Social Ecology C129                                                    Julia Gelfand                                         Kay Collins

International Environment Management                         Science Library 228                             Langson Library 108

Spring 2007                                                                 jgelfand@uci.edu ; 949-824-4971        kcollins@uci.edu ; 949-824-7290

 

 

There are many resources that you will find useful in preparing your presentations, papers or projects and engaging in the bibliographic research that is required to be successful in this course.  This handout will introduce you to those resources.  Most will be located at the Langson Library (LL), however the environmental science and global change materials are at the Science Library in either the GE, Q180s, QCs or TDs in both Reference (2nd floor) & Stack (Bar) areas.  Your point of departure will be the

UCI Libraries Website.  They are available in many formats: print and electronic, some of which you can access remotely from home or work, assuming that you have followed the directions for Connecting from Off-Campus and loaded the VPN software client.  The resources can be searched in ANTPAC by format and material type.  You will examine:

·        Government Information - (note whether materials are international or domestic (US) - consult the LL Reference Desk for assistance  - all US Federal and California State and local government documents other than Reference titles are now in the LL Basement in separate sections.  International documents have been interfiled in call # order with the book collections.  Many documents are available online and can be searched for specific content.  The additional list of resources on your syllabus will be very helpful.

·        Indexing/abstracting tools or databases - emphasis on social science content

·        journal articles

·        book chapters and books

·        a variety of legal documents, including treaties, statutes, codes and regulations, legislation and case law that are so critical to the study of environment management on an international scale.

·        Subject Guides - specific guides have been prepared for:

·        International Government Information

·        Earth System Science

·        Environmental Health, Science & Policy

·        Planning, Policy and Design

·        News and Newspapers

·        U.S. Government Information - Foreign Relations

 

One of the major concerns is to distinguish between international and US focused legislation.  The concentration of this course is on International, meaning foreign or policies between countries and agencies.  You need to define your topic carefully.  Selective subject headings which can be searched in ANTPAC or MELVYL for books as keywords (to pick up title, descriptor and author) include:

            Biodiversity     

Climate change

Global change

Endangered species

Environmental management

            European Union

            Free Trade

            North American Free Trade

 

Citation Style Format – consistency is the key – review page of the Syllabus for inclusion of all the elements - style manuals are noted with examples at http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/subject/subpage.php?subject=ref_writing&anchor=#CitationSty and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA Style) is available at all Reference Desks BF 76.7 P83 2001, 5th ed.

 

REFERENCE TOOLS - most are located at the Langson Library (LL) Reference Room on the 1st floor -

1.      Environmental Statutes, 1985+ annual - US based - LL REF KF 3775 A3 A194

2.      Dictionaries and Encyclopedias - consult resources in both Library Reference collections.  Usually in the LL REF KF 3770s, and occasionally in the HCs, SL REF GE and TD sections.

3.      Encyclopedia of Global Change : Environmental Change and Human Society

SL REF GE  149 E47 2002

4.      Earth Almanac : An Annual Geophysical Review of the State of the Planet - SL REF QB 631 E27

5.      United National Environment Programme Geo Data Portal

6.      European Union - main page directs you to environmental programme

7.      European Environment Agency

8.      International Organizations and Related Information - compiled by the University of Michigan Library

1.      International Government Organizations - list maintained by Northwestern University

 

SELECTIVE JOURNALS - consult ANTPAC for holdings and connectivity

1.      International Environment Reporter - available online via Environment & Safety Library - weekly updates; can be searched

2.      Chemosphere - online

3.      Mitigation and adaptation strategies for global change : an international journal devoted to scientific, engineering, socio-economic and policy responses to environmental change - online

 

           

ARTICLE DATABASES  - * available on the CSA platform and can be searched concurrently by going to one of the databases and clicking on "Selective Databases" and selecting the appropriate ones

1.      Environment & Safety Library - there are several products to review including the International Environment Reporter

2.      Source OECD - international agency reports, documents and publications, organized around three topics - themes, periodicals and statistics.

3.      World Bank Resources - publications from the World Bank

4.      Web of Science - includes the Science & Social Science Citation Indexes - offers "backward" and "forward" searching - use General Search feature

5.      Expanded Academic ASAP - an increasing fulltext source of academic content from a range of publications and disciplines

6.      PAIS International (1972-) and Archive (1915-1976)- public affairs index - covers government information, journal articles and book content. - global coverage

7.      Business Source Premier - focuses on business/management topics and solutions - useful

8.      Factiva - a full-text indexing of business and trade publications and newspaper

9.      Hein Online - indexes law reviews from volume 1 through last complete volume and also includes a Treaties and Agreements Library

10.  Legal Trac - indexes law reviews and management content – use Advanced Search interface

11.  Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe - covers mostly US topics in Law Reviews, Federal Law, State Law (Lexis) and Newspapers (Nexis) - fulltext – use “Guided Search” for each of these subfiles and the pull-down menus to search appropriate time periods as it defaults to 6 months. 

12.  Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals - covers many foreign law reviews and reference sources - we may not have many of these titles - access temporarily suspended - please check ANTPAC for connectivity

13.  UN Treaty Collection -

14.  Worldwide Political Science Abstracts * - includes more conventional coverage from political science but very international in scope

15.  Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management* - covers a fair amount of international content

16.  GeoRef* - covers major earth sciences, geological and geophysical literature

17.  Risk Abstracts* - focus on environmental risk - good references to rich content

18.  Global Newsbank - fulltext translations from world newspapers and wire services from 1996.

19.  National Journal’s Policy Central (mostly domestic but reflects international developments)

·        Keep track of people and issues in national politics

·        National Journal back to 1977

·        Technology Daily for politics, policy and news

·        Congress Daily

·        The Hotline

·        Poll Track gives results of various opinion polls, and more

20.  Google Scholar - recommended that you use one of the databases noted above but this will lead you to fulltext scholarly content - output is a bit scattered and includes references to book chapters as well as journal literature

 

RECOMMENDED MAJOR RESOURCES - Newsletter/Journal/Database - Environment & Safety Library - there are three major parts for you to consider:

            The International Environment Reporter requires separate access. This section gives you focused updates on a daily and bi-weekly basis on issues and themes of major news around the world that effect the environment.  The International Section is available as part of the Environment and Safety Library and offers monitored coverage of global environmental issues and developments. There is an extensive topical index covers air pollution, biological diversity, biotechnology, chemical safety, chemicals, climate change, community right-to-know, enforcement, environmental impact assessment, environmental liability, EU Accession, general policies, hazardous materials transport, hazardous waste, NAFTA, noise pollution, ozone depletion, pesticides, radioactive waste, solid waste, sustainable development, taxes & ecotaxes, technology, toxic substances, trade, waste and water pollution.  There is also a country index that also includes the European Union, regional access to areas like the Baltic Sea.  Access to the content is fulltext, although you may be directed to additional resources. 

 

You will find the following government & reference sources useful in addition to those noted on your syllabus:

·        U.S. State Department's Activities in International Environmental Affairs - http://www.state.gov/g/oes/

·        Center for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) - a British Think Tank - http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/cserge/

·        World Resources: A Guide to the Global Environment - from World Resources Institute - http://pubs.wri.org/pubs_pdf.cfm?PubID=3764

·        United Nation's Environment Programme  (UNEP) - http://www.unep.org/

·        World Bank Environment Program - regional strategies and lots of content - http://Inweb18.worldbank.org/ESSD/envext.nsf/41ByDocName/EnvironmentStrategy

 

ADDITIONAL REFERENCE TOOLS:

  • Access UN - News services from the United Nations

 

COLLINS QUICK GUIDE - A few gateways and suggestions to help search one place to find online free resources by specific topic.  Also a guide to some of the specific newspaper resources that index and include full-text coverage of newspapers.

 

 

 

INTERNET SEARCHING - As indicated on your course syllabus, there are many excellent and comprehensive websites that will be very valuable for you.  You are encouraged to use a search engine, such as GOOGLE and be as specific as you can about the topic you are searching.  Carefully site the source in your bibliography indicating, title of website, URL, and date last consulted.  You will want to note the domain and authority control or authorship of the content.  Much of it will be from other governments, or agencies, academic research centers, policy centers, think tanks, etc. 

 

DETERMINING WHAT IS AVAILABLE AT UCI - Once you have a citation, consult ANTPAC by title and enter the source - the journal title or book title or conference name of the article, chapter or where proceeding is from.  If it is not there, you may request the document from ILL via ANTPAC Web or MELVYL Request.  You can often e-mail results from a database to your e-mail address and you are encouraged to do so.

 

HINTS FOR ASSIGNMENTS:

  1. Read Assignments carefully and thoroughly
  2. Select and define topic so that is focused and manageable in order to meet due dates
  3. Identify resources you need to consult - Databases to find 5 articles of which four must be scholarly - likely to be in the social sciences
  4. Consider the geography of your topic seriously and look specifically for regional significance of that geography - ask for maps and related topographic coverage
  5. Foster teamwork for projects - follow guidelines; consider creating handouts containing chronology; legislative framework; list sources
  6. Make sure that your citations follow APA style
  7. If you use images in your presentations, remember to cite sources

 

PRESENTATION RESOURCES - there are many but here is one recommendation

            How to Prepare, Stage and Deliver Winning Presentations, 3rd ed, 2004.  LL  HF 5718.22 I43 2004

 

PRINTING/COPY CARDS - if you work at any of the Libraries, you may want to purchase a copy card which works at all printers, copiers and microform readers, debiting different amounts.  Buy a card for $.50 and add content to it so that you can obtain copies as you need it.  This debit card subtracts $.10/pp for xeroxing and $.12/pp for printing.

 

LIBRARY SERVICES - There are many ways that you can get help all noted via Ask a Librarian

1.      Come to a Reference Desk

2.      Schedule an appointment for a Research Consultation

3.      Contact Julia Gelfand or Kay Collins at the above contact information or Dan Tsang