Buley Library
Southern Connecticut State University

Environmental Science Literature (ENV491 Handout)
http://home.southernct.edu/~hedreenr1/env491.htm

Rebecca Hedreen, Librarian
hedreenr1@southernct.edu
203-392-5753

Library Resources

Biology Databases, http://library.scsu.ctstateu.edu/sdlbiology.htm
Biology Resources, http://library.scsu.ctstateu.edu/biobib.htm
Environmental Science Databases, http://library.scsu.ctstateu.edu/sdlenvironmental.htm
Environmental Science Resources, http://library.scsu.ctstateu.edu/environmental.html

Biology Literature

Scholarly literature will be primarily searched through online databases or books in the Library Catalog.

Databases, available from the Online Databases page on the Library Home Page.

Databases are the primary way of finding journal articles. Databases consist of indexes which list information about the articles such as author, title, journal information, and subject(s). Sometimes abstracts, or summaries, are included. Some database also have the full text of the articles, in which case you can also search for keywords in the text. When the full text of an article is not available in the database, use the Journal Locator to find full text, search the library catalog for the journal, or request the article through Interlibrary Loan.

Searching for Latin (species) names is the most accurate way of finding information about a particular animal or plant. Scholarly articles are also more likely to use full species names than are news articles. When searching for a particular location, you may have to search for both local and regional names (Pelham Bay, Long Island Sound, New York coast, etc.)

• BioOne -- Access to full-text bioscience research journals focused on the biological, ecological and environmental sciences.
• ScienceDirect -- Abstracts and selected full text articles in scientific, technical and medical fields. (See the Science Direct Help Sheet.)
• Life Sciences -- Cambridge Scientific Abstracts' Biological Sciences. Indexes journals in biomedicine, biotechnology, zoology and ecology.
• Academic Search Premier -- Abstracts and some full text articles in a variety of academic disciplines.
• JSTOR -- Full-text access to back issues of scholarly journals in all fields, including Ecology.
• Early Encounters in North America, Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment -- Over 100,000 pages of letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters.
• When searching for environmental information related to another subject, sometimes a database devoted to the secondary subject is useful.
  
  • Agriculture (Pesticides, Fertilizers, etc.) - AGRICOLA
  • Chemistry Issues - American Chemical Society Journals
  • Environment related business news - Lexis-Nexis Academic , choose Business, then Industry and Market, then select Environment & Natural Resources News from the drop down menu
  • Environmental Education - ERIC
  • Health aspects - MEDLINE , Health & Wellness Reference Center
  • Geology - GeoRef

We have a few biological/environmental dictionaries in the library databases:

• Collins Dictionary of Biology
• Dictionary of Developmental Biology and Embryology
• A Dictionary of Ecology
• Oxford Reference Biological Sciences (dictionaries)
• The New Penguin Dictionary of Science

Finding Books in the Library Catalog

Start your search with the most specific words (species name, specific locations), but you may have to search on more general keywords (common names, regional locations) as well. A book that covers the topic in general may have a chapter on your topic, so be sure to look for Tables of Contents in the Links or the Notes areas in the catalog record for each book. You may need to go to the shelves and browse a section, checking tables of contents and indexes. Find one book on the topic via the online catalog and browse the shelves surrounding it.

There are a few Internet Resources that particularly stand out for environmental information:

• EPA Website - over 1 million pages of environmental and regulatory information, including Educational Resources, Laws and Regulations, Local Information "Where You Live", Environmental Test Methods & Guidelines, the ECOTOX database (search for studies linking particular species with toxic chemicals), the Environmental Justice Geographic Assessment Tool, and a lot more.
• USGS Biology Resources
• National Environmental Data Index (NEDI)
• National Library for the Environment
• Enviropedia
• Connecticut -- State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection
• New York -- New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
• Massachusetts -- Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection

For other web sites, be sure to check on the sources of their data. They should cite governmental sources, scientific journal articles, and similar authoritative sources.

Updated February 28, 2006