UDOT Library

Library Services

UDOT’s Lester F. Wire Library houses a small in-house collection of legal reference books. Interlibrary loan service is available to access journal articles and other materials from libraries around the world. A growing digital library, featuring mostly AASHTO publications, is hosted in UDOT’s Learning Portal for the use of UDOT employees.

A variety of publication sources are linked below; all of them are free.

Literature searches are also available.

Contact UDOT’s librarian for more information or assistance with any of these services.

About Lester Farnsworth Wire

3-photo collage. Left photo is of a replica of Lester Wire's first electric traffic light. It looks like a birdhouse. Middle photo is of Lester Wire at around the time of his invention, approximately 1912. Right photo is of Lester Wire with a later iteration of his traffic light. It looks more like what is in use today.

Left: Replica of the first electric traffic signal; Center: Lester Wire, circa 1912; Right: Lester Wire with a later model of his invention

Lester Wire Quick Bio

“He Invented the World’s First Traffic Light” (unknown magazine, 1956)

“Lester F. Wire Invents the Traffic Light” (Utah State Historical Society, reposted to FamilySearch)

“When Inventor’s Light Went On, Traffic Control Changed Forever” (Deseret News)

“Utah Policeman Never Got Credit for Inventing Contraption That Was the First Electric Traffic Light” (Salt Lake Tribune, 1985)

“Peak Named for Inventor” (Deseret News, 1967) [partial]

The World’s First Electric Traffic Light (postcard, 1965)

Online Resources

Utah Code

Utah Code – current year

Utah Code – historical
Searchable back to 2014. Records before that are not currently available.

Utah Government Digital Library

Utah Government Digital Library
Searchable database of state agency publications. Maintained by the Utah State Library.

National Transportation Library

National Transportation Library
The NTL provides access to transportation-related research, reports, data, and reference services. Their Ask a Librarian feature allows patrons to submit research and reference requests and get answers via email, chat, or phone.

ROSA P (Repository and Open Science Access Portal)
NTL’s Digital Library. This is an excellent resource for transportation statistics on a variety of topics.

Publications

Digital Library

AASHTO Digital Library – employee access **Login credentials may not be shared outside of UDOT.

The digital library is comprised mainly of complimentary publications released by AASHTO along with a few we have bought. You can browse the AASHTO Bookstore for other publications available for purchase. If you need an AASHTO publication that is not in our digital library, please contact the librarian to see if funds are available to buy it. Making one purchase for the library instead of multiple purchases of the same item for different groups in UDOT saves money. Join the AASHTO publications mailing list to receive their catalog and alerts about new releases.

We’re also beginning to add UDOT and TRB items to the digital library.

NCHRP Reports

NCHRP Report List NCHRP reports are published by the Transportation Research Board (TRB). They’re linked separately from the TRB Publications bar below to help employees find them quickly. The full report list is lengthy, but can be ordered by posted date (default), title, popularity and rank. You can also search by report number. Just enter the number into the search field in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

Search TRID for a Publication

TRID Search Tips

TRID is a comprehensive database resource for transportation research and literature searches.

Transportation Industry Magazines

Intelligent Transport

ITS International

Public Roads (published by USDOT/FHWA)

Roads & Bridges

TRB Publications

Search TRB’s website by series (NCHRP, SHRP 2, Conference Proceedings, TR News, Annual Reports, TRR) or by subject (construction, design, materials). TRB Publications by Series TRB Publications by Subject

UDOT Research Reports

Recent UDOT research reports are categorized by subject on the Research & Innovation “About Us” web page. Older reports going back to 2011 are linked in the Archived Research & Innovation Reports document. For reports preceding 2011, contact the librarian or a Research Project Manager.

Contact UDOT’s Librarian, Joni DeMille (jdemille@utah.gov), for assistance.

Other Research & Innovation Links

Research & Innovation Team Research & Innovation Toolbox UDOT’s Research Prioritization Process (Annual Workshop)