Environmental Studies 

Materials which are referred to for brief or general information. Examples include:

• Background or overview synopses (encyclopedia)
• Definitions (dictionary)
• Synonyms (thesaurus)
• Statistics
• Biographical Details
• Maps (atlas)

Links/Resources to the right are specific to this discipline.  General sources can be found at the libraries Reference Sources page.

Reference resources are organized in an order that aids searching (alphabetically, chronologically, etc).  Most include an index which points users to the appropriate section.  Tips for searching:

1. Decide on your search terms
2. Try searching with them
3. If not satisfied with the results, try searching a synonym or related idea

Things to watch out for:

• Is the computer searching only the title/header of the entries or the full-text of the information?  You will get more results, but more of them will be irrelabent if you are searching the full-text.
• Are you searching for a proper noun (name, place,...)?  Make sure that the spelling is correct and try variations if it originated in a foreign language.
• Searching for something by date?  This is trickier than it sounds.  If possible, search for an event name or topic rather than a date, e.g. civil rights movement or hippies or flower children rather than 1960s.

Search a collection of environmental studies reference e-books:

Or, search individual titles (some of which are not included in above search):

In print in Crumb Library

• Life on Earth: an encyclopedia of biodiversity, ecology and evolution. (Ref QH 541.15 B86L54 2002)
• AAAS Atlas of Population and Environment. (Ref HB 849.415 H374 2000)
• Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics. (QH 540.A53) 1970- . Lengthy, rather technical articles.
• Dictionary of Development: third world economy, environment , and society. (Ref HC 59.7.D513)
• The Encyclopedia of the Environment. (Ref GE 10.E53 1994) - brief essays, often with data and bibliography.
• Human Development Report. (Ref HD 4904.7.H856)
• State of the World: a Worldwatch Institute report on progress toward a sustainable society. (HC 59.7.S7) annual. Statistics and essays.
• World Resources [year]: an annual assessment of the resource base that supports the global economy. (Ref HC 59.W6674)