Environmental Biology

Electronic Resources

CQ Researcher - An excellent source for current hot topics. Each individual issue contains historical background, a timeline, current status, and potential future developments. The bibliographies are especially helpful in finding useful sources.

Academic Search Elite - This is a good place to find scholarly and popular journal articles.

WilsonSelectPlus - An all-subject journal article database that covers the sciences.

Newspaper Source ~ Selected full text of articles from more than 100 U.S. and international newspapers.

New York Times ~ Search the full text from 1999 - present; also includes index back to 1990. Available on campus only.

Chicago Tribune ~ Search the full text (excluding advertisements) from 1985-date.

Lexix Nexis Academic ~ A great place to find newspaper articles from across the country and transcipts from news radio and TV programs.

 

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Print Sources

If you don't know a whole lot about your topic, you can use books to get you started. Reference books especially can define terms, give background information or refer you to other helpful resources on your topic. Below are only a few books that might help.

Use Illinet Online, the electronic card catalog, to find other books.

Reference Books
Reference books are great sources to get an introduction to a topic, help define terms or determine where else to look for sources.

CultureGrams. R 909.82 C968 2002
Countries and their Cultures. R306.03 C855
Europa World Yearbook. R341.184 E89
World Encyclopedia of Peace. R327.17203 W927
Encyclopedia of Human Rights. R 323.403 E561996
Encyclopedia of U.S. Foreign Relations. R327.73 E56F
Encyclopedia of Terrorism. R303.62503 K97e
Encyclopedia of World Terrorism. R303.6250904 E56

Conservation and Environmentalism: An Encyclopedia. Reference R363.7003 C755Green Encyclopedia. 363.7003 F822g
Blackwell's Concise Encyclopedia of Environmental Management [electronic resource] 363.7003
Use NetLibrary to find this book.

Argument : A Guide to Formal and Informal Debate. 808.53 E36A1980
An Introduction to Non-Policy Debating. 808.51 C793I

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Internet Resources

• Why should I evaluate web sites? Can't I just trust everyone's website?

  • Dissing the King ~ a cautionary tale detailing how websites are not always what they seem
  • The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources
    
    

• What should I look for in a trustworthy web site?

  • Evaluating Web Sites
  • Bibliography on Evaluating Internet Resources ~ links to various on-line articles on web site evaluation
    
    

• Where can I go for trustworthy sites that have already been evaluated?
  
  Subject Directories

  • Librarians' Index to the Internet
  • The Scout Report
  • The Best Information on the Net
  • Digital Librarian
  • Internet Public Library
  • BUBL ~ a selection of "Internet resources covering all academic subject areas"
    
    

• How can I find other web sites?

  • Use a search engine to find sites on your topic.
    • Hotbot
    • Google
    • Dogpile ~ a metasearch engine, which searches multiple search engines simultaneously
  • Others are listed on our Internet Tools and Sites page.
    
    

• Can't I just do all of my research on the Internet (I thought everything there was free and full-text)?

  • Despite what some would have you believe, not everything is available for free on the Internet.
  • Don't rely on the web as your only source of information.
  • Choose web sites carefully.
  • Use them to support your articles and books, not to replace them.

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Evaluating and Citing Your Sources

If you want to win a debate, you can't just quote Joe Schmo. How do you know if you can trust your resources? Who wrote them? Are they experts?

Evaluating Print Resources - From the library experts at Cornell University.
Evaluating Internet Resources - Also from Cornell University.

Popular vs. Scholarly ~ What the heck is the difference?

Give credit where credit is due. Cite your resources properly.
Citing resources in the APA style.

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