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Climate Change

Resources that focus on climate change and global warming.

Finding Library Books

Books in the library are organized by subject. Start looking for books by browsing. When you find a relevant book, be sure to browse the surrounding area for other books that you might find interesting. 

Books on the topic of climate change may be in a variety of locations throughout the library due to the interdisciplinary nature of the field. Try these subject headings for the potential locations:

GB -- Geomorphology

GC -- Oceanography

Q -- General Science 

QC851-999 Meteorology; Climatology 

QD -- Chemistry

QE -- Geology

QH -- Biology; Natural History

QK -- Botany

QL -- Zoology

QR -- Microbiology

RA -- Public Aspects of Medicine

S -- Agriculture (General)

SB -- Plant Culture

SD -- Forestry

SH -- Aquaculture and Fisheries

TA -- Engineering (General and Civil)

 

Once you find a book, you will need to locate it on the shelf. Connecticut College uses Library of Congress call numbers to organize books. This tutorial video explains how to read a Library of Congress call number. 

  1. Identify key concepts
    Start by identifying some key concepts related to your topic.  Use the glossary in this guide for specific terms related to climate change.
     
  2. Determine keywords
    Using the concepts you identified, make lists of words, people, or phrases that describe the concepts. 
     
  3. Search using the keywords 
    Use the keywords you created to search.  Databases are not smart - they look for exact word matches. The more words you use to describe your concept, the more results you will get.  
     
  4. Use AND & OR
    Using AND between terms limits your search, using OR expands it. Connect different concepts with AND (guns AND violence), and connect synonyms with OR (guns OR firearms AND violence).
     
  5. Use truncation
    Truncating allows you to tell the database to search for all words that begin with the same root. It's a great way to search for the both singular and plural forms of a word at once. The truncation symbol is usually an asterisk (immigra* will search for immigration, immigrant, and immigrants).
     
  6. Limit search results
    Use the database limiters often found on the right or left hand side of the page to narrow by date, publication, subject heading, etc.
     
  7. Be flexible and creative
    Modify your search and try as many combinations of words as you need to find the best information    .