WSE 470: Forest, Wood and Civilization

• Barbara Lachenbruch
• Contact Info:
  
  Instructor's Website

• This baccalaureate core class (satisfying the requirement for Global Contemporary Issues) is designed to learn about the roles of forests and wood in civilizations of the past and present, and to think about the future. I welcome junior and senior students from all majors, regardless of their background in natural resources. The course emphasizes critical thinking skills by introducing topics for which there is no correct answer. During the course students will learn about five issues:

  • Historic and current services from forests.
  • Variation in valuation of services by people in different cultures.
  • Historic and future supply and demand for wood.
  • Effects of supply and demand for wood on the 'health' of the society and its geopolitical power.
  • Potential mitigation of supply and demand problems through population control, technological advances, or forestry practices.

  Students will learn about these issues from class periods, readings, debates (each student will participate actively in one, but as an audience in the others), short commentaries they will write (2), and a term paper.  To get the most out of the class, students will need to be active learners because there is no text, and they will have to find much of the information needed for the assignments. 

Be sure you can locate the the OSU Libraries Home Page and from there find these three links

OSU Libraries Catalog

Databases

E-Journals

Also look for the links to "Get help with a subject" and "Get help with a class" (see the navigation bar to the left).

If you are looking for books, begin your search with the OSU Libraries Catalog.

Experiment with the OSU Libraries Catalog; here are some hints:

• Search by keyword. Use quotation marks around phrases. Ex: "forest ecology"
• Look for the latest edition of the book titled "Balancing Act: environmental issues in forestry" by the author "Kimmins, J. P."
• You will see two copies, one is at our branch library on the Bend/Cascades campus (too far to walk) the other is in The Valley Library.
• Find its call number and use the Call Number Directory locate the floor its on (use the first letter of the call number).
• Check the "Status" to see if the book should be "available" (i.e. on the shelf) or if is it checked out (look for a "DUE" date).

If the book you want is checked out or you don't find it in your catalog search, use the "Repeat in Summit" button (located to the right on the screen) and see if it's available at one of our partner libraries in Oregon and Washington.

• In the Summit catalog, click on the line that tells you how many libraries have the book. If OSU doesn't have it, or our copy is checked out, click on "Request this Item" and complete the information asked for.
• It will take 3 workdays for the book to arrive at the Valley Library. A notice will be sent to your ONID email when it's in and it will be held for 5 days for you to pick-up.

• To find a database that indexes journal articles covering forestry or 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) (left side of page).
  • Some full text, over 1800 magazines, journals, and newspapers in all subjects.
  • You can limit to academic/scholarly journals.
  • You can limit to full text and titles held by OSU.
  • If the article isn't available online but we have it at OSU, use the "Get this Item" link to make sure we have the year you want. Look for it in the OSU catalog or the E-journals list. The catalog gives you the call number for the journal or magazine.
• While you are in "Ebsco" if you need more information you can 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.
• Finally, try the Forest Science database
  • Premier index of forestry journals and reports.
  • Very little available in full text online, however abstracts give a summary of the article's contents.
  • This database concentrates on peer reviewed research, so you don't need to limit to peer reviewed (academic/scholarly) journals.
  • "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 you select "View Complete Record" and look for the "WEBLH: Webbridge" link it will take you to OSU's catalog and electronic journals listing. Check to make sure we have the year you want. The catalog gives you the call number for the journal or magazine if it's not available electronically.
• If OSU doesn't 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).
  • For most of your undergraduate work, if you find you are only getting references to journals we don't have, ask for help.

When evaluating a web site look for these attributes:

1. Purpose : Is it there to inform? Persuade? Sell? Entertain?
2. Authorship & Authority : What are the person's (group's) credentials? Can you tell? Is the person/group credible? An authority?
3. Objectivity : Does the site have a bias? Can you articulate what it is?
4. Accuracy : Are sources cited or acknowledged?
5. Currency : How current is the information? Is this important?
6. Completeness : Is the information complete or just a summary of information found elsewhere?

If you want to browse for books about forestry look for call numbers beginning with SD. However, there are many related disciplines that support forestry and books in these areas will have different call numbers.  For more information follow the link below:

• Read More...

If you have not done much searching or have not been satisfied with the results of your searches, follow the "more" link below for some search tips.

• Read More...

I am adding to this as I find useful sites:

• For tropical timber imports use the International Tropical Timber Organization in particular look for their link to the "Annual Review of World Timber" 

If you want to browse for books about forestry look for call numbers beginning with SD. However, there are many related disciplines that support forestry and books in these areas will have different call numbers.  For more information follow the link below:

• Read More...