MAPS Summer Bridge Program: Project IMPACT
Library Research Guide
K-State Databases by Field
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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.
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GreenFILEGreenFILE 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.
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AGRICOLA (AGRICultural Online Access)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.
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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.
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IBISWorldReports for 700 industries in the US, including Agribusiness, Soybean Farming, and Corn Farming.
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Mintel ReportsPublication 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 CollectionReports 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."
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Business Source Premier
Publication Dates Covered: 1965 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries
Business Source Premier offers access to over a thousand full-text journals. It provides researchers access to journals such as Harvard Business Review, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Management Science, Marketing Science, MIS Quarterly, Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, Fortune, and many others. The database also includes country reports, company reports, industry profiles, and SWOT analyses.
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ASABE (American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers) Technical LibrarySearches information from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
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KnovelKnovel 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.
Sample Searches
Try these keywords when searching in the agriculture databases.
- Start with a term that describes your input. Select one or more:
energy crops, corn, algae, switchgrass, soybeans, cellulose
- Then, add terms to tell the database that you want to talk about them as renewable energy. Select one or more:
biomass, biofuels, alternative energy, renewable energy
- Finally, add terms to describe the specific concepts that you want to learn more about. Select one or more:
crop modifications, food stocks, land use, water
Your search will then look something like:
algae AND biofuel* AND ("water resource" OR "water resources")
Try these keywords when searching in the business databases.
- Start with a term that describes your input. Select one or more:
energy crops, corn, algae, switchgrass, soybeans, cellulose
- Then, add terms related to biofuel. Select one or more:
biomass, biofuels, alternative energy, renewable energy
- Finally, add terms to describe the specific concepts that you want to learn more about. Select one or more:
distribution channels, markets, competitors, competition, transportation
Your search will then look something like:
Click here to see the results from this search in the ABI/INFORM (from Proquest) databas
Try these keywords when searching in the business databases.
- Start with your input. Select one or more:
energy crops, corn, algae, switchgrass, soybeans, cellulose
- Then, add terms that describe how you want to use your input. Select one or more:
biomass, biofuels, alternative energy, renewable energy, cellulose, bioethanol
- Finally, add terms to describe the specific concepts that you want to learn more about. Select one or more:
production, processes, processing, processing plant, refineries, technology, technologies
Your search will then look something like:
cellulose AND (bioethanol) AND "processing plant"
Click here to see the results from this search in the Compendex (from Elsevier) database
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
