S/A 255: Sustainability and Human Nature(s): Searching for Books and Articles

image courtesy of John David Hanrath

Like anything that involves human beings, libraries have their biases. Our shelving system makes assumptions about what categories are important and even what is worthy of being a category. Likewise, the subject headings catalogers and indexers use may reflect outdated or even offensive terminology. Categorizing and naming are highly subjective cultural practices.

Books are shelved in general subject categories using the Library of Congress classification system. You may want to supplement your use of the catalog with browsing shelf areas for your topic. Below is a brief listing of some of the subject locations in the field of anthropology.

• CC Archaeology
• GN Anthropology
  • 49-298 Physical Anthropology, Somotology
  • 301-673 Ethnology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
  • 700-890 Prehistoric Archaeology (mostly by region)
• GR Folklore
• GT Manners and Customs

Books are shelved in general subject categories using the Library of Congress classification system. You may want to supplement your use of the catalog with browsing shelf areas for your topic. Below is a brief listing of some of the subject locations in the field of environmental studies.

• BJ Ethics
• G Geography
  • 575 Polar regions
  • 905-910 Tropics
• GB 651-2998 Hydrology
• GC Oceanography
• GE Environmental education
• GF Human ecology
• HC 79 Environmental economics
• Q Science
• QH Biology
  • 75-77 Nature conservation
  • 540-549 Ecology
• QK Botany
• QL Zoology
• S Agriculture
• SB Plant culture
• SD Forestry
• SF Animal culture
• TD Environmental technology
  • 172-195 Pollution
  • 201-500 Water supply
  • 511-780 Sewage
  • 785-812 Solid wastes
  • 877.5-893 Special types of pollution (soil, air, noise)
  • 895-899 Industrial sanitation and wastes

Books are shelved in general subject categories using the Library of Congress classification system. You may want to supplement your use of the catalog with browsing shelf areas for your topic. Below is a brief listing of some of the subject locations in the field of sociology.

• H Social Sciences - General
• HA Statistics
• HM Sociology
• HN Social history, social problems, social reform
• HQ The family. Marriage. Women
  • 12-449 Sexuality
  • 503-1064 Marriage and the family
  • 1101-2030 Women, Feminism
  • 1121-1154 history
  • 1180 Women's Studies
  • 1236 Women and the state
  • 1381 Women and Economics
  • 1393 Women and Religion
  • 1402 - 1870.5 Women in regions or countries
• HT Communities, classes, races
  • 101-384 Urban Society
  • 390-395 Regional Planning
  • 401-485 Rural sociology
  • 601-1445 Classes
  • 1501-1595 Races
• HV Social pathology; social and public welfare; criminology
  • 597-4959 Protection, Assistance, Relief
  • 5001-5720 Alcoholism
  • 5800-5840 Drug Abuse
  • 6001-9920 Criminology

In most databases you'll either see a PDF file or a "find it" link or button. By clicking on "find it" you'll either be led to the article in another database or you'll get an opportunity to request it from another library. Usually it only takes a day or two to arrive by email.

You can also request books we don't have in our library, but it takes a little longer for them to arrive.

Citations are a map of scholarly conversations over time. Tracing cited works is an effective way to tap into conversations and find great material that may otherwise be hard to find. 

To go back in time -

• Is the citation to a book? Look up the book title n the library catalog.
• Is it to a chapter of a book? Look up the book title (not the chapter title) in the catalog.
• Is it a journal article? Check our list of journals.
• Is it not available in our library? Request it by Interlibrary Loan.
• Not quite sure what it is? Ask a librarian to help trouble shoot it.

To go forward in time -

Type the author and title of the book or article into Google Scholar. Click on "cited by" to see who has cited it since it was published.

Some library databases also offer this feature. The most comprehensive citation database is the Web of Science. Try a cited author search to get started.