Environmental Studies Research Guide

Books written by scholars are a good source of information for many topics. 

Why You Should Use Them:

• Written on a broad subject
• Easier to read than journal articles, and written for a broad audience
• Often undergo a peer-review process
• May contain a collection of chapters written by different authors
• Contain less recent information, due to the lengthy publication process

Remember: you may only need to read one chapter of a scholarly book!

Find Books:

• Search Belk Library's online system to find both library materials and articles in our databases. Use the search box below to do a basic search on library materials and databases.

• Or use advanced search to find materials by format or by language.

Academic sources will build the base of your work, but supplementing with other media can often strengthen your case, give your audience more context, or help deepen your own understanding of a subject. Check out some of our favorite options for discovering sources beyond journal articles and books.

Find Videos & More:

Adding data, statistics, and case studies to your work can help strengthen your claims and give valuable context to your audience. While these sources are not peer-reviewed, we consider them reliable and encourage you to browse them for information and ideas as your build and refine your research topics.

Sources for Data & Statistics:

• Agriculture and Rural Development Data

  World Bank.
• Air Quality Trends

  EPA National Air Quality: Status and Trends of Key Air Pollutants
• Alternative Fuels Data Center

  U.S Department of Energy.
• American FactFinder

  American FactFinder is the primary way to access data from the Decennial Census, the American Community Survey, the Puerto Rico Community Survey, the Economic Census, the Population Estimates Program and Annual Economic Surveys.
• Cape Fear River Basin Monitoring Coalitions' WATER QUALITY DATA

  Includes Google Mapping, graphs, and data. Set up your own free log-in.
• CDC Data and Statistics

  Data topic list from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Census Data
• Census Data Mapper

  The Census Data Mapper is a web mapping application intended to provide users with a simple interface to view, save and print county-based demographic maps of the United States.
• DataONE

  A new portal for earth science data exploration. DataONE offers searchable access to data held by South Africa National Parks, the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity, the Ecological Society of America, Dryad, Oak Ridge National Laboratories Distributed Active Archive Center, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Long Term Ecological Research Network, the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans, and the CDL.
• EJView, US EPA

  EJView, formerly known as the Environmental Justice Geographic Assessment Tool, is a mapping tool that allows users to create maps and generate detailed reports based on the geographic areas and data sets they choose.
• EPA Air Data
• EPA Storet Water Quality Data Warehouse
• Find Your Watershed

  EPA: Find your watershed using the form below. Once you locate your watershed, simply click on the first link, “citizen-based groups at work in this watershed,” to find a listing of organizations that are working to protect water quality. You may wish to contact one of these groups to find out about cleanups, monitoring activities, restoration projects and other activities.
• GIS Data Depot

  Data available from this site requires users to be proficient in GIS and may require access to GIS software.
• Global Energy Statistical Yearbook 2015

  EnerData
• Global Water Forum

  Access to reliable data and statistics is a key part of water research and in facilitating evidence based discussions over water resource issues. The GWF supports the sharing of water data and its use in developing informed opinion. As such, this page links to resources containing freely accessible water related data and statistics.
• Google Public Data Explorer
• NATIONAL ATLAS

  National Atlas data download
• National Snow and Ice Data Center

  Year-round scientific analysis and daily image updates of Arctic sea ice.
• NC One Map: Geospatial Data Portal
• NOAA National Climatic Data Center
• Soil Data Access

  USDA.
• Superfund Sites & Hazardous Waste Cleanup

  Cleanups in My Community (CIMC) enables you to map and list hazardous waste cleanup locations and grant areas, and drill down to details about those cleanups and grants and other, related information.
• USDA Global Agricultural Trade System
• USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service

  Many subsets include Quick Stats Lite, Quick Stats 2.0, and Data by Subjects
• USDA Web Soil Survey

  Soil maps and data for most of the U.S.
• USGS EarthExplorer

  Select EarthExplorer data sets
• USGS Water Data Discovery
• USGS Water Data for the Nation
• Visualize your own data in the Google Public Data Explorer
• WHO Data & Statistics
• Worldwatch Institute Vital Signs

  Vital Signs Online provides business leaders, policymakers, and engaged citizens with the latest data and analysis they need to understand critical global trends.

Sources for Mapping:

Find Case Studies:

• Case Studies in the Environment

  Case Studies in the Environment is a journal of peer-reviewed case study articles, case study pedagogy articles, and a repository for editor-reviewed case study slides. The journal aims to inform faculty, students, researchers, educators, professionals, and policymakers on case studies and best practices in the environmental sciences and studies.
• Environmental Science Case Studies Library

  McGraw Hill collection of ENS case studies.
• National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science

  Open Access case studies, including many in environmental science.

Not all sources are -or need to be- peer-reviewed, academic sources. There is accurate, reliable information to be found in a wide range of source types. Here, you will find a few recommend resources from across the web. We often classify these as "popular sources," and we think these are among the best out there for filling in the gaps in your work left by academic sources:

Useful Popular Sources: