Environmental Science

This and other research guides are on the ACC Library web page under
Research Guides & Tutorials: http://library.sunyacc.edu

Adirondack Community College, 640 Bay Road, Queensbury, NY 12804
(518) 743-2260

Books | Reference books | Articles | Web sites

At any point in your research, please consult a reference librarian. Librarians are available whenever the library is open at (518) 743-2200 ext. 2462. Library hours are listed on the ACC Library's home page: http://library.sunyacc.edu.

Finding Books:

To find books or multimedia items, search the ACC book catalog (ACC Library web page > Finding Books > Catalog):

• Reference books, on the library’s main floor, don’t leave the library, so are always available.
• Circulating books, on the upper level of the library, may be checked out for four weeks.
• Videos, DVDs and music CDs may be borrowed by faculty. Students may use equipment near the video/DVD shelves.

Search tip: Start with a keyword search. When you find an interesting book, look for the subject headings in the book's online description. Click on any that refine your search best. We recommend visiting the ACC Library's Research Guides & Tutorials page, which offers a narrated tutorial on searching the online catalog and two tutorials called "Research Steps," offering important search strategies. Here are some subject headings to consider using:

Reference Books:

Reference books, on the main floor, can help you select a research topic. They also offer quick background information and overviews on subjects.

Search tips:
- For topic ideas, search the library catalog with the term “Worldwatch" : this will find the many excellent reports we own by the Worldwatch Institute, on freshwater ecosystems, global meat industry, cocoa farming, energy use, and much more. They also publish the Vital Signs series listed above (REFERENCE GE 140 .V5)

- For global warming research, also see the Climate Change 2001 report series (CIRCULATING QC 981.8. C5 call number area), which you can borrow. It’s located with the other circulating books on the upper level.

- For PCBs, many technical reports are online (see sites listed below, such as EPA). You may also want to search the online catalog (try the keyword search: pcb* ) to find books such as:

Gale Virtual Reference Library:

You can search thousands of full-text chapters from more than 250 reference books published by Gale Cengage Learning. The ACC Library owns many of these books in printed format also. The Document Title search will search for your term in the chapter titles, giving you full-text chapters from the reference books. The content is the exactly the same as the original printed books. Find this database with these links: ACC Library Web page > Finding Books > Reference > Gale Virtual Reference Library. (Note: This is a subscription database. ACC students, faculty and staff may log in from off-campus with their campus network user names and passwords.)

Among the biology books it searches are: Animal Sciences, Beachams' Guide to the Endangered Species of North America, Biology, Encyclopedia of Bioethics, Encyclopedia of Public Health, Environmental Encyclopedia, Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, Genetics, Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, Science in Dispute, Science of Everyday Things, Water: Science and Issues, and World of Microbiology and Immunology.

Finding Articles:

Journal articles offer current and specific information and research. Search for journal articles by subject through any of the ACC Library's dozens of article databases. Many but not all offer full-text links to articles. (If needed, ask a reference librarian about finding an article though another database, print sources or interlibrary loan if it's not full-text.).

Article databases are subscription-only products. ACC students and faculty may search these from home by following screen directions. To get your ACC student username and password, see Lookup Account and Password on the Student Portal page. For a full list of journals ACC Library receives, see the online Periodicals at ACC list or check the card file at the Circulation Desk.

From the ACC Library Web page, go to Finding Articles. Then, choose either:

• General Databases to find articles on a current, popular or multidisciplinary topic and need a mix of newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals; or
• Subject Databases to find specialized articles on one subject only, such as business, science, literature, nursing, etc.

Among the General Databases are:
● EBSCO's Academic Search Premier: Over 8000 journals; about half are full-text.
● JSTOR: full-text; 117 journals covering the arts, sciences and social sciences.
● New York Times: Current (1980-present) and historical editions (1851-2003).
● WilsonSelectPlus: Completely full-text; 1+ million articles from 1400 journals.
● New York State Newspapers: includes New York Times full-text.
● Opposing Viewpoints, CQ Researcher, more.

Subject Databases:
Under "Sciences" databases, consider searching these: ScienceDirect, Science Reference Center, General Science Collection and, if appropriate, EBSCO Animals.

Journal articles offer current scientific research. The ACC Library subscribes to Adirondack Explorer, Adirondack Life, Bioscience, Scientific American, Discover, and many more. See the Periodicals at ACC list on the library's Web page for a full list of journals at the ACC Library.

Web sites:

Here are some recommended Web sites. Of the billions of Web sites in the world, these are more appropriate for college-level research.

Adirondack and New York environmental issues Web sites:

Darrin FreshWater Institute: http://www.rpi.edu/dept/DFWI/ RPI research facility in Bolton Landing. Current research on Lake George, zebra mussels, aquatic plants, plus links and more of regional interest.

N.Y.S. Department of Environmental Conservation: http://www.dec.ny.gov/ Offers info. on state parks, laws & regulations (including fishing & hunting), pollution, pesticides, ozone, hiking, more.

Nuisance & Invasive Species: http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/265.html From N.Y.S. Dept. of Environmental Conservation: gulls, bears, wildlife damage, invasive species.

Lake George Association: http://www.lakegeorgeassociation.org Land use, watermilfoil, zebra mussels, boating, wetlands, watersheds, related links to more.

The Wild Center: Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks: http://www.wildcenter.org/ Museum focusing on wildlife of Adirondacks; opened July 2006 in Tupper Lake. Live animal exhibits (river otters, turtles, trout, more), glacier ice wall, high definition films, hands-on exhibits, 31-acre campus, more.

Capital District Waters: http://cdrpc.net/WQ/CapitalDistrictWaters.html Site offers information on stormwater pollution. From Capital District Regional Planning Commission (http://cdrpc.org). Includes brochure "Home Owners Guide to Preventing Stormwater Pollution," Saratoga County link; maps, laws, more.

New York Suburban Coyote Study: http://nycoyote.org/ Site has information and studies on coyotes in suburban New York State. From NYSDEC and Cornell University.

Adirondack Lakes Survey Corp. :http://www.adirondacklakessurvey.org/ Acid rain research, more. Note: ACC Library has both reference and circulating copies of their book Acid Rain in the Adirondacks: TD 195.52 .N72 A523 2007.

Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program: http://www.adkinvasives.com/ Includes Adirondack Park Aquatic Species Committee's new Management Plan from April 2007, on mitigating impacts of non-native species.

Warren County Soil & Water Conservation District: http://www.warrenswcd.org/ Links to reports, projects; soil maps. Also, watershed assessment reports for Lake Luzerne, Halfway Brook, Glen Lake, Brant Lake, Friends Lake, Loon Lake, Forest Lake.

Adirondack Science Online: http://www.adkscience.org Information on loons, otters, weather, more.

Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/ Lists many reports and links to information on acid rain, pollution topics, much more. For link to GE cleanup of PCBs in Hudson River, go to http://www.epa.gov/hudson/. For PCBs in Housatonic River, Mass., go to http://www.epa.gov/region01/ge/

GE's Hudson River Dredging Web Site: http://www.hudsondredging.com On the PCB dredging project, from General Electric.

Adirondack Watershed Institute http://adkwatershed.com/ From Paul Smith’s College on Adirondack water quality issues: weather station, Eurasian watermilfoil research, more.

For more Adirondack area Web sites, see ACC Library’s online research guide Finding Web Information on the Adirondack Mountains, listed below.

U.S. and world environmental issues Web sites:

EPA’s National Environmental Publications Information System: http://www.epa.gov/clariton/ With

10,000 EPA full-text documents.

Politics and Science: http://oversight.house.gov/features/politics_and_science/index.htm From United States House of Representatives’ Committee on Government Reform, Minority Office, to evaluate treatment of scientific research by the Bush Administration. Global warming, stem cell research, Arctic drilling, more.

PBS’ Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report: http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/ Information from 2001 PBS documentary on risks to human health from toxic chemicals, by investigative journalist Bill Moyers. Links to counter-arguments from chemical industry.

Earthtrends: The Environmental Information Portal: http://earthtrends.wri.org Environmental, economic and social issues, trends and data from around the world. Compares statistics on climate, water, population, energy use, biodiversity, resources, more. Also, global maps and country data. From World Resources Institute

RealClimate: http://realclimate.org/ "A commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. We aim to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. The discussion here is restricted to scientific topics and will not get involved in any political or economic implications of the science." Chosen as a 2005 Top 10 Science & Technology Web Awards by Scientific American magazine.

International Energy Agency: http://www.iea.org/ Global energy trends and information on international energy policies.

Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency: http://www.dsireusa.org/ Ongoing project of the North Carolina Solar Center and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

National Invasive Species Information Center: http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/ Gateway to invasive species information; covering Federal, State, local, and international sources.

National Biological Information Infrastructure: http://www.nbii.gov Biological research, maps and pictures from government, academic and other sources. Search by habitat, ecological topic, geographic area, and by plants, animals, digital images, more.

Weeds Gone Wild: Alien Plant Invaders of Natural Areas: http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/ From Plant Conservation Alliance's Alien Plant Working Group, with national lists, fact sheets, range maps, recipes, information of impacts of invasive alien plants to native U.S. plants and animals.

Wildland Invasive Species Program: http://tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/ By Nature Conservancy. 

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: http://www.ipcc.ch/ IPACC was formed by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess scientific and technical research on risks of "human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation." Climate Change 2001 reports may be borrowed (in QC 981.8.C5 area); also available online. Climate Change 2007 report has been released: for 22-page summary see: http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-syr.htm

The World's Water: http://www.worldwater.org World’s freshwater problems, resources, solutions.

World Wildlife Fund: http://www.worldwildlife.org Endangered species; climate, oceans, etc.

Worldwatch Institute: http://www.worldwatch.org "Independent research for an environmentally sustainable and socially just world," non-profit group offers environmental research in Online Features and Research Library links, much more. Also see their State of the World book listed under Reference Books.

International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON): http://icon.rice.edu/index.cfm From ICON and Rice University, with abstracts to scientific & news articles and technical items. ICON's mission is to "develop and communicate information regarding potential environmental and health risks of nanotechnology."

Sustainable Development Timeline: http://www.iisd.org/timeline Useful links & data from International Institute for Sustainable Development.

NatureServe: http://www.natureserve.org/ Rare and endangered species and threatened ecosystems.

Environmental News Network: http://www.enn.com/ New stories, audio/video clips on environmental issues.

Global Footprint Network http://www.ecofoot.com/"Advancing the science of sustainability"; you can track your resource consumption with the Ecological Footprint online quiz.

Energy Information Administration http://eia.doe.gov/ Statistics from Dept. of Energy.

Alternative Fuels Data Center: http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/index.html From U.S. Dept. of Energy; 3000+ documents and data on alternative vehicles and fuels: biodiesel, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen, natural gas, and propane. Also: fuel station locator, alternative vehicle buyer’s guide, many related links.  

Wind Energy Conference http://www.kutztown.edu/acad/geography/wildlife&windconf/conference_program2.htm Papers and slide shows presented at Kutztown Univ. conference, "Wildlife and Utility-Scale Wind Energy Development of the Central Appalachians within Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia—the Risks and Trade-offs," Dec. 2006.

Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force: http://www.anstaskforce.gov/ Intergovernmental group researching control of aquatic problems such as zebra mussels, whirling disease, more.

Environmental Literacy Council: http://www.enviroliteracy.org/index.php Non-profit educational group to help students understand environmental issues.

Public Library of Science: http://www.plos.org/ Online journal with scholarly scientific and medical articles from "nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource."

Statistical Resources on the Web: http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html Web sites with statistics on social sciences, business, science, health, demographics, more. Covers local, state, national, international statistics. From University of Michigan Documents Center.

World Wide Web Virtual Library: Biosciences: http://vlib.org/Biosciences Subject directory from WWW Virtual Library, “the oldest catalog of the Web, started by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of HTML and of the Web itself, in 1991 at CERN in Geneva. “

Librarians’ Internet Index: http://lii.org Under Science topics, click on Environment. 

 
EcoEarth.Info: http://www.ecoearth.info/ Environmental information portal & search engine; news, background, Web links on environmental science topics. From nonprofit group Ecological Internet.

Scirus: http://www.scirus.com Elsevier’s science-only search engine: technical government reports, patents, much more. Use Advanced Search for best results.

Google: http://www.google.com Use Advanced Search to get better results. You can also search for Images.

For more information:

Consult a reference librarian at any point in your research. You may also want to see other online ACC Library research guides.

For more information, see these online ACC Library research guides:

          Finding Web Information on the Adirondack Mountains

          Finding Information on Biology

          Finding Information of Chemistry

          Finding Information on Controversial Issues

Updated July 2008/JM