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Great Debate 2014 (The Environment): Search Terms

Subject Headings

Library of Congress Subject Headings books

These are the official Library of Congress Subject Headings that you can use for many of your searches in our databases. You would find subject headings such as these by browsing through the Library of Congress Subject Headings books or browsing the "Catalog Record" of every title found in our Library Catalog.

 

EXAMPLES

Environmentalism

Environmental Protection

Environmental Justice

Conservation

Air Pollution

Hazardous Waste Sites

Greenhouse Gases

Climatic Changes

Global Warming

Greenhosue Effect (Atmosphere)

Coal Gas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Privatization

Water Utilities

Water Supply

Environmental Justice

Detroit (Mich.)

Austerity (Economics)

Dept. of Water and Sewage

Water Supply and Irrigation Systems

 

 

Alternative Fuels

Clean Energy

Solar Energy

Renewable Energy Sources

Biomass Energy

Cold Fusion

Water Power

Wind Power

Nuclear Energy

 

Keywords

While not official subject headings, these keywords can be very fruitful for your research. Try to also think of other terms such as these. Keyword searches look at all the information in the book or article record including title, author, abstract, table of contents, etc. It always helps to think of synonyms, as the way one person would describe something is not the same way another would.

Alternative Energy

Environmental Racism

What "Search Terms" to Use?

Using the correct words to search will help you find relevant information. Different authors and search tools use different words to describe the same concepts, so it is useful to have a list of similar and related terms in your arsenal when you set out to search for relevant information. The process of creating these alternative terms is called brainstorming terms or concept mapping.

EXAMPLE

Water Utilities AND Detroit

What "search terms" to use?

Using the correct words to search will help you find relevant information. Different authors and search tools use different words to describe the same concepts, so it is useful to have a list of similar and related terms in your arsenal when you set out to search for relevant information. The process of creating these alternative terms is called brainstorming terms or concept mapping.

EXAMPLE

Sex Differences AND Communication


If for some reason, you are getting results you do NOT want (say for example you want to find only articles on communication in opposite sex marriages) try a NOT search.  Librarians caution that NOT searches often also weed out articles that may have been relevant for you.  So only perform such searches if you have LOTS of results (say over ten that are in full text format):

EXAMPLE

Marriage NOT Same Sex