From The Dickinson College Library Wiki
Liaison Librarian: Theresa Arndt, 245-1750. View my liaison profile page.
Research Help
As a result of the interdisciplinary nature of Environmental Studies, relevant materials can be found throughout the library. While the Library of Congress Classification System does have a call number range specifically designated for Environmental Sciences, there are many other call number ranges that may contain items of interest.
Examples of broad classification areas:
Q= Science
K= Law
H= Social Sciences
Examples of narrower classification areas:
QD1-999= Chemistry
GF 1-900= Human Ecology
GE 1-350 = Environmental Sciences
BJ 1-1725= Ethics
SD1-669.5= Forestry
Look at the Library of Congress Classification System Outline for more information.
Related Environmental Resources
More Research Help
Find Articles
The following indexes, while not a comprehensive listing of all available resources, are a great place to start looking for literature in professional journals. The indexes are listed by discipline. Again, this is only a select listing of indexes. There may be other indexes more valuable depending on your topic.
Science
Web of Science A multidisciplinary index to the journal literature of both the sciences and the social sciences. Excellent for tracing how an article is cited in the literature.
AGRICOLA An electronic index to over 3 million citations to materials acquired by the National Agricultural Library and cooperating institutions.
Green FILE Indexes scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports related to the environment.
Biological & Agricultural Index Articles and other scholarly material published in the leading publications in agriculture, biology, forestry, and ecology. Includes a wide range of popular and professional journals about biology and agriculture.
TOXNET A gateway for databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, environmental health, and toxic releases.
Green EnergyThe U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) provides access to over 30,000 technical reports and over 2,000 patents from R&D projects that pertain to renewable energy resources and energy conservation.
GEOBASE Worldwide literature on geography, geology, and ecology.
GeoRef Guide to materials in geology and earth sciences.
PubMed (with Dickinson links) PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, includes over 15 million citations for biomedical articles back to the 1950's. These citations are from MEDLINE and additional life science journals.
General Science Full Text A general science database that covers everything from supernovas to marine pollution. A good starting point for researchers seeking information on a variety of scientific topics.
Wildlife & Ecology Studies Worldwide Literature on wild mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Offers a global perspective and is the most comprehensive resource on wildlife information. Major topic areas include studies of individual species, habitat types, hunting, economics, wildlife behavior, management techniques, diseases, ecotourism, zoology, taxonomy and much more.
Social Science
America: History and Life Covers scholarly literature on United States and Canadian history. Materials treating all aspects of history from prehistoric times to the present. The rest of modern world history is covered in a companion database, Historical Abstracts.
Social Sciences Full Text Covers international, English-language periodicals in sociology, anthropology, psychology, geography, economics, political science, and law.
Sociological Abstracts Indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
Humanities
Arts & Humanities Search Index to leading international arts and humanities journals and related social science and science information.
Humanities Full Text Covers journal articles in the humanities, archaeology, art, classics, film, folklore, history, journalism and communications, linguistics, literature, music, performing arts, and religion.
Interdisciplinary Options
JSTOR An interdisciplinary archive of over 600 journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
Academic Search Complete Covers all disciplines including social science, humanity, arts, literature and so on. Includes scholarly journals, magazines, conference proceedings and books.
Internet Resources
Key Internet Resources | General Policy Web Sites | EPA Web Sites | Corporate Impact on the Environment | Environmental health news and epidemiology | NGO Websites | The Obama Administration's plan for the Environment | Perspectives on the Bush Administration's Environmental Record
Key Internet Resources
General Policy Web Sites
EPA Web Sites
- EPA Home Web Site (The EPA's main web page.)
- TRI Explorer (a user-friendly tool for accessing TRI data)
- The Environmental Justice Geographic Assessment (A useful tool for demographic and environmental impact assessment -- some in GIS format.)
- EPA Region 3 (Local Region 3 home page)
- EPA Compliance Record (The complete compliance record for the EPA and State inspections for over 80,000 facilities.)
- Environfacts Data Warehouse (The EPA's major link to numerous valuable databases.)
- Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (local group that is working with communities on environmental health and justice)
- PA ACTION (Trains local activists)
Corporate Impact on the Environment
Environmental health news and epidemiology
- Our Stolen Future Web Site (put out by the authors of Our Stolen Future)
- Grist Magazine (an on-line compilation of breaking environmental news from national and international sources)
- Alternet (Online News from the Alternative Press current affairs)
- PA. Dept. of Environmental Protection (a central source for on-line data and articles on almost any research topic you are working on)
NGO Websites
- NGOs: Environmentally Sustainable Development A list maintained at Duke of NGOs relating to Sustainable Development
The Obama Administration's plan for the Environment
Perspectives on the Bush Administration's Environmental Record
- Pacific Research Institute (A conservative think tank that supplied many of the officials in the Bush Administration and defends its record while criticizing environmental nay-sayers).
- Natural Resource Defense Council (The home page for the Natural Resource Defense Council's ongoing critique of the Bush Administration's environmental record).
Reference Resources: Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, etc.
Some examples of available materials:
Renewable and alternative energy resources: a reference handbook Ref. TJ808.3 .S65 2008
American environmental leaders: from colonial times to the present, 2nd ed. Ref. GE55 .B43 2008
Environmental issues: essential primary sources Ref. GE105 .E5825 2006
Environmental encyclopedia, 3rd ed. Ref. GE10 .E57 2003
Encyclopedia of world environmental history Ref. GF10 .E63 2003
International encyclopedia of environmental politics Ref. GE170 .I55 2002
Pesticide Profiles: Toxicity, Environmental Impact and Fate. Ref. RA1270.P4 P468 1997
Encyclopedia of Aquaculture. 2000. Ref. SH20.3 .E53 2000
The Wiley Encyclopedia of Environmental Pollution and Clean Up. 1999, 2 vols. Ref. TD173 .E53 1999
Handbook of Environmental Analysis: Chemical Pollutants in Air, Water, Soil and Solid Wastes. Ref. TD193 .P38 1997
Dictionary of environmental economics. 2001. Ref. HC79 .E5 D53 2001.
Map Library
The Map Library is a government depository for maps and it is currently located in the Kaufman building in Room 129.
While new maps acquired by Dickinson are being cataloged, most of our map collection has not yet been cataloged. As such, while the library catalog does contain some entries for maps it does not represent a comprehensive guide to the map collection.
In the Federal Repository, there are shelves of maps against two walls. One wall houses the non-folded maps (topographic quadrangles, assorted geologic maps, and over-sized maps) and the other houses the folded maps.
For the non-folded maps, each set of drawers has been given a number and each shelf has been labeled with a letter. In order to ease the process of locating materials in the repository, we have created a separate guide to help you determine which drawer(s) may contain the maps you are seeking.
USGS topographic maps are organized first by scale, then alphabetically by state and then by quadrangle name. For example: a drawer labeled: 1:24,000 FL- A-J would contain maps of 1:24,000 scale of Florida for quadrangles starting with A through J. For help determining what quadrangle corresponds to your location of interest, you can consult the indexes available on the magazine racks. These can also provide you with a visual sense of the scale involved for different maps.
For information on the folded maps, first look at the USGS database. This database has extensive options for searching and provides online versions of some of the maps. The database includes the series number for the map which you will need in order to locate the map within our collection (if you searching in our catalog then you will need to use the information indicated under the "series" field, not the call number). The library does not own all of the maps contained in this database but specific maps of interest can be ordered by placing an order request with the liaison librarian for the sciences, Theresa Arndt.
The folded maps are arranged according to series and then within each series by map number and they are located in the filing cabinets. The letters at the front of the map number correspond to the type of map or features that it details. A list of the meanings of these letters is included below:
A: US Antarctic Research Program
C: Coal Investigations
CP: Circum-Pacific
GP: Geophysical Investigations
GQ: Geologic Quadrangle
HA: Hydrologic Investigations
I: Miscellaneous Investigations Studies
MF: Miscellaneous Field Studies
WRI: Water Resources Investigations
Please do not attempt to re-file maps once you have finished with them. Instead, simply place them on the refilling table and a student assistant will re-file them.
If you have any questions about locating a map in the Earth Sciences Library please feel free to contact the Science Liaison Librarian, Amelia Brunskill or Pete Sak in the Earth Sciences Department.
Finding Journals
If you already have a journal citation, use one of the following methods to locate your journal:
- 1st step: Locate electronic holdings. Search by subject or by journal title in our Journal Locator.
- 2nd step: Find any print/hardcopy journals using the Library Catalog. Search by title and limit to periodical title.
- 3rd step: Request the journal through ILLIAD (Interlibrary Loan). Do this only if the journal can not be located in either of these first two places.
(if you do not have a journal citation, but instead have a topic, use one of our databases to locate citations).
Why use journals?
• Journals are often peer-reviewed/scholarly. This means the research in the articles have been double-checked for validity.
• Primary research often appears in journal articles. Primary research is the first article or report on a topic whereas secondary research are the articles or reports that talk about that primary article. Always look back to the primary article when using secondary sources as support.
• Journals can contain the most recent information on a topic. In the sciences this can be very important.
Extra
Environmental Science / Environmental Studies Department Webpage
