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WR 123 - Researching Environmentalism

Research Guides Home | Articles | Books | Government & Statistics sources | Reference Sources | Citing Sources | Evaluating Sources  Annotated Bibliographies


This page should help you with your research paper for this course. Feel free to contact me with questions. You may also want to try the UO Libraries LibX Toolbar for your browser!


Answer the Wrap-up Question Here.


Annie
Victoria Mitchell - Librarian for: Political Science, Government Information, and Social Science Data

ph: 346-3076 vmitch@uoregon.edu


Do a quick article search here:


The above search box is searching the following specific databases, that you might want to try individually:

Academic Search Premier

  • Good for its mix of popular, news, and scholarly articles. You have to exercise your critical evaluation skills to determine if an article is truly scholarly or not. (Do NOT rely solely on their limit to peer-reviewed feature--it is not reliable. Checking a journal on Ulrich's through FindText is better, although you still have to use your own judgment.)

GeoBase

  • GeoBase encompasses the worldwide literature on geology, geography (including human, political, etc. geography), and ecology

Web of Science

  • Interdisciplinary database that includes all the social sciences. Special feature is the ability to find articles that cite an article or author.

See also:

Google Scholar

  • Google for academics.
This worksheet will help you develop keyword searches that get results

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Find a book


in UOWorldCat (UO Libraries and beyond)

A few book search tips:
  • Use more general terms, as opposed to the more specific terms used for searching for articles. E.g., if you want books about ecotourism in Belize, you may want to expand your search to Belize and conservation, or Latin America and ecotourism.

  • UO WorldCat searches for articles, and many other formats besides books. To limit to books, click on 'book' under format on the left side.

  • You may get more or better results if you do a Subject Heading search for a broad term. To do a search by Subject, go to Advanced Search and pull down the menu to Subject. You also can click on the subject heading links at the right side of the full record display for a book that you like, to get more like it. For instance, in the above search I found the subject heading "Sustainable Tourism" -- which found me more potentially relevant books. Here are some potentially useful subject headings:
    • [Topic] - Environmental aspects (e.g. "Dams - Environmental aspects")
    • Climatic changes (used for Climate change); also Global temperature changes
    • Conservation of natural resources (or [Name of resource] - Conservation)
    • Environmental economics
    • Environmental education
    • Environmental ethics
    • Environmental health (i.e. effects of exposure to chemicals, pollutants)
    • Environmental impact statements - [geographic name]
    • Environmental justice
    • Environmental literature
    • Environmental policy (see also narrower term: Local government and environmental policy)
    • Green movements (used for "Environmental groups")
    • Human ecology - History (used for "Environmental history")
    • Pollution (or narrower terms: Air pollution, Water pollution, etc.)

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Government & Statistical Sources


off-campus access limited to UO = You must be on campus, or an authorized UO user if off campus, to access)

Countries and their domain extensions
Use these extensions to restrict a Google (or other search engine) search to sources from a particular country, including government websites.  Use, e.g, Google Advanced search.

Environmental Statistics web page

OECD i-Library off-campus access limited to UO
OECD iLibrary provides access to databases, periodicals, books and papers of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Includes much information, as well as statistics, on environmental issues pertaining to OECD countries, sustainable development, etc.

ProQuest Congressional off-campus access limited to UO
If you want to know what Congress thinks about any environmental issue, or to see legislation, this is your place. Includes hearings, reports, etc.

UNdata
Internet based data service from the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). Statistics on all manner of things, from all countries.

USA.gov
The US government's portal to web information. You can search across agency web pages.

US Environmental Protection Agency - EPA  

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Reference Sources and Guides


off-campus access limited to UO = You must be on campus, or an authorized UO user if off campus, to access)


Environmental Studies Research Guide
  • See other research guides by subject, for specific aspects you are researching, e.g. Education, History, Literature, Policy, etc.

Encyclopedia of Environment and Society off-campus access limited to UO
Contributers include geographers, political scientists, chemists, anthropologists, medical practitioners, development experts, and sociologists, among others.

Encyclopedia of Global Change off-campus access limited to UO

Environmental Encyclopedia off-campus access limited to UO
"Provides in-depth, worldwide coverage of environmental issues." Short articles with bibliographies.

Literature Resource Center  off-campus access limited to UO
A good place to find information on environmental writers and literature.

Oxford Reference: Earth & Environmental Science off-campus access limited to UO
Includes dictionaries, Oxfords "companions", and encyclopedias.

Water: Science & Issues off-campus access limited to UO
"This set covers all important water science concepts and current issues and highlights major historical developments and key figures"
 
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Annotated Bibliographies


Purdue OWL: Annotated Bibliographies
The Purdue Online Writing Lab is a good resource generally for writing assignments. This section explains annotated bibliographies and has samples.

Example of Critical (or Evaluative) Annotated Bibliography Entry 
From the Colorado State Writing Studio, it includes why the article is useful to the writer's research.

How to Write Annotated Bibliographies 
A nice how-to page from Memorial University Libraries, Newfoundland, with a sample critical annotation.

MLA Annotated Bibliography, Hacker-Orlov
This pdf is an example of a complete bibliography in MLA style, with comments on formatting and writing style.

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Maintained by: Victoria Mitchell, vmitch@uoregon.edu