From the Special Libraries Association’s online monthly newsletter: SLA Connections, May 2007:
In a letter of May 8th (2007) to the SLA, Mike Flynn, the EPA Director confimed that there is currently a moratorium on further closures and changes to the EPA Library Network.
He also wrote that: “EPA is committed to increasing access to environmental information through a combination of online and traditional library services via the EPA Library Network.”
Energy-saving custom Google search
In January 2007, a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to its popularity. Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. You can set Blackle as your home page; this way every time you load your browser, you will save a little bit of energy….
From the American Library Association’s e-newsletter, “American Libraries Direct” 5/23/2007.
Bobray Bordelon, the Economics & Finance Librarian and head of Data Services, has created — and maintains — a very useful website for resources in environmental economics.
The main divisions are as follows:
I. Finding Books, Journals, and other Environmental Economic Literature
II. Working Papers and Technical Reports
III. Environment from an Economic Perspective
IV. General Indexes with Environmental Economic Content
V. Economics from an Environmental Perspective
VI. Environmental Data and Environmental Impact Statements
ECOLEX is operated by the FAO, IUCN and UNEP*. It declares that it provides the most comprehensive, global source of information on environmental law. At this time, the Court Decisions Database is under development, but sections on Treaties, National Legislation, and Literature are present. “Treaties” contains references to and information on multilateral legal instruments. “National Legislation” covers jurisdictions around the world and legislation from the state or provincial level. The “Literature” section is comprised of information on monographs, articles and grey literature.
The Encyclopedia of Earth is a refereed wiki of all things of, and about, the Earth.
It seeks to become the world’s largest and most authoritative electronic source of information about the environments of Earth and their interactions with society.
The EoE is an Open Source project that uses a modified version of MediaWiki as its authoring platform. The EoE’s author wiki is restricted to individuals judged to be expert in their field by an editorial board, and articles are reviewed and approved by a subject specific editor prior to publication.
EOE topics range from “Atmospheric resources in Africa” to “Zagros Mountains forest steppe”, from “Acid rain” to “Zero-point energy”. There is a link to it from Princeton’s online catalog.
Geotimes is a magazine featuring Earth, Energy and Environment News. One can subscribe to free, monthly online alerts. Also there is access to full text online from August 2000. The Geosciences Library has the print copy.
“Columbia earthscape is an integrated, interdisciplinary resource that connects the Earth and environmental sciences with their social, political, and economic dimensions. Although it primarily serves undergraduates, it also functions as an online reference for graduate students, investigators, and professionals, as well as a core text and enrichment for high schools and continuing education.”
Earthscape deals with the global environment. It’s a very useful site directing researchers to conferences, seminars, books and journals; teachers to multidisciplinary, multimedia resources; students to study aids; and policy-makers to global, public online discussions.