Resources at Michigan Technological University Library

Forestry Graduate Students

Librarian: Joan Goodbody: email; goodbody@mtu.edu: phone; 487-2698

 

Library services: Reference, research, and instruction

The Reference Desk is staffed 60 hours per week, and you can contact a librarian there by phone (487-2507) or talk to the librarian in person. You can send email to the Reference librarians by completing the form on the ask a librarian page, and youre always welcome to contact individual reference librarians.

Interlibrary loan

If the JRVP Library doesnt have the material that you need, then the Library may be able to obtain it from another library. Simply complete a request form. Most journal articles will be delivered in digital form.

Copyright and licensing restrictions: a use policy for electronic resources. (information available on the library website)

Wireless access and laptop checkout. (information available on the library website.)

EndNote citation database management software

Software for developing bibliographic databases, organize references and images, and creating bibliographies and figure lists. Michigan Tech has a site license to EndNote, and copies will be available soon from the Sysadmin Council's server or by contacting Tim Ryan in West Engineering Computing Network, 487-2930, or Kevin Raber, 281-1695. The Library will be offering workshops on using EndNote.

  

Library resources

  MTU Library Catalog: www.lib.mtu.edu

Use the catalog to find items that the library owns: Searchable by author, title, subject or keywords. Also after using an index to find a paper/article that you want, you will need to use this catalog to determine whether we have the journal that the article appeared in. A Journal Title search may result in a list of several records for the same title; you may need to view more than one of these to find the issue date youre seeking.

 

To find the full title of a journal from an abbreviation, consult Periodical Title Abbreviations: By Abbreviation, available at the

Reference/Information Desk (Z 6945 .A2 P47 2001 REF DESK), or one of these web sites:  

Jake (Jointly Administered Knowledge Environment) - http://jake.openly.com/

CISTI (Canada Institute for Scientific & Technical Information) - http://cat.cisti.nrc.ca/search/t

JAS (Journal Abbreviation Sources) - http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/JAS.htm

 

When searching for more complex titles such as conference proceedings, a keyword search is usually effective. Click on the Keyword Search button, then enter several of the most unique keywords from the conference title, then select all of these from the pull-down menu on the right.

MTU theses and dissertations in Forestry or Environmental Science can be found through a Keyword Search as follows:

Search for: mtu forestry [all of these]

Search for: thesis dissertation [any of these]

 

Indexes to dissertations

Current Research at Michigan Technological University: provides a searchable full text database of dissertations submitted by Michigan Tech to UMI's Dissertation database. Full-text PDF files are available for most dissertations from 1968. Also includes some theses.

Dissertation Abstracts: includes citations to every doctoral dissertation completed in the U.S. at accredited institutions since 1861 and some master's theses and foreign language dissertations.

WorldCat Dissertations and Theses:  provides fast and convenient access to the dissertations and theses available in OCLC member libraries. Many theses are available electronically, at no charge, directly from the publishing institution.

 

Reference resources:

The reference collection is a good place to begin exploring an unfamiliar subject. The encyclopedias and dictionaries found here can give you definitions of terms and background information on your subject. Along with help identifying specific issues within your broad subject area to explore in more detail. Also this is where statistical materials are usually found.

The Dictionary of Forestry SD126 .D535 1998 REF

Michigan Forest Communities : A Field Guide and Reference SD144.M5 D53 2004 REF

The Literature of Forestry and Agroforestry SD387.D6 L58 1996 REF

Dictionary of Forest Mensuration and Management SD555 .S24 1992 REF

Forestry Statistics Today for Tomorrow : 1945-1993-2010 SD387.S73 F673 1995 REF

Agricultural Statistics . A 1.47: GOVDOCS CORE Produced by the department of agriculture, in core collection we have most volumes from 1942 to today.

The Europa World Year Book, D2 .E82 REF: Statistical and informational publication on countries of the World.

Beachams Guide to Environmental Issues and Sources GE115.B43 REF

Dictionary of Environmental Legal Terms KF3775.A68L44 REF

Environmental Law: Water Pollution KF3775.A7E58 v. 2 REF

International Protection of the Environment K 3585.4.I5748 REF

The Birds of North America : life histories for the 21st century QL 681.B57 REF. Cumulative index located online http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/BNA/ and a link is available at the JRVP online catalog record.

Government resources:

Remember that there are a multitude of Government Documents that deal with the topics that you are working with so be sure to utilize the paper and web sources for these. Note: all newer documents (post 1998) that we own are in the catalog. A few of the earlier ones are also listed, but a majority of our paper and fiche documents are not in the catalog, so other finding aids must be used. Be sure to check the fiche on most 1970s 1990s documents since a majority were obtained that way even if it is listed as paper in the catalog.

The US Forest Service is in SuDoc area A 13:.

Some of the most useful and most used are:

Northeastern Research station Materials A 13.42:

Lake States Forest experiment Station: A 13.61

U.S. Forest Service research papers A 13.78:[initials of station and then number of paper]

U.S. Forest Service resource bulletins and reports A 13.80: [initials of station and then number of paper]

Soil surveys: MTU has an extensive collection going back to the 1920s. A 26.5: or later A 47.5:

Almost every governmental agency does environmental studies, especially interior and energy. Many are available online, in paper or on fiche. Please check other indexes for materials that might be helpful.

 

Indexes and databases to journal articles and conference papers

Access to electronic indexes/abstracts, online books, e-journals and selected websites. From the E-Resource menu select listings by alphabet, subject or provider (e.g. FirstSearch or Cambridge Scientific) E-Resources are also searchable by name or keyword(s.) Use the index databases to locate journal articles, newspaper articles, or reviews on your topic. Some indexes or collections of indexes especially useful for research in this course include:

 

FirstSearch: This database provides access to over 60 indexes. They include:

Worldcat, a comprehensive database for all types of material cataloged by OCLC member libraries. This does NOT index periodicals at the article level;

AGRICOLA: Covers all aspects of agriculture, including agricultural engineering, environmental pollution, forestry, soils, and water resources. Citations-some have abstracts--are for journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, theses, etc. Another version of this database may be accessed at http://www.nal.usda.gov/ag98/.

Biological & Agricultural Index: Indexes English language periodicals covering the entire range of sciences related to biology and agriculture. Also includes current book reviews.

Applied Science and Technology: This index is also known as ASTA. It leads users to the latest findings in every area of science, engineering and technology. Covers trade and industrial publications, journals issued by professional and technical societies and specialized subject periodicals. Database records include abstracts and indexing information.

Forest Science Database: [Was TreeCD]This provides bibliographic citations and abstracts published in Forestry Abstracts from the first volume in 1939 to the current and ongoing issues. It also covers all of the Forest Product Abstracts and Agroforestry Abstracts from their respective beginnings. With over 490,000 abstracts, this is a comprehensive guide to international forestry literature available for individuals concerned with development, production, utilization, improvement, ecology and management of the earth's forests. Only 4 simultaneous users at any one time.

Cambridge Scientific: CSA is a privately-owned information company that has been publishing abstracts and indexes to scientific and technical research literature for over 30 years. It is a comprehensive science related multi-index database including:

Ecology abstracts: This database indexes information ranging from habitats to food chains, from erosion to land reclamation, the journal provides an important cross-section of current findings in target research areas. Detailed information on resource and ecosystems management and modeling contributes to the journal's practical value, as does material on the impact of climate, water resources, soil, and man or growing environmental problems such as depletion, erosion, and pollution, all topics which are covered in depth.

Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management: This database deals with environmental science, including toxic hazards of chemical pharmaceuticals and other substances: air, marine and freshwater pollution as well as biochemical applications in water treatment and pollution are also covered.

Biological Sciences: 25 Databases that include abstracts in the areas of biomedicine, biotechnology, zoology and ecology. It includes the database ASFA 1: Biological Sciences and Living Resources which specifically indexes resources dealing with marine, freshwater, and brackish water organisms

EIS: Digest of Environmental Impact Statements: This databaseextracts the key issues from complex government-released environmental impact statements, converting massive documents into concise, readable abstracts. Each entry includes a clear description of the project, sections on positive impact and negative consequences, and legal mandates.

Wildlife and Ecology Studies Worldwide: world's largest index to literature on wild mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians - over 599,430 bibliographic records, many include abstracts. The databases in this exclusive collection offer a global perspective and together form the ultimate resource on wildlife information.

AFS Journals Online: comprehensive database that includes abstracts for all American Fish Society titles dating from 1988. In addition includes full-text articles that are currently subscribed to beginning in 1999 (with the exception of The Progressive Fish-Culturalist 1988 - 1998).

Web of Science: This database offers web access to the ISI Citation Indexes (Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index and Arts and Humanities Citation Index), which contains multidisciplinary, high quality research information from the world's leading science, social science and art and humanities journals. Only 3 simultaneous users at any one time are able to use this resource. This has limited Forestry resources.

 

Websites: 

Evaluation of websites: http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/webeval.html - Cornell University Libraries Research Skills -One of the best sites on evaluating information found on the Internet.

 

Firstgov.gov: www.firstgov.gov. This is the official government site that searches over 87 million sites. Can search for just federal, federal and a specific state, federal and all states, all states, or a specific state. Advanced search gives the most flexability.

EPA: www.epa.gov. The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment. Since 1970, EPA has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people.

WWW Virtual Library: Forestry: http://www.metla.fi/info/vlib/Forestry/ This subject page for forestry from the WWW Virtual Library provides many links to resources and can be a good starting point to finding and exploring other Internet forestry sites.

Forestworld: http://www.forestworld.com/ The Forest Partnership, a non-profit educational organization, has created this internet site based around the forest products industry. There are three components to this web page - The Internet Directory, Wood Information, and the Sustainable Forests Marketplace. The Internet Directory, is a search engine for forest industry related web sites (~4,000) located by forestworld personnel. Search features include searching by country, general categories, keywords, site name, url, and more. The second component, is called Wood Information. This resource includes a database of common names for approximately 1,000 tree species, a formula converter which includes ~100 interactive industry-related formulas, and forest resource data on 140 countries. Lastly, the Sustainable Forests Marketplace, includes information on buying and selling sustainable wood products in conjunction with a directory of certified forest products companies on the internet. Additional information provided on the forestworld homepage includes postings of events and conferences, classified ads, employment opportunities, and forestworld news.

The Internet's Original Directory of Forest Products, Wood Science and Marketing: http://www.forestdirectory.com/ This is a very thorough and comprehensive resource of forestry-related internet resources put together by Steven R. Shook. Links related to forest science are divided into the following categories: academic and other research institutions; commercial services providers; internet mailing lists; financial information and industry statistics; manufacturer, equipment and distributors; associations, councils, and professional societies; publications (online and offline); forest products certification and sustainability; marketing information related to forest products; other forest products related web indexes. It does not appear that the site has been updated in the last 2 years so some of the links do not work. Many of the links are kept updated.

Global Association of Online Foresters: http://www.foresters.org/portal/home.php This site provides international forestry information. It has free membership but requires registration before the site can be accessed.

USDA Community of Science Funded Reserach:http://fundedresearch.cos.com/usda/usda-intro.html COS Funded Research enables you to research and track information on funding and award histories at leading research facilities around the world. Note: free registration is required.

Forest Products Laboratory: http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/ FPL, in Madison Wisconsin, serves the public as the nation's leading wood research institute. FPL is recognized both nationally and internationally as an unbiased technical authority on wood science and use. FPLs publications include many online resources including complete or nearly complete sets of their General Technical Reports, Research Papers, and Research Notes. There publications page also has other searching resources.

US Forest Service: http://www.fs.fed.us/ Established in 1905, the Forest Service is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Forest

Service manages public lands in national forests and grasslands. The Forest Service is the largest forestry research organization in the world and the national and international leader in forest conservation. The pubs, regs and manuals link has many good full text resources including Treesearch, a onestop site for Forest Service Research & Development, and Wildland Water, a publication that highlights news, views, and current technological and public policy information on local, national, and international water issues.

Wildlife and Contaminants Online: http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/contaminants-online/ A website that has access to multiple resources such as Contaminants Exposure and Effects Terrestrial Vertebrates Database and Utility and vulnerability Ranking Program for Terrestrial Vertebrates.

FishBase: http://www.fishbase.org/home.htm This is a relational database with information that caters to different professionals such as research scientists, fisheries managers, zoologists and many more.  FishBase on the web contains practically all fish species known to science.

Searchable Ornithological Research Archive: http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/terms.php Materials contained in the Searchable Ornithological Research Archive (including all materials contained in the Auk, Condor, Journal of Field Ornithology, Studies in Avian Biology, Pacific Coast Avifauna, and the Wilson Bulletin) are for personal, non-commercial, or educational use.

e-Bird v.3: http://www.ebird.org/content/ eBird is a project developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society which provides a simple way to keep track of the birds you see anywhere in North America. The eBird database is used by birdwatchers, scientists, and conservationists to find out about the distribution and movement patterns of birds across the continent.

 

Indexes to technical reports and e-prints

Information Bridge (U.S. Department of Energy): provides free public access to full-text documents and bibliographic citations of Department of Energy (DOE) research report literature. Documents are primarily from 1994 forward and were produced by DOE, the DOE contractor community, and/or DOE grantees. Legacy documents are added as they become available in electronic format. This contains many environmental studies and land use studies.

NTIS National Technical Information Service: The NTIS Database is the preeminent resource for accessing the latest U.S. government-sponsored research and worldwide scientific, technical, engineering, and business-related information. NTIS is the central source for the sale of unclassified and publicly available information from research reports, journal articles, data files, computer programs and audiovisual products from Federal sources. Be aware that the library does own some of the older NTIS documents but most the patron will be responsible for ordering and paying for these resources.

Science.gov: This site gives public access and a unified search of the governments scientific and technical information. Science.gov is an interagency initiative of 16 U.S. government science organizations within 12 Federal agencies. Visitors to the site can search across Alliance agency resources via one query. It includes many online resources.

  

Current awareness resources

These tools are designed to keep you up-to-date in your research and teaching. Journal tables of contents or the results of stored database searches are sent to you by email or rss feed.

Blackwell Synergy saved search and journal contents email alerts

Cambridge Journals Online email alerts and rss feeds

Web of Science search alerts (save your search history, sign in, select e-mail alerts)

Wiley InterScience saved search and journal contents alerts

 

Employment information & position announcements

USAJOBS.com is the Federal Government's official one-stop source for Federal jobs and employment information

Forestry Careers and Employment: An Internet Gateway to Forestry and Forest Products in America that includes jobs listings.