Environmental
Library Resources at Harvard |
Specialized Resources: --Maps
& Geospatial Data |
Library Databases
HOLLIS Catalog EBSCO--Academic Search Premier Columbia Gazeteer Find Individual E-Journal Titles EBSCO--Environment Index Oxford American Thesaurus Find Library E-Resources (Databases) ISI Web of Science--Citation Index Oxford English Dictionary Harvard Libraries LexisNexis Webster's 3rd New International Dictionary Harvard Library Research Guides Proquest Dissertations and Theses Interlibrary Loan (FAS) Google Advanced Search Harvard People Directory WorldCat Google Scholar (Harvard login) University Center for the Environment Email Environment Librarian
Below is a list of guides and resources on specific subjects in the Harvard Libraries. If no appropriate Research Guide from the Harvard College Library is available, the link goes to a guide or reference page from one of the other Harvard libraries. If no guide or reference page is available, the link goes to a specific database or other resource. See also a list of librarians from many disciplines who are Research Contacts in the Harvard College Library.
Maps & Geospatial Data (see also Statistical Databases)
Harvard Geospatial Library provides online access to a catalog of geospatial data sets for export to users' own geographic information systems and statistical programs. HGL also directly supplies limited web-based mapping and analytical capability. HGL is an interfaculty project with participants from the Harvard University Libraries, the Harvard Map Collection, the Graduate School of Design, and the Environmental Information Center, among others. HGL has received generous support from the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation and from Harvard's Library Digital Initiative. You can access HGL from the Harvard Libraries web page (click on "OTHER CATALOGS") or directly at <hgl.harvard.edu>.
Harvard also has a library of maps in print and other formats. The Harvard Map Collection, located on the ground floor of Pusey Library, is the oldest map collection in America. The collection has grown to include about 400,000 maps, over 6,000 atlases, and several thousand reference books. Topographic maps, nautical charts, and thematic maps provide an excellent research collection representing all chronological periods and notable mapmakers. Only a small percentage of these resources are cataloged in HOLLIS, so users are encouraged to visit the collection to consult with a librarian. While the stacks are closed and the collection is not available for browsing, personalized reference service is always available when the collection is open.
Environmental News:
Environment and Energy Daily is a news service tracking environmental and energy action in the U.S. Congress.
Greenwire is a daily environmental news service. It covers general environmental news and events in the United States and abroad.
Linkages provides news on international environmental negotiations and other topics.
General News:
For full-text news, including environmental news, from newspapers worldwide, see LexisNexis. The Newspaper Microfilm Reading Room at Widener Library also houses an extensive collection of U.S. and foreign newspapers on microfilm.
Older issues of The New York Times (1851-2002) and The Wall Street Journal (1889-1988) are available through ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Statistical Databases (see also Maps and Geospatial Data)
FAOSTAT is a multilingual (English, French, Spanish) database produced by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). It contains over 1 million time-series records covering international statistics in the areas of Production, Trade, Food Balance Sheets, Food Aid Shipments, Fertilizers and Pesticides, Land Use and Irrigation, Forest Products, Fishery Products, Population, Agricultural Machinery and Agricultural Production.
The Harvard-MIT Data Center is the principal repository of quantitative social science data at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It serves as the universities' official representative to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), and is a central contact point for many other archives and data suppliers. Many features of this site are unique, such as over five hundred online subsettable data sets, sophisticated browsing and searching options, automatic ordering of new data sets from other repositories, and interactive data exploration. For reference help regarding data from the Harvard-MIT Data Center as well as those held by the Harvard College Library, see HCL's Numeric Data Services program.
The statistical component of LexisNexis indexes and abstracts the statistical content of selected United States government, inter-governmental organization, trade association publications, and state government publications. The abstracts include a detailed description of a publication's statistical contents and primary bibliographic information. Many abstracts contain hypertext links to the agency's web site, where the full text of the publication may be viewed and downloaded, or to the full text on LexisNexis, where the publication can be viewed, downloaded and accessed section by section or table by table. In addition, an accession number in the abstract can be used to find the microform edition if held in the Government Documents Library.
WDI Online (World Development Indicators) is a World Bank database with country-level time series of environmental, resource, economic, and population statistics.
AccessUN provides online access to 2 databases. AccessUNDP is an index to a finite collection of UNDP project reports issued and held by UN headquarters for the period 1972-1998. It also provides access to the Readex United Nations Index of current and retrospective United Nations documents and publications from 1948 to present from its 6 main bodies: General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, Secretariat and International Court of Justice. Full-text resolutions from the General Assembly, Security Council and the Economic and Social Council are appended to their respective bibliographic citations.
The Congressional component of LexisNexis indexes and provides full-text access to the U.S. Congressional documents such as the Congressional Record, hearings, committee reports, prints, laws, resolutions, and bills as well as biographical, financial and voting information of all members. It also provides access to the National Journal and Congress Daily. It covers the period from 1970 to the present, as well as a selected body of historical materials.
Note that Harvard also has a Government Information Services collection that includes material in print, in microforms, and in other formats. The "govdocs" library is located on Level B of Lamont Library, which includes strong collections on the U.N., the United States, and foreign governments. Many materials are not in HOLLIS, so see a govdocs reference librarian for assistance.
For additional help, contact environmental research librarian George Clark.