screenshot

Westlaw Asia

Users can search in three different views:

1. Basic Search: Enter your search term(s), click “All” to select Case, Legislation, Commentary, Journals or Current awareness, and then choose the jurisdiction(s) you want to include

2. Content Type: Choose a type of material to search, and then enter your search term(s)

3. Jurisdiction: Choose a jurisdiction, enter your search term(s) and select content type

Click here to see screenshot

Hong Kong Data

Common Spatial Data Infrastructure (CSDI) Portal
Common Spatial Data Infrastructure (CSDI) Portal is an initiative of the HKSAR Government to promote the sharing of spatial data and support various smart city applications. The data is grouped under different categories such as Commerce and Industry, Education, Health, Recreation and Culture, Sports, Transportation, Utilities etc. The major functions of the Portal include searching dataset, showing content, downloading and previewing.
Open Geo-Spatial Data in HK
Open data from DATA.GOV.HK, providing different types of layers and webmaps for Esri users. Datasets cover various categories, e.g. census, education, environment, geography and landscape, housing, transport, etc.
Aerial Photographs - Lands Department
Provides aerial photography in the territory of Hong Kong periodically at different altitudes producing various types of aerial photographs including colour, false colour infrared, and oblique aerial photographs.
Hong Kong Digital Maps
Coverage: up to 2014
Provides digital topographic map and land boundary map of the whole territory of Hong Kong. Datasets are in DWG or ASCII format.
Free to the public via Hong Kong Map Service 2.0 site since Apr 2021.
Hong Kong Geographic Information System Association (HKGISA)
Provides a list of Hong Kong GIS resources, e.g. Hong Kong Lands Department GeoInfo Map, Hong Kong Planning Department Statutory Planning Portal, CentaMap, etc.

China Data

Beijing City Lab
Provides datasets on urban areas in China.
National Earth System Science Data Center (国家地球系统科学数据中心)
Provides high-quality earth system data sharing services in China. A mainland China mobile phone number is required to register for an account and access data downloads.
OpenStreetMap (OSM) - China
Contains the most detailed free geographic features anywhere, including streets, landuse, buildings, railways, roads, natural features (such as waterbodies and parks).

Global Data

GADM Global Administrative Areas
Provides maps and spatial data for all countries and their sub-divisions. Can download maps and spatial data by country. Free for academic use.
Harvard WorldMap
Developed by Harvard University, an online, open-source mapping platform to lower barriers for scholars who wish to explore, visualize, edit, and publish geospatial information.
User Guide
ORNL LandScan (Formerly East View)
LandScan is the global population distribution industry standard, offering data since 2000. It is valuable for research, education, humanitarian, and corporate applications. The LandScan Program was initiated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in 1997 to address the need for improved estimates of population for consequence assessment.
Spatial Data Repository
Provides geographically-linked health and demographic data from The Demographic and Health Surveys Program and the U.S. Census Bureau for mapping in a geographic information system.
WorldPop
provides an open access archive of spatial demographic datasets for Central and South America, Africa and Asia to support development, disaster response and health applications.

BBC Horizon Collection (via Alexander Street)
Reveals the science behind a broad range of topics, including astronomy, physics, math, the environment, disease, and more.
BBC Landmark Video Collection (via Alexander Street)
Features videos from BBC programs on the natural world, including its popular series such as Planet Earth and Blue Planet.
IEEE Courses
Provides a series of interactive online learning tutorials.
JoVE Journal. Engineering
A peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes research methods and experimental techniques in video format. The video articles are indexed in PubMed and Web of Science.
JoVE Journal. Environment
A peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes research methods and experimental techniques in video format. The video articles are indexed in PubMed and Web of Science.
JoVE Science Education. Engineering
Provides videos that demonstrate key concepts and fundamental techniques in Engineering.
JoVE Science Education. Environmental Sciences
Provides videos that demonstrate key concepts and fundamental techniques in Environmental Sciences.
JoVE Science Education. Physics
Provides videos that demonstrate key concepts and fundamental techniques in Physics.
SAGE Research Methods Video: Core
Contains hundreds of tutorials, case study videos, expert interviews, and more, covering the entire research methods and statistics curriculum.

ACI Manual of Concrete Practice
Contains all of the ACI documents you need to know about code requirements, specifications, tolerances, concrete proportions, construction methods, evaluations of test results, and many more topics.
BCIS Online (Building Cost Information Service Online)
Provides access to cost information for a wide range of commercial, industrial, residential and public sector buildings in the UK.
Video tutorial here.
National Geographic Magazine, 1888-2020 (via Gale)
The complete archive of National Geographic magazine, from the first issue to 2020. Includes every page and every photograph, all fully searchable through an intuitive interface.