Library

Effects of Climate Change

Finding your summary articles and background information
Example Search Statement

The following simple search statement can be broken down to searchable terms.  Each term can be broken down to synonymous, broader, or narrower terms.  You will find terms as you progress in your research using Reference sources, citation records and journal articles.

Climate Change Impact on Plant/animal species
Climate Change Plant / Animal Species
Global Warming
Greenhouse effects
Climate Modification
extinction
distribution
range
 		 Frogs
harlequin tree frogs
Polar bears
trees
animals
There can be many possible searches using the above terms in computer database searching. 
 
B. Reference Materials
Reference Materials for the Sciences
  • General Science Reference - Q section for print

AccessScience -  Climate Modification
Published by McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology.  Excellent authoritative science articles authored by experts in their fields.  Includes dictionary and full length articles.  Excellent graphics useful for your presentations.

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia of Life

Biology  (4 vol encyclopedia)

Credo Reference
Search Life Science encyclopedias and dictionaries

Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America


  • Species Reference -  Q section for print

The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Fish
REF QL 616

Grizimeks Animal Encyclopedia
REF QL 3 .g7813

Atlas of North American Freshwater Fisheries
REF QL 625 .A84

Environmental Encyclopedia
REF GE10 .E3 2003 vol 1-2

Encyclopedia of animal behavior
REF QL750.3 .E53 2004

lora of North America
REF QK110 .F55 1993

Plants and their names : a concise dictionary
REF QK96 .P35 1995

More found browsing in the reference area
C. Searching the SMC Online Catalog:
SMC Library Catalog

Other Library Catalogs: UVM, WorldCat

WorldCat 

**SUBJECT SEARCHING (FOR BOOKS) - possible headings (not exhaustive)
Choose FIND, then SUBJECT
1. Environment  (use ecology)
2. Climate (see Climatology)
3. Climatic Changes

**KEYWORD SEARCHING (For searching Books, Academic Search Premier

EX - Environment? and Polic?
EX - ecolog? and extinc?
EX - "global warming" and (animal? or plant? or tree? or extinct?)

Keyword allows you to use "natural language" searching &
Boolean Operators (and, or, not) to broaden or narrow your search
Truncation:  allows for variant spelling of word stems (?, *, !)
Phrase searching: Some databases look only for words adjacent to each other.  Some databases require that you put the phrase in quotations ("free radical?")  

D. Science and Newspaper Databases

 Use the Subject Page to choose a science discipline (Chemistry, Biology, Environmental Science, Medicine)
 - Use the Quick Search or a specific database to research your topic

Other Databases:

Greenfile

Google Scholar

Keyword Searching

"global warming" and tree* and distribu*

"polar bear*" and "global warming"

extinction and "global warming"

disease and "global warming"

Newspaper Databases

 
E. Internet Sources
Internet Sources may be found via search engines, subject directories, or U.S. Government sites.  Remember to evaluate Internet information for bias or being backed by special interests.  Actually, information from any source should be evaluated by currency, authority, authorship, methodology, or bias. Be cautious of any source that can not provide that information. See Evaluating Internet Sources 

Botany.com: the Encyclopedia of Plants
http://www.botany.com

Center for Conservation Biology Network
http://conbio.net/

Flora of North America
http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/FNA

International Plant Names Index
http://www.ipni.org

National Library for the Environment
http://www.cnie.org/nle

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
http://www.fws.gov

EE Link
http://eelink.net
Comprehensively organizes environmental education resources available on the Internet; highly recommended Web site.

Envirofacts Data Warehouse and Applications (EPA)
Part of the EPA initiative to make environmental information easily accessible to the public online, Envirofacts allows you to retrieve environmental information from EPA databases on Air, Chemicals, Facility Information, Grants/Funding, Hazardous Waste, Risk Management Plans, Superfund, Toxic Releases, and Water Permits, Drinking Water, Drinking Water Contaminant Occurrence, and Drinking Water Microbial and Disinfection Byproduct Information .

Envirolink
http://www.envirolink.org
A comprehensive web site that organizes the broad array of environmental information on the Internet.

Environmental News Network
http://www.enn.com

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
http://www.epa.gov

National Library of the Environment
http://www.cnie.org/nle/
Sponsored by the National Council for Science and the Environment, this site provides a single entry point to understandable, science-based information about the environment.

The Scorecard
http://www.scorecard.org
Put out by the Environmental Defense Fund, this web site provides information about the environmental health of states and communities; searchable by zip code.

Surf Your Watershed: A Service to Help You Locate, Use, and Share Environmental Information About Your Place (EPA)
http://www.epa.gov/surf/

United Nations Environment Programme
http://www.unep.org

World Conservation Union
http://www.iucn.org
International organization that focuses on global as well as regional environmental issues.

World Resources Institute
http://www.wri.org
Focuses on providing information about global environmental issues and problems.
F. In-Class Assignment

 Write out a search statement in sentence form of a topic that you might are looking for in this class

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Identify the two or three main concepts in your search statement and break them down into synonymous, narrower, or broader terms.  You will find terms as you in the process of research - jot them down

Concept 1                 and        Concept 2            and       Concept 3
1                                             1                                       1

2                                             2                                       2

3                                             3                                       3

In the next 45 minutes - Find the following on your topic:



Learn What Matters