Developing and Managing the Brown University Library Collections
Collection Policies by Subject:   Environmental Studies

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Library Liaison:
Janet_Crager@brown.edu

Description of the Academic Program
From the Center for Environmental Studies site: "The Center for Environmental Studies (CES) at Brown University was established with the primary aim of educating individuals to solve challenging environmental problems, both at the local and global levels."  "In response to Brown University's location in the midst of a major U.S. city, ...CES has emphasized issues of solid and hazardous waste, environmental health, and environmental justice. At the national level, CES has interest and expertise in environmental accounting and insurance arrangements and in pollution prevention and toxics policies." Also of interest are  "environmental literacy, land-use history, climate change policy and, marine conservation and policy."

Since spring of 2003, the development of the Environmental Change Initiative has significantly broadened the scope of the Center.  The intent of the Environmental Change Initiative is to encourage interdisciplinary study with the departments of Geology, Population Studies, Sociology, Physics, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Watson Institute for International Studies. Students have begun working on subjects such as enviro-archaeology, industrial archaeology, international environmental policy, environmental history, environmental philosophy, conservation biology and emerging infectious diseases.
 
 

The Collection Today

• Journals
  Over the last few years, Library consortial deals with a number of the major publishers in the life sciences have enabled the Library to provide access to a tremendous number of electronic journals.  This desktop access to a growing portion of the collection certainly provides improved convenience but also fosters a much greater use of the collection than what was feasible before.  Here are several of the important publishers that the Library has made deals with for electronic access -
  • Elsevier
  • Academic Press (subsequently purchased by Elsevier)merged with Springer
  • Springer
  • Kluwer (merged with Springer)
  • Wiley
  • Blackwell
  • Cambridge
  • Oxford
  • Nature
  • Science

• General Collecting Guidelines
  The Library attempts to maintain a RESEARCH level collection.  A RESEARCH (Collecting Levels) level collection includes the major source materials required for dissertations and independent research.  It also includes important reference works and a selection of specialized monographs.  With the heavy reliance on journals, the literature of the faculty and graduate students is also an important literature of the undergraduate life science concentrators.

• Specific Collecting Guidelines
  • Language: English, original or in translation.
  • Imprint Date: Current imprints. As needed - retrospective materials in support of research needs and replacements to missing or damaged volumes.  Infrequent - acquisition of out-of-print material.
  • Types of Material Included: Monographs and journals.  Selectively, proceedings, textbooks and videos.

• New Environmental Studies Titles Cataloged
  • Ecology, GE, GF
  • Oceanography, GC
  • Geography, G, GB
  • Geology, QE
  • Natural History, QH
  • Law, K
  • Public Health, RA, RB

• Abstracting & Indexing Services
  • Environmental Issues and Policy Index
  • LexisNexis Environmental
  • LexisNexis Academic
  • Bio-One Abstracts and Indexes Database
  • Web of Science
  • Agricola
  • Academic Search Premier
  • Additional resources for Environmental Studies are linked at the Subject List (Environmental Studies) from the Library's E-Resources page.

• Database of Honors, Masters and Ph.D. Theses

• Related Collections and Other Resources
  The resources of the Ivy League institutions' libraries are available to Brown faculty and students via the Borrow Direct service.  The Virtual Catalog makes the resources of the participating members of the Boston Library Consortium available upon request. BLC includes the Marine Biological Lab at Woods Hole whose Bay Paul Center and Ecosystems Center partner with  Brown's Environmental Change Initiative.  The University of Rhode Island provides online access to its National Sea Grant Library. The holdings of the Pell Marine Science Library and URI's strong environment collection, along with the holdings of  the other academic institutions in Rhode Island are searchable through HELIN and are available through interlibrary loan.
  For further information, check with the Interlibrary Loan Office (Phone: (401) 863-2750; Email: sci-ill@brown.edu

• Selected List of Key Internet Resources
  • AGRICOLA
  • BIOSIS Biology Browser
  • Environmental Treaties and Resource Indicators
  • Marine Biological Laboratory
  • TOXNET
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  • Water Resources of the United States

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