Environment -- Information Strategy/Sources

Information Strategy -- a basic guide for tracking down relevant, high-quality information needed for papers, lab reports, discussions, and other purposes

1. Define ... a topic by gathering background/overview information; help formulate your question

Sources:

AccessScience (the online version of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology and Yearbooks, current science news from Science News magazine, biographies of scientists, and more)

Encyclopedia Britannica Online

Natural Communities (glossary; The Wisconsin Natural Heritage Inventory's recognized Natural Communities, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources)

Additional relevant encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other publications that may provide this type of information and are available locally can be located by searching the Library Catalog.

2. Identify ... specific sources of information about the defined topic--to answer your question

Databases (1 general/non-technical -- indepth/more scholarly 5):

1. LexisNexis (useful for coverage of newspapers and some popular magazines 1980's-present; use the Power Search)

To supplement the above database, try--

Access World News

2. Academic Search Premier

To supplement the above database, try --

JSTOR (full text access to past years of 100+ journals covering the Biological and General Sciences; years of coverage depend upon the journal but access is not available to the most current 2-5 years of each journal)

For other perspectives, try--

Applied Science & Technology Abstracts

Business Source Elite

Social Sciences Abstracts

For materials published prior to the beginning of the above databases, try --

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (in paper; covers 1890-present)

3. Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management

Cambridge Scientific Abstracts--Biological Sciences (for broader coverage of the Life Sciences)

To supplement the above databases, try --

AGRICOLA (description)

Entrez (the ability to search many NCBI/NLM databases at the same time including PubMed)

PubMed/MEDLINE

MEDLINE (FirstSearch interface; description)

PubMed (NLM interface; description)

United States Federal Government Documents

Energy Citations Database

Google--U.S. Government Search

Foreign Governments (Northwestern University)

Grinnell College Libraries Catalog (for other than articles)

For other perspectives, try--

EconLit

PAIS International

PsycINFO

Sociological Abstracts

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

For materials published prior to the beginning of the above databases, try --

PAIS Archive

4. Science Citation Index (description; contact Science Librarian for use of this database)
5. BIOSIS Previews (BIOSIS) (description; contact Science Librarian for use of this database)

To supplement the above database, try --

WorldCat (description)

For materials published prior to the beginning of the above databases, try --

Biological Abstracts (in paper; covers 1926/1927-1968)

Reference Sources:

Biology/Environment--Core Reference Materials

Sources of Statistics

Other Sources:

Environmental Fate Data Base (description)

see especially --

CHEMFATE

DATALOG

TOXNET (databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, and related areas; National Library of Medicine)

Trends Online: A Compendium of Data on Global Change (Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy)

Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Record from Mauna Loa [Hawaii] (Keeling, C.D. and T.P. Whorf. 2004. Atmospheric CO2 records from sites in the SIO air sampling network. In Trends: A Compendium of Data on Global Change.)

Water:

Ground Water & Drinking Water (United States Environmental Protection Agency)

Drinking Water Standards

List of Drinking Water Contaminants & MCLs

Ground Water & Drinking Water Topics

Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater (in paper)

USGS Water Resources Data of the United States (United States Geological Survey; description)

3. Locate ... the publications identified above at Grinnell or elsewhere--get your information

Grinnell College Libraries Catalog

Search for Full Text (journal, magazine, and newspaper articles; Article Linker)

Interlibrary Loan

Other Library Catalogs:

Iowa State University Library Catalog

University of Iowa Libraries Catalog

4. Evaluate ... the validity, objectivity, and usefulness of the information