Energy and the Environment (EGEE
101)
Library Resource Guide
Some resources that you may find useful include:
Energy Information Administration - As part of the U.S. Department of Energy, the EIA gathers information and statistics relating to all aspects of energy resources, worldwide. Many of their publications are both on the web and in the library. Some of the most useful are the International Energy Annual and the Annual Energy Review.
How to find books:
Books offer in-depth treatment of topics but can be somewhat out of date. Encyclopedias can be a good source of background information but tend to more out of date than books. Encyclopedia of Energy Technology and the Environment. Edited by Attilio Bisio and Sharon Boots. 4 v.The CAT - tells you what
VEL - tells you what the CIC (the Big Ten institutions) libraries own. If a book is available, it takes 2-3 days to deliver it.
WorldCat - tells you what miscellaneous libraries
around the world own. You may request
these materials online using the
RLIN - tells you what various research libraries around the world own. If you find something useful, use Interlibrary Loan to borrow it.
NAP catalog – The National Academy Press publishes authoritative works on important issues in the sciences. They provide free fulltext access to their publications.
How to find journal/magazine articles:
There are many different databases for articles.
Some cover more journals than others; some cover certain subjects only; some
only have a couple of years of data. In most cases, once you find an
article you need to check the CAT to see if the journal it appears in is available
at
Some multidisciplinary article databases include:
ProQuest Direct - coverage begins with 1986; has many fulltext articles from magazines and newspapers.
Ingenta - tables of contents of over 15,000 journals since 1988.
Academic Universe - has fulltext of many trade (industry) journals; 10-20 years of articles in most cases.
Some subject databases that have articles in them include:
Web of Science (science journal articles)
ABI/Inform (business)
COMPENDEX (engineering)
EconLit (economics)
Environmental sciences (collection of several databases including Pollution Abstracts)
GeoRef (geosciences)
GEOBASE (geography, geosciences, ecology and water resources)
How to find newspaper articles:
Newspapers are good sources of local information, current events and public opinion.
ProQuest Direct - has major
Academic Universe - fulltext of newspapers worldwide; 10-20 years of data.
Newsbank Fulltext Newspapers Library Online - fulltext
How to find transcripts:
Transcripts are written summaries of radio or television programs or other oral records. Good examples are the many transcripts of Congressional hearings, transcripts of NPR radio programs, or television programs such as Dateline. Transcripts are sometimes freely available on the Web.
Academic Universe - transcripts are included in the News section.
CNN - CNN's web site has the transcripts from many of their programs.
How to find technical reports:
Technical reports are reports that are written as a result of funded research. The majority are funded by government agencies such as the Dept. of Defense or NASA. The information in tech. reports is frequently unique or not reported elsewhere.
NTIS - this database from the National Technical Information Service is an index to reports from the 1950s onward from various government agencies.
DOE Information Bridge - reports from the U.S. Department of Energy
How to find a map:
Search for maps as if they were books. If you cannot
find a specific enough map, try looking for something more general, e.g., an
energy map instead of a map of oil sands, or a map of
International Minerals
Statistics and Information – this site has excellent maps showing the
mineral locations within countries as well as individual states of the
The Fossil Energy International page of the Dept. of Energy also features basic maps of various countries.
How to find useful Web sites:
The Web is an immense, constantly changing resource. Use caution when using Web resources, however. Be sure you evaluate what you see - who is providing the information?, are they biased or not?, are they truly knowledgeable?, is the information up to date?, will the site be there when your instructor goes looking for it?, etc. Some useful tools to help find information on the Web are:
Yahoo AltaVista Metacrawler Google
How to find cite information (as in a bibliography or
reference list):
There are many style
manuals available to guide you. When in
doubt, always include more information rather than less. Here are some guides to citation styles:
Style for Students: Effective
Technical Writing in the Information Age.
By Joe Schall.
(A copy is available in the EMS Library in the Reference area at T11.S324 2002.)
Duke Library’s guide to citing sources
And for fun, try to SLATE Citation Machine
Written by Linda Musser, The Pennsylvania State University Libraries, January 2001; revised January 24, 2005.
© The