Background Information

This is but a small selection of the subject encyclopedias available in the Library. Ask a librarian for help if you would like to find more encyclopedias.

Books

  • The Library's Catalog
    Books and book chapters in the Library's print collection are an important source of critical literature. The Library's catalog has a number of different search options: keyword and subject searches are good starting points when first exploring a topic. Search results can be narrowed with facets, which appear to the right of the results. Topic, region, era, and language are among the available facets. Multiple keywords and subjects should be connected with "AND", because "and" is a stop word and will be ignored by the search engine.
    Sample keyword search: "costa rica" AND touris*
    Sample subject search: environmentalists
    Sample subject search: "environmental justice"
    Sample subject search: "sustainable forestry"
    Sample subject search: "environmental ethics"
  • WorldCat
    Books that are not owned by the Library can be found via WorldCat. WorldCat is an online catalog that includes the collections of most U.S. libraries as well as a large number of libraries abroad. Titles owned by Falvey Library are tagged, those not held by Falvey can be requested through interlibrary loan with the Borrow from another library link. WorldCat uses the same Library of Congress subject headings as the Library's catalog. 
  • Dissertations and Theses Full Text
    Full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997.
  • EZBorrow and Interlibrary Loan
    Interlibrary loan is available for books and journals that are not owned by Falvey. EZBorrow is usually faster than interlibrary loan, since the books come from a local library network. EZBorrow can be used for books that the Library owns, but that are currently checked out by somebody else.

Journal Articles

  • Academic OneFile
    This is a partly full text journal database. Use the FindIt button to link to the Library's other holdings, whenever Academic OneFile does not have the full text of a journal article.
    The default search is the subject search guide. Environmental justice, eco politics, environmental law, or sustainable development are among the many possible subject searches. Most of these subject searches will retrieve large number of search results, but it is possible to narrow these results by selecting from subdivisionsanalysis, economic aspects, political aspects, and social aspects to name but a few. 
    Below is a typical search result from Academic OneFile. Note that in this case, Academic OneFile does not have the full text, nor does it have an abstract of Race, income, and environmental inequality in the United States. The icon with the blue C indicates this. The FindIt button beneath this icon links to the Library's holdings and in this case to the full text of this journal article.
    gis4000_1.gif

    The full text article is available via the Library's subscription to Sociological Perspectives. Note that the article starts with an abstract. The keywords at the end of the abstract describe the content of the article and may be used to focus your next search.
    gis4000_2.gif

    All scholarly journal articles have bibliographical references either at the bottom of the page or at the end of the article. Here is an extract of the reference from Race, income, and environmental inequality in the United States:
     
    gis4000_3.gif

    These references can lead to other important publications on the same subject.
  • America: History & Life
    Search the contents of academic journals, historical magazines and dissertations. This database indexes articles on the history of America (North and South) published in academic journals such as Environment and History, Environmental History, Antipode, the Radical History Review, American Indian Culture & Research, and the American Indian Quarterly to name but a few. The FindIt button links to the full text of the articles in the Library's collection as well as to an interlibrary loan form. Interlibrary loan can only be used for those journals to which the Library does not have a subscription. It can take one to two weeks to process an interlibrary loan request.
  • Historical Abstracts
    This index has the same search interface and functionality as America: History & Life, but it is limited to articles about the history of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.
  • Sociological Abstracts
    A keyword search for "environmental justice" will bring up numerous articles published in journals such as Society and Natural Resources, Human Ecology Review, Population and Environment, Environmental Politics, Environmental Values, and Environment & Urbanization. Environmental justice is not defined as a subject in this index. Here is a sample of related subjects: ecology, inequality, environmental policy, social justice, ethics, environmentalism, environmental factors, environmental protection.
    The FindIt button links to the full text of the articles in the Library's collection as well as to an interlibrary loan form. Interlibrary loan can only be used for those journals to which the Library does not have a subscription. It can take one to two weeks to process an interlibrary loan request. 
  • Philosopher's Index
    A keyword search for "environmental justice" will bring up numerous articles published in journals such as Environmental Ethics, Environmental Values, Ethics and the Environment, Ethics, Place & Environment, and Between the Species: A Journal of Ethics. Environmental justice is not defined as a subject in this index. Here is a sample of related subjects: justice, human rights, environmental ethics, environment, ethics, environmentalism, ecology, ecofeminism.
    The FindIt button links to the full text of the articles in the Library's collection as well as to an interlibrary loan form. Interlibrary loan can only be used for those journals to which the Library does not have a subscription. It can take one to two weeks to process an interlibrary loan request. 
  • GeoBase
    Indexes the worldwide literature on geology, geography and ecology.

This is but a small selection of indexes to scholarly journals available in the Library. Ask a librarian for help if you would like to find more indexes.

Primary Sources

  • Historical New York Times
    Complete coverage from 1851 to the present with the exception of the most current two years. Includes classified ads, comics and cartoons, photos, maps, graphics, etc., editorials and commentary.
    A simple search for the phrase "environmental justice" shows that the New York Times used this phrase for the first time on January 17, 1977 in reference to the dumping of mining waste into Lake Superior.
     
    gis4000_4.gif

     
  • Alternative Press Index
    Indexes over 200 journals from the alternative, radical and left presses, newspapers and magazines covering cultural, economic, political and social change. Includes selected abstracts from research journals. Includes such titles as Earth First!, Green Horizon, Peace Review, New Solutions, and Co-op America Quarterly. The Library subscribes to very few of these journals, but they can be requested through interlibrary loan via the FindIt button.
  • Ethnic NewsWatch
    A comprehensive full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press.
  • Lexis-Nexis Academic
    Provides full-text access to a wide range of news (national, international, regional, business, legal, and foreign language), business (company financial news and information, accounting, auditing & tax information, industry and market news), and legal (law reviews, federal case law, state legal research) sources.
  • Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report, 1974-1996
    Transcripts of foreign news broadcasts from more than 100 countries translated into English from materials selected by the CIA for distribution to U.S. policymakers and security analysts.
    gis4000_5.gif
  • Readers' Guide Full Text
    Readers' Guide Full Text is part of the Wilson OmniFile. It provides indexing and full text articles from both the popular press and peer reviewed journals.
  • Readers' Guide Retrospective
    Provides citations to the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America.
    The FindIt button links to the full text of the articles in the Library's collection as well as to an interlibrary loan form. Interlibrary loan can only be used for those journals to which the Library does not have a subscription. It can take one to two weeks to process an interlibrary loan request. 

Style Guides and Citation Management Software