College English: Paleaz

College English

March 20, 2007
 

        Shirley Knight                                                              Dana Crum, Professor

        sknight@ramapo.edu x7315                                        ENGL 180-10

 I. Library Homepage: http://library.ramapo.edu

  • Provides access to the catalog (OPAC), databases, interlibrary loan forms and more.

 

II. Finding Books at the Potter Library

  • Catalog: use this to find books, periodical titles (NOT articles ), government documents, reserve items, music,and movies owned by the Library. You may limit a search by language, year(s) of publication, type of material, etc. This may take a few seconds to load.
  • Use the Basic Search to find material using Keywords.
    • For example: search for " global warming" or "climate change" to locate a broad range of materials the library has on these keywords.
    • Use quotation marks around a multi-word phrase so that the catalog system will treat it as a single word.
    • When you find an appropriate title, click on the Related Records tab located at the top of a catalog record to see which Library of Congress subject headings are discussed in that particular book/DVD/periodical to get to more titles that deal with that subject .
    • Limit your search to Documents Without Shelves to access government documents online.
      • OR
  • Search the catalog using Subject Browse feature if you know the relevant Library of Congress subject heading, for example,

        

    • Air Pollution
    • Biological Diversity
    • Climatic Changes--United States
    • Ecology
    • Endangered Species
    • Energy Conservation
    • Environment
    • Global Warming
    • Greenhouse Effect, Atmospheric
    • Natural Resources
    • Restoration Ecology
    • Sustainable Development--United States
    • Water Pollution
       

Tips

    1. Start with broad searches. It is much easier to discard too much rather than start with too little.
    2. If you don't know the Subject Heading, use the Related Records tab located on the top of a catalog record to get to the headings. This will help you focus in on more relevant material.
    3. Can "virtually" browse the shelves by clicking on the call number in a record.

III. Reference Material

  • The reference stacks are located on the 3rd floor (this is also the library's entrance).
  • Some useful materials for your projects:
    Global Warming Desk Reference
    Ref  QC 981.8       .G56 J64       2002
    Work at Risk: A Global Issues Sourcebook

    Ref  JZ 1242 .W62

    2002
    Environmental Contaminants Encyclopedia (access online)
    The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change: A Guide to Debate

    Ref QC 981.8 .C5 D44

    2006

    The Atlas of Climate Change: Mapping the World's Greatest Challenge

    Ref  QC 981.8

    .C5 D69

    2006

    An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of  Global Warming and What We Can Do About It

    Ref  QC 981.8 .G56 G67

      2006
    Life on Earth: An Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution
    Ref QH 541.15 .B56 L54 2002
    State of the Wild 2006: A Global Portrait of Wildlife, Wildlands, and Oceans
    Ref QL 82 .S73  2005
    Principles and Practice of Plant Conservation
    Ref QK 86 .A1 G54 1994

    Handbook of Ecological Restoration

    Ref QH 541.15 .R45 H36 2002

 

IV. Electronic Resources

Lexis-Nexis: Academic Full text articles that cover news, legal, financial, and medical information.
America's Newspapers

Each newspaper or wire service provides unique coverage of current and historical events about local and regional news, including specific informtion about companies, industries, cultural activities, politics and the people in the community.
Academic Search Premier

A multi-disciplinary database containing both full-text articles and citations.

NOTE: When only a citation is included, click on the Check availability at Ramapo link to see if the full text of the article is available in our collection.
See Also:  
Nature Journals Online Offers citations, abstracts, and full-text articles from over 45 publications from the Nature Publishing Group. The system defaults to Nature International Weekly Journal of Science. Search only this journal.

Scholarly/Peer Reviewed/Refereed articles have been reviewed by a selected panel of experts in the discipline covered by that journal. Many of the databases allow you to limit your search to these articles.

Tips

  1. Always switch to the Advanced Search page in a database. This will give you more control over your results.
  2. Always use Boolean Operators--AND, OR, NOT and Quotation Marks when running a search. For Example: "sustainable development" and "United States" and emission.
  3. Always check your Spelling if the database results are zero.
  4. Use the Subject Terms or Thesaurus link, if available, to find the best terms to use in a database.

  V. Journal Finder and Interlibrary Loans

  • Journal Finder: this provides information about where to find the full text of articles when available in the George T. Potter Library in print, microform, or through a full-text database. This feature also appears in many of our databases
  • Interlibrary Loan: allows studens to borrow a book or article that the George T. Potter library does not own. There is a link from the Journal Finder page.

Both of these links can be found under QUICK LINKS on the library's homepage.

 

VI. Web Sources

     Use  the following Subject Resources under Environment/Ecology and

     Government to locate supplemental information.

  • Enviro$en$e
  • Riverkeeper
  • Official WebSite for the State of New Jersey
  • The Official New York City Site

VII. Other  Suggested Web Sites

 

       

    

VIII. Search Engine

 

 

VIV. Bibliographies

 

Need more help? Visit or call the Reference Desk: 201.684.7574

 

Use QandA NJ: a 24/7 virtual chat with a reference librarian.
 
| George T. Potter Library |
| 505 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah NJ 07430 | (201) 684-7575 |

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