Social Ecology U252/C252 Julia Gelfand
Environmental Law & Policy Science Library 228
Fall 2007 jgelfand@uci.edu
(949) 824-4971
This graduate course assumes that you have some background in the theory and basic issues covered by Environmental Law & Policy. The scope of these issues covers several different disciplines of literature in the social sciences - law, political science, economics, transportation, urban & regional planning, architecture, public opinion, business/management, policy studies and increasingly covers more physical science content and coverage as well when one explores the science of climate change.
Much of the research material is increasingly available in electronic format. Make sure that you are set up to be authenticated to work from Off-Campus if that describes your situation. However, the print resources will mostly be found at the Langson Library (LL) with the exception being the environmental sciences and physical sciences literature and the accompanying policy sciences will be at the Science Library (SL). ANTPAC is the most current source of what we have in all formats. MELVYL captures what the library holdings are at all 10 UC campuses plus the California State Library and the Regional Storage Facilities (SRLF & NRLF), the Hastings School of Law and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL); thus ANTPAC is included. Both ANTPAC & MELVYL are at the Source Level - the title of the journal or law review where the specific article is published; the title of the book that includes a particular chapter, a reporter series that contains a given case, etc. You will use other finding aids, indexes and databases to determine where those elements are located.
For this course there will be a series of mini-assignments you will complete. Some may require conducting a brief, yet focused literature review or putting into context some issues or finding reference information to support a theory, perspective, trend or analysis. In addition, you are already aware of one question for which you can prepare on the Final Exam. This handout indicates some selective resources that you may consider in preparing an outline for a short article on a topic in environmental law and other more general sources that may be appropriate to consult for other mini-assignments and as background to support the subject.
SUBJECT GUIDES - Consult different guides depending on the subject focus of your query. They correspond to academic departments and then to general subjects such as Government Information. You may find the Guides for PPD, CLS, EHSP, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Political Science and Government Information helpful.
REFERENCE SOURCES - Increasingly a wider range of information products are available on different topics related to Environmental Law and Policy and a larger number of resources are available online. Many are classified in the Legal area that corresponds to the Call #s KF 3775 found at the LL or at the Science Library in GE 170-190. UCI has a large collection highlighting environmental law & policy in California, the US, and around the globe, with particular strengths in Europe, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. Topical areas of strength include: water resources, contamination, hazardous waste, global warming, technological innovation, sustainable development, zoning & planning, compliance, land use, etc. As the intersections of subjects blur and there is more of an interest in the science associated with informing legal decisions in environmental law, you see emerging fields like climate change, global warming, etc.
The usual tools of legal dictionaries, handbooks, encyclopedias, fact sheets, exist to support research in environmental law & policy. Jurisdiction usually dictates rulings of law and local, state and federal statutes and regulations define course of action. Also, Newspapers covering a certain area or region are valuable resources.
ASSIGNMENT: Finding Law Review Articles and articles from
the Planning Literature - different indexing and abstracting tools or databases
will cover the journal literature.
ACCESS TO JOURNAL & LAW REVIEW ARTICLES: There are numerous methods to search the journal literature. Sometimes you have many choices, and other times, you are forced to use the format in which the indexing source is available. For this topic, depending on the time period that you are searching, the geo-referencing or jurisdiction of the subject, you will be using more online resources.
1. Article Databases – from different providers, but providing increasingly full-text coverage:
a. Expanded Academic ASAP - the most basic or widest distribution of subject scope, searchable by keyword and increasingly available full-text coverage – wide scope.
b. Business Source Premier - business/management database - lots of fulltext and covers a lot of community and business/trade publications
c. Factiva - a business trade service that contains large volumes of fulltext
d.
Web of Science - contains the Science
Citation Index (1900+); Social Science Citation Index (1956+); Arts &
Humanities Index (1974+) - planning literature is covered in the Social Science
Citation Index
b. Journal of Planning Literature - contains summaries of contributions to the planning literature and major thematic articles and papers and bibliographic essays
c. PAIS International - Public Affairs database which includes access to books & book chapters, government documents as well as journal articles and there is an Archive for the older content
d. Lexis Nexis Academic Universe – a family of databases defined by scope and coverage. Utilizes proximity searching. Contains Full-text articles. Excellent access for law reviews & court cases in the Legal Section; News articles, wire services, media coverage in the News Section.
e. Westlaw Campus - contains coverage of statutory and case law and law reviews but not as comprehensively for the latter as L/N or Hein Online
f. Hein Online - most comprehensive retrospective coverage of Law Reviews from Vol. 1 #1 to most recent bound volume - last few issues should be reviewed in L/N
g. Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management – another database focusing more on environmental science & policy topics than law; includes Water Resources Abstracts
h. Risk Abstracts - another highly interdisciplinary database
i. BNA Environment & Safety Library - we will focus on this resource in the instruction session - contains news about environmental law for domestic and international coverage - includes the Environment Reporter, International Environment Reporter, Occupational Safety & Health Reporter, State Health Care Regulatory Developments, and the entire Environment & Safety Library containing environmental law decisions and regulations for both federal and states.
j.
Digital Dissertations - if you are
interested in consulting what dissertations have been submitted on related
topics, this database covers most North American institutions and a large
number from
k. Index to Current Urban Documents - this database is uneven but includes fulltext documents from cities and towns that supply them on relevant planning issues
l. Lexis Nexis Congressional Universe - a complementary database to Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe highlighting governmental and legislative coverage
1. INTERNET Access – Use a variety of search engines to locate websites relevant to your
topic. Consider the source and evaluate information carefully - you will retrieve a range of information from educational domains, governmental, international agencies, nonprofits,
and the commercial sectors.
2. GOVERNMENT INFORMATION - You may consult colleagues in LL Reference Department with Government Information expertise (LL 1st floor) for local, county, state, regional, federal or international materials and jurisdictions.
Hints:
· Remember that law review articles are often counted in words not pages.
· You will see items cited in legal citation format as well as following other more standard formats. For help with the legal format, consult the Harvard Bluebook, 18th ed. at LL REF KF 245 U55 2005
Next Steps - If you need assistance, please consult Liaison Librarian or use the Ask a Librarian services or visit the Reference Desks at either Library.