Environmental Sciences Information

Trial subscriptions to Environmental Chemistry Information System are free during the month of September. Check http://www.nisc.com for details. These databases are nearly all separate flles on government websites. There are over 8 million records for nearly 700,000 chemicals.

Should we suscribe?

The ECIS News (Newsletter Archive)

A wealth of information about chemicals in the environment.

1. Chemical/Physical properties OBSERVATIONS, SANSS
2. Biodegradation/Bioremediation BIODEG, BIOLOG
3. Site Assessment BRS, CERCLIS, FINDS, ICIS (DOCKET),RCRIS, TRI (1987-2005)
4. Toxicity & Carcinogenicity AQUIRE, CCRIS, CRISP, EMIC, GIABS, GENE-TOX, IRIS, MEDLINE Subset, NIOSHTIC
   Subset, RTECS, TERRETOX, TSCATS
5. Regulations TSCAINV, TSCAPP
6. HAZMAT CHRIS, HSDB, MALLIN, New Jersey Hazardous Substance Factsheets, OHMTADS

Teach Engineering is designed for teaching sciences and applications to younger than college-age students, but there are some wonderful experiments and activities described here for anyone and everyone, which even include bibliographies. There is a very nice Environmental History Timeline, and there are lots of environmentally-appropriate projects/studies included, especially in the Chemistry, and Earth and Space, Life Sciences, and Physical Science. Or most seem to be under Science & Technology details, too. Click on Browse Curriculum, then subjects to get the details of the lessons and activities.

From their “About” page: “Intute is a free online service providing access to the very best web resources for education and research. All material is evaluated and selected by a network of subject specialists to create the Intute database. The Intute database makes it possible to discover the best and most relevant resources in one easily accessible place. You can explore and discover trusted information, assured that it has been evaluated by specialists for its quality and relevance.” They have organized the pages by very broad subject areas: Health & Life Sciences, Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences and Science Engineering & Technology Environment has recently gained separate category status: Intute Environment Gateway

INIS Online Database from 1970 to date. This new resource was added to our Princeton University Library’s “Articles and Databases” page this summer, and contains ~2.8 million records on peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. >850,000 papers are full-text. Sponsored by the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, there is world-wide coverage. Approximately 1/2 of the records come from journals, the rest are technical reports, conference proceedings, patents, theses, and preprints, known as “grey” or “non-conventional” literature. Almost 2200 journals are scanned for inclusion, but 580 are key.

The portions especially applicable to environmental sciences are:

8% economic, environmental, legal and safeguards

7% fuel cycle waste and radiochemistry

13% nuclear power and safety

Environment Index is the new, shortened title for Environmental Issues & Policy Index. This database has different emphases from Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management and LexisNexis Environmental. They concentrate on science and technology, and legal and news resources, respectively.

It has had quite a history of title changes: the following is taken from Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, or Ulrichsweb, which we have listed among our “Articles and Databases” resources:

“Title History: Former titles (until 2006): Environmental Issues & Policy Index (United States); (until Dec. 2002): Environmental Policy Index (United States); (until 2002): Environmental Knowledge Base (Online Edition) (United States); (until 2000): Environmental Periodicals Bibliography (Print Edition) (United States) (0145-3815); (until 1973): Environmental Periodicals (United States) (0046-2306)”

The Science Reference Center is a new database among several that Princeton is now offering, thanks to the State of New Jersey. It is perhaps in a league with AccessScience, the online version of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, but it offers reviews and articles from key, authoritative journals, and there are sections aimed at a much younger audience.

From EBSCO’s description: Science Reference Center is a comprehensive research database that provides easy access to a multitude of full text science-oriented content. Designed to meet every student’s science research needs, Science Reference Center contains full text for nearly 640 science encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals, etc. Topics covered include: biology, chemistry, earth & space science, environmental science, health & medicine, history of science, life science, physics, science & society, science as inquiry, scientists, technology and wildlife. Science Reference Center also satisfies the demand for standards-based content by providing teachers and librarians with articles correlated to state and national curriculum standards.