Natural Resources Librarian
- Bonnie Avery
- Office Hours:
The Valley Library. By Appointment - Contact Info:
AIM: VLibAvery
If you need help using the resources described above, you can ask at the Library Reference Desk or use the library's "chat" reference service, linked from most library web-pages.
OSU Libraries on the Web
Be sure you can locate the the OSU Libraries Home Page and from there find these three "Quicklinks."
Two other useful links located on the left-hand side of the homepage are
- Browse by Subject
- Get help with a class
What's where in the library
If you are an extended campus student be sure to read the information linked from the Extended campus View on "accessing library material.": .
If you are on camous, you may need to be familiar with where things are on the first and second floors -- to do this, use this link to Floor maps
A word to the wise:, the first floor, which houses most forestry material, seems complicated at first. On this floor we house older volumes of journals in "compact shelving" on the North side. Journals volumes from 1990 through last year are shelved with the books on the South side. The current year of print journals are unbound in display shelving in the Southeast corner.
It is *always* okay to ask questions - here are some options to try before you get frustrated:
- Look for the in-library phone on each floor -- use it to call the Reference Desk (7-7295).
- Come to the Reference Desk on the 2nd floor.
- Try the *ASK A LIBRARIAN!* chat service on the right of most library pages.
Identifying and locating journal articles on your topic.
To find a database that indexes journal articles covering natural resources topics begin with the link to Databases on the OSU Library Homepage. Use the pull-down menu next to "select by subject." Choose Forest and Natural Resource Management
Start with Academic Search Premier via Ebsco (listed on the left side of page).
- You can limit to academic/scholarly journals;
- You can limit to full text (not recommended);
- If the article isn't available online from this database use the "Get this Item" link to see if the library subscribes to it in print or electronically and if we have the year you want.
- Look for it in the E-journals list and if that fails, use
- The OSU Library catalog to see if we have it in paper. If so, get the call number and find it on the shelf (if you are on campus) or use the "request" button if you are an extended campus student..
- While you are in "Ebsco" if you need more information you might try Agricola (created by the National Agriculture Library).
If you are particularly interested in research done by the US Forest Service, try TreeSearch with contains the full-text of many articles and reports by researchers in that agency.
Among the many other "comprehensive" databases listed on the right of that page, try the CAB database:
- This is a premier index of natural resource journals and reports While not full text, there is usually an abstract of the article's contents.
- This database concentrates on peer reviewed research,
- "Subject" searches include titles, abstracts, descriptors terms. It's a good place to start but if you have a lot of irrelevant hits, find a relevant article and click on the best subject heading. Or use the "Thesaurus" to select your term.
- If a URL is provided for an article, try it, but, as with Academic Search Premier also try the "Get the Item Link"
If OSU does not have a magazine or journal you need, you can request it through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
- Depending on how many libraries own the journal, an ILL request may take as long as a couple of weeks, or arrive within a few days.
- You can NOT request articles through the Summit catalog (at least not yet).
If you are not finding anything or only finding references in journals the library does not have: ASK FOR HELP.
Tips on searching databases
Follow the "read more" link below to learn about:
- Keyword searching
- Controlled Vocabularies
- Combining terms using Boolean operators (and/or/not)
- Truncation or wildcards
Databases also usuallly have "help" or "search tips" screens which will answer most of your questions n the mechanics of searching.
If you need a quick review on search strategy try this exercise.
Evaluating web sites
When evaluating a web site look for these attributes:
- Purpose : Is it there to inform? Persuade? Sell? Entertain?
- Authorship & Authority : What are the person's (group's) credentials? Can you tell? Is the person/group credible? An authority?
- Objectivity : Does the site have a bias? Can you articulate what it is?
- Accuracy : Are sources cited or acknowledged?
- Currency : How current is the information? Is this important?
- Completeness : Is the information complete or just a summary of information found elsewhere?
Citing sources in your bibliography
For help in citing your sources in a consistent manner consult:
- This CSE guide from Ohio State.
- Citation Machine (includes APA, MLA, /turabian, and Chicago Style Guides).
Course Instructor
- Mark Reed
- Contact Info:
Instructor's Website
Library related assignments
Complete the Library research tutorial.
This will help you learn about how to approach your issue paper topic. There are three parts to the tutorial and three quizzes. You can read over the material as much as you like before taking each quiz, but you are graded on your first attempt at taking the quiz so be sure you feel prepared. When you take the quiz, use your instructors email address. Click here to begin the Library Research Tutorial. Read over the information on this page before beginning research on the following assignments:
Issue paper 1:
Aldo Leopold said: "All ethics rest on a single premise, that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, water, plants, and animals, or collectively, the land."
Leopold went on to say that "we can be ethical only in relation to something we can see, feel, understand, and love."
Describe a landscape that has personal meaning for you. This should be a biotic community, rather than an urban or human-built environment. Examples: a favorite place for hiking, fishing camping, or other recreation; some place that has inspired you, even if you have never been there, such as a distant national park; your family farm or ranch. Try to be as specific as possible, e.g. instead of "Oregon Coast" narrow it down to a favorite beach or park.
Your completed assignment must meet the following criteria:
- Describe the location of your landscape as accurately as possible: country (if outside USA), state/province, county, latitude/longitude (5 points)
- Provide a map of your location, in the form of a URL for a Google map or equivalent (5 points)
- Identify your ecoregion as accurately as possible, using the CEC's ecoregion maps: www.epa.gov/wed/pages/ecoregions.htm or, if your location is outside North America, www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/terrestrial.html (you should be able to narrow it down to level 3 within North America) (5 points)
- Identify your watershed as accurately as possible, using the USGS "Science in Your Watershed" website: water.usgs.gov/wsc/map_index.html. You should be able to narrow it down to the "cataloging unit" (8 digits). Once you have identified it, click on the "additional information for your watershed" button to find the name of your watershed. Submit watershed name and cataloging unit number in your report. (5 points)
- Describe distinctive geology, climate, flora, and fauna (10 points)
- Describe what this place means to you, in a minimum of 250 words (15 points)
- Post completed assignment, on time, in the relevant discussion forum (5 points)
Issue paper 2: For the landscape that you identified in your first issue paper, explore some of the issues relating to management of its natural resources.
Develop a full report (minimum 1500 words), meeting the following criteria:
- Determine what other members of society may be stakeholders in your landscape and discuss the following (20 points):
- Who owns your landscape? Identify the owner(s) as specifically as possible. You can often identify owners from public records (check to see if your county tax assessor has a web search). Is it in public or private ownership, or both? If it is a mix, what percentage for each?
- Describe residents, including threatened & endangered (T&E) species, and/or endemic species (you can search for more information about T&E species on www.natureserve.org/explorer/index.htm).
- What natural resources and ecosystem services do human residents expect to receive from this landscape?
- What kinds of issues, including real or potential conflicts, exist over natural resources in this landscape? Think of the different examples we have discussed so far in class. Include conflicts between different user groups and between humans and T&E species. Include a summary of water resource conditions (using the EPA's "Surf your Watershed" database: cfpub.epa.gov/surf/locate/index.cfm). (20 points)
- What is the most important natural resource issue for this landscape, in your opinion (something that will need to be addressed in the next 10-20 years)? What is the current management plan regarding this issue? How would you improve the management of this landscape regarding this issue? Try to be realistic: consider all 3 aspects of the sustainability triangle in your proposed solution, and take into account relevant government regulations and stakeholder attitudes. 40 points)
- Include at least one graph of relevant data, and a list of references. (10 points)
- Post your report, on time, as an attachment to a post in the relevant discussion forum. Please try to post either in .doc or .pdf format. If you are using Works, Word Perfect or the newest version of MSWord, you should be able to do this by choosing "Save as" and scrolling through the choices. (10 points)
Career Exploration: Report on what you learn about career opportunities. Minimum length of report: 500 words.
Making your case using the best evidence:
The Valley Library subscribes to several databases which index peer-reviewed scientific journal articles relevant to natural resource issues and topics. The process of "peer-review" (sometimes called "refereeing") is discipline and journal specific. It is intended to assure that the articles in that journal represent good scientific methodology and are regarded as a contribution to the literature of that field of study. If in doubt about whether a journal contains peer reviewed articles, ask.
Most databases noted in ths guide will index a high percentage of "refereed" journals and therefore contain very high percentage of peer reviewed articles. They may also include first hand reporting of research findings or state-of-the-art reviews from other reporting sources such as federal agency reports, dissertations, conference proceedings, professional journals, etc. All of these may prove useful resources for framing and addressing your research question.
Last Update: June 07, 2008 15:39
