Search & Find
SWES 170A1: Introduction to Environmental Science
Welcome!
If you are a student in NATS 101 - Introduction to Environmental Science, with Dr. Wilson, Dr. Wiley, and Dr. Matthias, this webpage is for you! This webpage supplements the library sessions held for your classes from Sept 9 - Sept 12th, 2008.
The links on this page will help you find information you need to complete your assignment - if you would like further assistance, please contact us! If we are not available, you can also get help from our Ask a Librarian services.
Things to Know:
- Remember to cite your sources! Refer to your class assignment for details -
Need help formatting your citations? Try using RefWorks!
Want to learn more about citation formats? Take a look at the citation style guide!
Find Books
Use the Library Catalog to find books on your topic, or to see if the Library subscribes to a journal that you need. For some tips on searching the library catalog, view the UA Library Catalog Tutorial.
How to Read Call Numbers Guide
If you've found a book or journal, and aren't sure how to interpret the "call number" for the item, take a look at the How to Read Call Numbers guide.
If you have the location and call number for an item, but aren't sure where in the Library to find it, take a look at the Call Number Location Guide. This will tell you which Library you need to look in, and what floor!
Find Journal Articles
Popular vs. Scholarly Articles (Guide)
To complete your assignment, you will be looking for books, or for peer-reviewed journal articles. To review the difference between scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals and popular magazines, take a look at the Popular vs. Scholarly Articles guide.
Popular vs. Scholarly Articles (Tutorial)
To review the difference between scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals and popular magazines, you can also review the Interactive Tutorial.
If you have a topic in mind, but need some help brainstorming more search terms, take a look at these tutorials that will help you brainstorm and come up with a search strategy:
Search by Keywords in Library Databases Tutorial
This is a great tutorial for learning search techniques.
REMINDER: Your book or article needs to be related to ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY.
If you would like more information to help you understand the concept of environmental sustainability so that you can brainstorm for more specific topics, try these electronic books* from the UA Libraries:
A dictionary of ecology - search the dictionary for the term "sustainability" for a very brief definition.
The Encyclopedia of Global Change has a background article on the concept of "sustainable development", including a short bibliography for further research. Type "sustainability" in the search box, and you will retrieve several encyclopedia articles to learn more about the topic. The first article is about the principles of sustainability.
The Encyclopedia of Environment and Society also contains background information on sustainability - type "sustainability" into the search box.
The above resources will help you understand the broad topic of environmental sustainability - they are just a sample of the resources available to help you find information.
*if you are off-campus, you will be prompted to log in with your last name and CatCard before being able to access these materials.
Using Academic Search Complete
In class, we focused on the Academic Search Complete database to find scholarly journal articles.
Academic Search Complete
Guide
Academic Search Complete is an multi-disciplinary database covering a broad range of disciplines including general academic, business, social sciences, humanities, general sciences, education, and multi-cultural topics. The database offers:
- full text coverage for more than 3,600 journals
- indexing and abstracts for more than 4,500 journals
- if the article you want isn't in Academic Search Complete, use ArticleLinker to link out to other Library databases to find the article
- if the article isn't available at all in the Library collections, we can get it for you through InterLibrary Loan.
You can link to Academic Search Complete, or any of the databases suggested below, by going to the Library homepage and clicking on the “Article and Database Searching” link; then click on the name of the database you want to search. These are proprietary databases (not free) so you’ll need to come in via a campus computer or use your CatCard to login when prompted.
Academic Search Complete Tutorial
Before you start searching, you can review the Academic Search Complete Tutorial, or just remember these helpful tips:
- Remember to click the checkbox next to Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals to limit your search
- Use truncation (the asterisk * symbol) to pick up different word endings: e.g. sustain* = sustain, sustains, sustainability
- Combine synonyms / similar terms with "or"
- Narrow your search using "and"
If you've used Academic Search Complete before, and want to try something a little different, take a look at the Environmental Science databases described below.
Evaluating Websites
Evaluating Information on the Web
Part of your assignment focuses on evaluating a website. Review the Evaluating Information on the Web guide tutorial for tips on how to evaluate the website.
...Go a Step Further - Environmental Science Databases
Academic Search Complete
Guide
Academic Search Complete is a very useful multi-disciplinary database, and is a great place to start. If you want to try something different, the Library has several specialized databases. The databases provide indexing, abstracts, and in some cases, fulltext articles, in specific disciplines. The databases cover journal articles, and other published materials, such as conference proceedings, book chapters, and other research resources. The databases below have excellent coverage of environmental issues.
1910 - . Covers the subject of agriculture in the broadest sense and includes many related life sciences subjects. It includes biotechnology, economics, environmental degradation and remediation, forestry, genetics, herbicides, irrigation, leisure, recreation and tourism, microbiology, rural development, and much more.
1969- Covers all areas of the life sciences including environment and ecology. Includes citations to over 22 million articles and papers with over 500,000 items added each year.
Web of Science (included in Web of Knowledge)
Guide
1900- (science journals) 1956—(social science journals). Covers all areas of the physical, life, environmental, economic and social sciences. Indexes over 10,000 journals.
Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS International)
1915 - . PAIS provide access to publications related to the environment and public policy. International in scope including materials from over 120 countries.
1967- Provides comprehensive coverage of water-related topics summarizing the world's technical and scientific literature on water-related topics covering the characteristics, conservation, control, pollution, treatment, use and management of water resources in the life and physical sciences, as well as the engineering and legal aspects of the conservation, control, use, and management of water.
1966- Medline is the National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database of international biomedical literature, providing comprehensive information on every aspect of medicine including environmental aspects.
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