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Life On Earth

INFORMATION ON THIS PAGE

UA LIBRARY GATEWAY - providing access to:
  • CATALOG of books & more - a searchable online catalog of the Library's books, videos, journals, ...

    • **use the KEYWORD field to search words/terms of interest (for example: biodiversity; evolution; population dynamics; global warming; ozone depletion; climate change)
  • DATABASES search engines for information from various sources.
  • E-JOURNALS Electronic acces to Journals through UA Libraries paid subscriptions.
  • SUBJECT GUIDES to articles & more - electronic databases in which to search for magazine & journal articles, as well as newspaper articles.
  • RESEARCH ASSISTANCE - hot links to all your favorite search engines - Yahoo, Hotbot, and Excite are a few examples.

SOME REFERENCE BOOKS OF INTEREST (to get you started):
  • McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology - Q 121 .M3 1997 Sci Ref - Articles begin with a definition, give a brief overview of a topic, then develop the topic more fully. Index is Vol. 20.

  • The International Encyclopedia of Science and Technology - Q121 .I48 1999 - Science

  • McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science & Technology - Q121 .M31 - Science (1962 - present; latest volume in SCIENCE REF)

  • Encyclopedia of Environmental Biology - QH 540.4 .E52 1995 Sci Ref - Articles reflect important areas in the study of the environment, ranging from public and research interest to environmental law. Each entry has an outline, glossary, cross references and bibliography. Subject index in last volume.

  • Conservationism and the Environment - GE10 .C68 1995 Sci Ref - Covers three main subjects: ecology, pollution, and sustainability. 500 entries (from 1/2 to 2 pages in length) are arranged alphabetically and terms are cross-referenced and include bibliographies. Provides "a balanced point of view...comprehensible to non-experts and accessible to those new to a particular subject."

  • Magill's Survey of Science. Life Science Series - QH 307.2 .M34 1991 Sci Ref - Each article includes a list of definitions, topic summary, how the topic is researched and relates to a field of study, and a bibliography.

  • McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Environmental Science & Engineering -GE10 .M38 1993 - covers fields of environmental science and environmental protection.

  • Encyclopedia of Environmental Analysis and Remediation - GE10 .E49 1998 Sci Ref- 8-volume "professional-level compendium covering all aspects of the environment." Articles are several pages in length and are comprised of an introductory paragraph, coverage of several aspects of each concept, and many tables, charts, diagrams and bibliographies.

  • Encyclopedia of the Environment - GE10 .E53 1994 Sci Ref - Contains articles from 1 1/2 to 4 pages in length on various environmental terms from acid rain to zoning, people and organizations. Some articles are accompanied by tables. Includes an index of contributors as well as subjects.

  • Magill's Survey of Science: Earth Science Series - QE28 .M33 1990 Science Reference

  • McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of the Geological Sciences - QE5 .M29 1988 Science Reference

  • Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences and Astrogeology - QC854 .F34 Sci Ref- This volume, of the Encyclopedia of the Earth series, provides short articles on a variety of topics. Bibliographies are included, and illustrations and tables accompany many of the articles.

  • Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather - QC854 .E523 1996 Sci Ref- This source is designed to encompass a wide range of natural scientific subjects, as well as the social sciences that have contributed to the understanding of both the causes of weather and climate change and their effects on environment and society.

  • Encyclopedia of Climatology - QC854 .E525 1987 Sci Ref- Brief articles on climatology concepts, including many illustrations and charts. Each article also includes a short bibliography and a list of terms for cross references.

  • World Survey of Climatology - QC981 .W67 v. 1-16 Sci Ref- Volumes 1-3 of this series cover general climatological information, with extensive bibliographies following each article. Subsequent volumes specialize in topics such as "Climates of the Oceans" and "Future Climates of the World."

JOURNAL & NEWSPAPER ARTICLES:

For a basic guide to searching for articles - check out Article & Database Searching To get ideas on topics, lay-out, and writing styles - try browsing some of the general science journals in the Current Periodicals Room of the Science-Engineering Library - or try "online" browsing:

Primary Sources of Peer-Reviewed Original Scientific Research Reviews of Current Research To search for journal/magazine articles, try the following databases:
  • GENERAL:


    • EBSCOhost -
    A broad source of information that combines many different search engines including Academic Search Elite, Alt HealthWatch, Econlit, ERIC, Health Business Fulltext Elite, The New Republic Archive, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, Salud para todos, The Serials Directory and much more

  • BIOLOGY/MEDICINE:

    • MEDLINE- - Medline is the National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database of international biomedical literature, providing comprehensive information on every aspect of medicine, biomedical research and health care. Coverage: 1966 - Present.
Tosearch for newspaper articles, try the following databases:


GENERAL SEARCHING TIPS TO REMEMBER! All the databases share common characteristics. They will all have SOME method to:
  • LIMIT YOUR SEARCH (usually by year, type of material, ...)
  • MARK RECORDS
  • EXPORT (SAVE, PRINT, E-MAIL) RECORDS

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WEB RESOURCES: INTERNET SITES OF INTEREST -
  • COLUMBIA EARTHSCAPE - at http://www.earthscape.org/ - an online resource on the global environment - containing multimedia, multidisciplinary educational resources; Earth Affairs Magazine covering earth and environmental policy; fully searchable datasets, modeling systems, and links to other resources; and Research Reports on conferences, seminars, books, and journals covering global environmental and climitalogical issues
  • NATIONAL LIBRARY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT - at http://www.cnie.org/ - an online resource from the National Council for Science and the Environment (Formerly the Committee for the National Institute for the Environment) for "improving the scientific basis for making decisions on environmental issues."
  • THE TREE OF LIFE - a multi-authored, distributed Internet project containing information about phylogeny and biodiversity
  • TRY A SEARCH ON SEARCHEdu.com - It will return only academic/education sites!
  • TRY A SEARCH ON SEARCHGOV.com - It will return only government sites!
EVALUATING INTERNET SITES - There is a wealth of information on the Internet - some of it very useful, but much of it unreliable or inaccurate! Selection of sites which can be of VALUE to you in your research requires careful critical evaluation and good judgment! The form, EVALUATING INTERNET SITES, can be used to help you in this evaluation process as you weed out the good, the bad, and the ugly!

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Originally prepared by
Jill Newby at newbyj@u.library.arizona.edu or 621-6387
Marianne Stowell Bracke at brackem@u.library.arizona.edu or 621-4612
Page Created by Lori Critz February 11, 2004
Revised & Last Updated Feb. 21, 2006 by O.K.Davis