MAPS Summer Bridge Program: Project IMPACT

Guidance and resources to complete the sustainability project

Library Research Guide

Keywords

Good keywords are essential to good research. Develop a list of keywords before you start searching.

To start the list, ask yourself two questions:

1. What do I know about my topic?

2. What do I want to know about my topic?

Write the answers to those questions using single words or simple phrases. These become your keywords.

Developing this list is an iterative process. Your list of keywords may change as you learn more information through your research.

K-State Databases by Field

Environmental Studies (Gale In Context)
The resources cover topics like food safety, sustainability, healthcare, the impact of economic development on international relations and include news articles, videos, government documents and other primary source materials as well as interactive maps, refereed case studies, multimedia, etc. The sustainable agriculture and sustainable development topic pages are an excellent place to start your research.
GreenFILE
GreenFILE resources examine the connection between humans and the environment, from both positive and negative perspectives. 200 scholarly and general interest titles covering agriculture, education, law, health and technology are included. Some titles of interest in this database are Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment; Energy Law Journal; Energy Policy; Journal of Environmental Management; and Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews.

AGRICOLA (AGRICultural Online Access)
- This link opens in a new window
Agriculture resources including articles from scholarly journals, USDA (Dept. of Agriculture) publications, state agricultural experiment station and extension service documents, conference proceedings, books, theses, and audio-vidual materials.
CAB Abstracts
Publication Dates Covered:1973 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
Over 9.7 million citations and abstracts are searchable in the applied life sciences, including agriculture, environment, veterinary sciences, applied economics, food science, health and nutrition, recreation, leisure, and tourism. It comes with CABI Full Text for access to over 495,000 articles, conference papers, and reports in English and foreign languages.

IBISWorld
Reports for 700 industries in the US, including Agribusiness, Soybean Farming, and Corn Farming.
Mintel Reports
Publication Dates Covered: 2001 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
Mintel Reports is a market research database that publishes 200+ business to consumer reports each year for US consumer markets. Each report focuses on consumer attitudes and behaviors, including survey data to understand demographic and psychographic segmentation. Also included are market size, brand share, social media analysis, and category trends.
ABI/INFORM Collection
Reports on Agribusiness, Oil & Gas, and hundreds of other industries for countries around the world. To find reports, enter search terms and then limit source types to "Reports" or "Industry Reports."
Business Source Premier
Publication Dates Covered: 1965 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
Business Source Premier is a basic resource for researching business topics providing full text for more than 2,100 journals, as well as market research reports, industry reports, country reports, company profiles and SWOT analyses. All disciplines of business are covered, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, banking, and finance. There are instructions available for finding company and industry profiles.

ASABE (American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers) Technical Library
Searches information from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
Knovel
Knovel has over 2,000 ebooks covering a wide range of scientific and engineering fields, including biofuels.

Searching Tips: Databases

Searching these resources is different from searching the Internet. K-State Libraries pays to subscribe to the databases; they are not found in an online search.

Keywords: Break your topic into key concepts; list relevant terminology/keywords and synonyms.
- AND = both concepts must be present, limits the search (Ex. stormwater AND management)
- OR = great for synonyms, expands the search (Ex. "universal design" OR "inclusive design")
- NOT = exclude an unrelated term, limits the search (Ex. "nigel coates" NOT "book review")
Advanced search: Search fields like journal title, publication date, institution, etc.
Subject headings: Use the language/terminology of a database by looking for a Thesaurus, Subject Headings, Subjects, Keywords, or Descriptors.
Truncation: Includes all possible endings: teen* searches for "teen", "teens", "teenager", "teenagers", etc.
Wildcard: Replaces any character: wom?n searches for "women" or "woman."
Help: Click help or for database-specific instructions.

Search Examples

Many library resources offer the option to combine your keywords using AND, OR, & NOT. This can also be useful when searching online. Use quotation marks to search for a name or phrase.

AND = All words must be present; helps limit the search.
- sustainable AND food system
- sustainability AND natural resources
- food security AND united states
OR = Great for synonyms or variations of the same concept; helps broaden the search while staying within the subject area.
- sustainable OR sustainability
- sustainability OR conservation
- tiny houses OR tiny homes
- sustainable AND (agriculture OR farming)
- wind farms OR wind power plants OR wind turbines
NOT = Exclude an unrelated term, or to weed out irrelevant results.
- renewable energy NOT biofuel
- (food waste AND restaurants) NOT grocery
- (daylighting AND commercial) NOT residential