Environmental History of North America

Professor: Matthew Klingle ( )
Librarian: Ginny Hopcroft ( )
Fall 2003

Research Strategy
Reference Books
Indexes and Databases
Journals and Newspapers
Library Catalog
Web Sites
Go to Library Gateway

The purpose of this guide is to help you locate and use the library information resources most useful for research in this class. The library's reference librarians will be glad to assist with specific questions. You may also consult Ginny Hopcroft by phone x3298 or via email at ghopcrof@bowdoin.edu.

Research Strategy

Consult the Basic Library Research page for a helpful summary/refresher of the research process. Also see Patrick Rael's Guide Reading, Writing and Researching for History.

Additional tips for historical research:

1. Use both subject and keyword searching in any electronic database or index, including the library catalog.
2. When you find a relevant record for a book or article, always check the descriptors or subject headings for additional search terms.
3. Read bibliographies and footnotes of books and articles for additional relevant information.
4. For information on primary sources, please read the CBB Guide to Primary and Secondary Sources.
5. Evaluate websites carefully for accuracy, timeliness and authority.
6. Begin research EARLY. Interlibrary loans always take at least a few days; for obtaining specialized items, such as microfilm of old newspapers, several weeks may be necessary.

Reference Books

Columbia Guide to American Environmental History


The New American History, Eric Foner, ed.
Main Libr E 175 .N53 1990

Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates
Main Ref E174.5 .C3 1993

Encyclopedia of American Social History
Main Ref HN57 .E58 1993

Harvard Guide to American History
Main Ref Z1236 .F77 1974

The Reader's Companion to American History
Main Ref E174 .R43 1991

Indexes and Databases

Some of these databases are strictly bibliographic, i.e. they provide citation only. Others contain the full text of the journal articles, for all or some of their indexed publications. To discover whether Bowdoin Library either holds the journal in print or provides access to the full text, please select the "Find Journals" search screen on the Library Gateway and enter the name of the journal in the search form.

Academic Search Premier
Library Gateway
Academic Search Premier indexes over 1800 peer reviewed journals in the social sciences, humanities and science, as well as general interest magazines and several important American newspapers. Date coverage varies between periodicals some as far back as 1980; about 60% of the articles are in full text.

Academic Universe
Library Gateway
Academic Universe is a full text web database of news and legal information. This database provides access to both current news and up to 20 years of retrospective news, both domestic and international. Under the News heading you search separate files for the most current news, World news, U.S. news, etc. Under U.S. news you can find many regional newspapers not otherwise available.

America History and Life
Library Gateway
This scholarly bibliographic source indexes articles, books and dissertations about the history of the United States and Canada published throughout the world. It is a subject index which provides citations and abstracts for the works indexed. Coverage is 1964 to present.

Congressional Universe
Library Gateway
Congressional Indexes, 1789-1970: this section of Congressional Universe provides bibliographic citations for a vast amount of information published by the U.S. Congress over nearly two centuries.

Essay and General Literature Index
Library Gateway
Main Per Index
This excellent, long-running index is unusual because it emphasizes the contents of books, specifically chapters and essays. Access points are author, title, and subject. Subject matter covered includes literature, social sciences and history.

History Journals in the J-Stor Electronic Journal Service
Library Gateway

The J-Stor service makes available fulltext articles from selected scholarly journals. All articles from all years of the journal are reproduced, except for the most recent five years. When you go to the J-Stor screen, click the SEARCH button to access a search screen and to choose your subject grouping of journals to search.

Government Documents Monthly Catalog
Library Gateway
Government Index
Bowdoin's collection of U.S. government documents is not yet fully cataloged, so this online index is used to locate government publications. Produced by the Government Printing Office, the online Monthly Catalog indexes government documents back to 1976. For earlier indexing, please consult the print version of the Monthly Catalog, beginning in 1892 and located in the Government Documents Collection. When you locate a relevant document in this index, please make note of the "Sudocs" number in order to locate the document in Bowdoin's collection.

Periodical Contents Index
Library Gateway

This source provides online indexing to nearly 2400 periodicals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, published from 1770 to 1990. The index presently has 9 million entries and continues to add more. It provides bibliographic access to many of the Library's 19th and early 20th century journals.

Poole's Index
Main Per Index

Poole's Index is a subject index to British and American periodicals of the nineteenth century. This index provides excellent subject access to periodical articles of the nineteenth century, significant primary source material for this course. Bowdoin Library owns many of these nineteenth century periodicals in its collections.

Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS)
Library Gateway
Periodical Index

PAIS indexes "publications on all subjects that bear on contemporary public issues and the making and evaluation of public policy, irrespective of source or traditional disciplinary boundaries." Sources may be periodical articles, books, government documents or the reports of public and private organizations in the U.S. and internationally. Coverage for the electronic version begins with 1972 and continues to the present. The print version covers 1915 to 1985.

Reader's Guide Retrospective
Library Gateway
Main Per Index
The print Reader's Guide is an easy-to-use author/subject index to a broad range of U.S. general interest magazines and journals. A special value of the Reader's Guide for this class is its historical coverage--1895 through the present. Reader's Guide Retrospective is a new online fulltext source for the same magazines and journals.

Social Sciences Index
Main Per Index
Social Sciences Index is an easy-to-use print author/subject index to the scholarly literature of the social sciences. Social Sciences Index began in 1907, so it provides access to early twentieth century scholarship.


Journals and Newspapers:

"Ecology Through Time: Special Issue," Science 293 (27 July 2001). This special issue looks at the long-term effects of human beings upon various ecosystems and landscapes.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol293/issue5530/#specialintro
http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/ecology2001.shtml

High Country News: a biweekly paper that focuses on environmental and natural resources issues in the Western United States.
http://www.hcn.org/

Environmental News Network: a daily on-line journal dedicated to environmental news.
http://www.enn.com/

Grist Magazine:a daily online environmental magazine that tackles environmental topics with irreverence, intelligence, and diversity of perspectives.
http://www.gristmagazine.com/

Library Catalog

The electronic library catalog is the primary access point for the collections of the Bowdoin College Libraries in all formats. Specialized indexes and finding aids are available for the uncataloged portions of Special Collections and Government Documents.

You can begin your research in the Bowdoin Library Catalog with either a subject search or a keyword search (under heading "word"). In subject searching the best search results are obtained by use of the standardized controlled vocabulary found in the Library of Congress Subject Headings books. In doing either kind of search, take advantage of any additional subject headings you see listed in the bibliographic record. Print and online LC headings

Subject Heading Examples:

Environmental policy -- United States -History
Environmental protection -- United States - History
Conservation of natural resources -- United States -- History

Academic Websites:

American History Research Guide
http://library.bowdoin.edu/rguides/American_History

Common-Place: a scholarly website dedicated to early American history
http://www.common-place.org/

The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory: a website, designed by the Chicago Historical Society and Northwestern University on that city's epic 1871 natural disaster.
http://www.chicagohs.org/fire/

American Society for Environmental History/H-Environment List Website:
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~environ/

Forest History Society Home Page
http://www.lib.duke.edu/forest/

Environmental History: this website by Carolyn Merchant, a noted environmental historian at the University of California at Berkeley, includes bibliographies and links to other sites.
http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/departments/espm/env-hist/

Center for New History and Media, George Mason University
http://chnm.gmu.edu/
An Internet clearing house for a wide variety of materials about history.

Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment
http://www.asle.umn.edu/

Environmental History of Latin America:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/LAEH/
An on-line bibliography, complied by Lise Sedrez, a graduate student at Stanford University.

H-Net, Humanities and Social Sciences OnLine
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/

"Surviving the Dust Bowl," from The American Experience
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/

Urban History Website
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~urban/
This website offers both links and information for a range of urban history subjects.

Making of America: Digital Library of Primary Sources
http://www.umdl.umich.edu/moa
A collection of full-text documents from the 19th century.

Environmental Sites on the Internet
http://www.lib.kth.se/~lg/envsite.htm
See "history" in the subject index located in the green bar on the left

Government Websites:

National Council for Science and the Environment: includes a link to the National Library for the Environment, an on-line catalogue of governmental documents. Also a link to Congressional Research Service reports on environmental topics.
http://www.cnie.org/

The National Academies: includes the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council
http://www.nationalacademies.org/

Library of Congress, American Memory Site
http://memory.loc.gov/
Several collections from this site provide useful information and images.

The Evolution of the Conservation Movement
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amrvhtml/conshome.html

The Nineteenth Century in Print
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/moahtml/snchome.html