These books provide useful summaries of climate data from many regions of the world, and can suggest further sources of data for your topic. Here are just a few examples selected from the more extensive section in the Climate and Weather Data guide.
Climates of the States Kresge Ref. QC983 C56 Descriptive summaries by state; gives average temperature and precipitation for each month for selected weather stations, and their respective annual averages. Provides 1951-1980 cumulated monthly means.
EarthTrends Produced by the World Resources Institute, EarthTrends is an environmental information portal for researching global topics, such as water resources, climate and atmosphere, energy resources, and similar areas. Provides data tables, country profiles and maps -- a good springboard to statistical sources and information hubs.
Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences Covers all aspects of oceanography, including ocean-atmosphere interaction, circulation of the oceans, and climatic effects.
Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather (2 vols.) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996 Kresge Ref. QC854 .E523 1996 More than 300 short articleson a wide range of climate-related topics. Includes articles on topics of current concern, such as pollution, the ozone hole, climate change, global warming, desertification. Illustrated, with cross-references and an index. Articles include brief bibliographies.
Encyclopedia of World Climatology New York: Springer, 2005 Kresge Ref. QC854 .E526 2005 A recently-published compendium providing a clear explanation of current knowledge and research directions in modern climatology. This new encyclopedia emphasizes climatological developments that have evolved over the past twenty years.
Trends : a compendium of data on global change Produced by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Trends provides synopses of frequently used time series of global-change data, including atmospheric trace gas concentrations, greenhouse gas emissions, and selected climate data sets.
Weather of U.S. Cities (5th ed.) Detroit, MI: Gale Research, c1996 Kresge Ref. QC983 .W393 1996 Data derived from Local Climatological Data reports (see Data section, below). Covers 268 cities from 1961-1990. Includes a narrative of local conditions by state. Data covered includes temperature, precipitation, winds, sunshine, degree days, snowfall and thunder.
Search the Dartmouth library catalogto locate books, journals, and other items in the collections of all the Dartmouth libraries. Search by subject (using Library of Congress subject headings) or by keyword; you can also search for specific works by author, or by title.
Think about the terms you use in any search, and come up with multiple ways of describing your topic ranging from very narrow to more general.
Many bibliographic databases, including the library catalog and the Wilson indexes, use assigned terms to describe the subject content of materials. Being aware of these subject terms can help you focus your search with great precision.
Below are a sampling of Library of Congress (LC) Subject Headings that you may find useful.
Climate For the climate of a specific region, country or state, follow this pattern: Climate - Brazil or Climate - Pennsylvania
(Note that "climate" can also appear as a subdivision under the names of specific regions, countries and cities, eg Latin America - Climate)
These subject headings can be further modified by the format orgenreof the publication (eg. maps; history; statistical information; observations) eg Brazil - Climate - Maps, or South Pacific Ocean - Climate - Observations
The best approach is to identify the appropriate starting point (eg Climate - Great Britain) and check for any appropriate subdivisions.
Climatology
Climatic Changes Global Temperature Changes Global Warming Climatic Extremes Climatic Normals
Mountain Climate Arid Regions Climate Glacial Climates Urban Climatology
Paleoclimatology
Weather
Note: Specific weather events have their own subject headings, eg Droughts, Humidity, Hurricanes, Precipitation, Atmospheric Pressure, Atmospheric temperature.
El Nino Current
Tip: Note that the results of a subject search are listed alphabetically, by default. For a listing that shows most recent publications first, choose "Limit/Sort," then "Sort Results by Year."
Another Good Tip: if you're not sure of the exact Library of Congress Subject Heading, use a Keyword search to locate a few items that are relevant to your topic. Then use the Subject Headings associated with those items to lead you to more relevant materials.
Keyword searches can be made to search for your terms in specific fields (subject, author, title). With a little creativity, you can use this technique with great success, as shown here (example: s:hurricane* and history)
For information that is more current and more specific than can generally be found in books or reference sources, try finding journal articles on the topic. Scholarly articles provide in-depth information and primary data; they are edited and reviewed by experts. Articles in popular science magazines such as Scientific American and Discover can provide background perspective.
Articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers can be found using article indexes (searchable databases of article records). In many cases these indexes link through to full-text articles (look for the icon). Another strategy is to try Search 360 to search multiple article databases with one search.
Selected indexes relevant to geophysical and interdisciplinary topics are listed here. See eResources for a complete listing of electronic indexes, databases, and other eResources licensed by Dartmouth. Ask a librarian if you need help choosing an article index with a particular focus (e.g., literary, environmental, political)..
Geobase covers all areas of human and physical geography, including ecology, climatology, environmental science, marine science and geomorphology. Over 2000 journals, as well as conference proceedings, books and technical reports from all over the world are indexed from 1980 to the present. This is a good resource for international, multidisciplinary studies.
Covers the world's literature on meteorology, climatology, atmospheric chemistry and physics, physical oceanography, hydrology, glaciology, and related environmental sciences. Produced by the American Meteorological society; covers 1974-present.
Web of Science indexes about 8000 journals in all subject areas.This index is unique in that it tells you who has cited a particular paper, which is useful as a way to find related papers, and to track the influence of a particular paper. You can also search by topic, and the index is very up-to-date. Especially strong in the sciences and interdisciplinary fields. Coverage varies; journals in the social sciences are indexed back to 1956; science journals back to 1900.
General Science Abstracts Indexes about 250 popular and scholarly science and multidisciplinary journals. Also indexes articles on science topics from the New York Times. Covers 1984- present. Readers Guide to Periodical Literature Indexes the New York Times, the NYT Book Review and the NYT Magazine, as well as popular magazines like Time, Newsweek, Atlantic Monthly, Discover, Environment, National Geographic, the Smithsonian, and Scientific American.
This is multidisciplinary index to journal and magazine articles, with full text access. It covers journals across all subject areas but, like Wilson Web, does not cover any one subject area very deeply.
The library has many print and electronic journals which you can find using the Library Catalog; below are a sampling of journals relevant to global climate change topics.
Much climate data is collected and published by the NCDC, the National Climatic Data Center, part of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The NCDC is said to be the largest and most diverse environmental data center in the world. These are some of the most widely used and accessible NCDC sources of climate data.
If you do not find what you need in these sources, please consult the more extensive Climate and Weather Data guide.
The NCDC suggests starting here in your search for climate data - this can be a useful entry point if you know the type of data that you are looking for (eg, rainfall, temperature).
Another great starting point is the Weather Observation Station Record - identify climate data available for a specific weather station (US controlled stations only); organizes access to available climate data for that station. Use the hyperlinked asterisks (*) for important information & tips, as this system is still under development. Use the "DATA" link to view available datasets for your chosen weather station.
Local Climatological Data (Edited) 1996-2005 online as pdfs (12 monthly & 1 annual for each year) Earlier years: search the catalog by title, following this example [Name of State] Monthly Local Climatological Data These publications will be found in Kresge Microfiche, and can be read and printed.
This publication summarizes temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, wind speed and direction observations for several hundred cities in the U.S.* and its territories. Consists of 12 monthly and one annual publication, which contains the monthly summary of the past year as well as historical averages and extremes
Climatological Data This publication has existed in some form since 1890; period of record varies by station. Available online as pdfs from the NCDC website Print: search the catalog by title, following this example Climatological Data. [Name of State] These publications will be found in Kresge Microfiche, and can be read and printed.
This publication covers many more stations than the LCD described above (8000 US sites); however, fewer data points are collected. These include daily maximum and minimum temperatures and precipitation; some stations provide daily snowfall, snow depth, evaporation, and soil temperature data. The annual issue contains monthly and annual averages of temperature, precipitation, temperature extremes, freeze data, soil temperatures, evaporation, and a recap of monthly cooling degree days.
NCDC Summary of the Day Kresge Ref. CD-ROM QC983 .N33
Similar to the data found in the Climatological Data series; data can be viewed and exported in tab-delimited format for use in a spreadsheet. Printed instructional handout for the Summary of the Day CD can be found near the reference computers in Kresge.
Annual Climatological Summary Available online as print-friendly web forms or as ASCII files from the NCDC website; period of record varies by station.
An annual summary, by state and station within the state, of monthly temperature means, departures from normal and extremes (participating locations), heating & cooling degree data, and precipitation totals, departures from normal and extremes. A monthly tally of rain days, snow days and days within selected temperature thresholds is also included. Available for approximately 8000 US locations.
Storm Data Available online 1950-present (1950-1959 annual publication only) Monthly issues contain a chronological listing, by states, of storm occurrences and unusual weather phenomena.
Canadian National Climate Data and Information Archive The Canadian version of the NCDC, this has a lot of historical data for Canada. The first place to look for Canadian based climate data. It includes maritime data for the sea near Canada.
Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) Kresge Ref. CD-ROM QC981.8.C5 G49 The Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) is a comprehensive global surface baseline climate dataset developed for the purpose of monitoring and detecting global climate change. Data includes long-term, monthly time series of four basic climatic parameters: mean temperature, total precipitation, mean sea level pressure and mean station pressure. Printed instructional handout for the GHCN CD can be found near the reference computers in Kresge.
CDIAC is the Department of Energy's primary climate-change data and analysis center. Data holdings include records of the concentrations of carbon dioxide and other radiatively active gases in the atmosphere; the role of the terrestrial biosphere and the oceans in the biogeochemical cycles of greenhouse gases; emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere; long-term climate trends; the effects of elevated carbon dioxide on vegetation; and the vulnerability of coastal areas to rising sea level. View the online data compendium, TRENDS Online, or browse by topical subject areas (eg, Trace Gas Emissions; Vegetation Response to CO2 and Climate) to find your way to related data sets and reports.
Provides annual summaries of air pollution data for the entire United States. Produces reports and maps of air pollution data based on criteria you specify. Data include:
Monitoring data (Carbon monoxide (CO), Nitrogen dioxide (NO 2), Ozone (O 3), Sulfur dioxide (SO 2), Particulate matter (PM 10 and PM 2.5), and Lead (Pb)
Emissions data (Carbon monoxide (CO), Sulfur dioxide (SO 2), Particulate matter (PM 10 and PM 2.5) and three precursors/promoters of criteria air pollutants: Volatile organic compounds (VOC), Nitrogen oxides (NOx) and Ammonia (NH 3)
The Scout Report Archives Search, or browse by subject headings, over this collection of over seven years' worth of critical annotations of selected Internet sites, mailing lists, and other online resources.
Search, or browse by topic category. Sites are annotated and cross-referenced. The directory is constructed and maintained, in the spirit of the open-source movement, by volunteer editors.
Style guides provide accepted standards to follow when preparing research papers for publication. Sourcesis the Dartmouth College general guide to citing sources, and contains required reading about plagiarism and when, and how, to cite material you are using for a paper or presentation. You can also find more examples in this online style handbook: Research and Documentation Online.
Reference management programs allow you to build a personal database of your references to articles, books, websites - any information source - and then easily create bibliographies and reference lists using any particular style, without having to retype or reformat. See this overview of reference management programs widely used at Dartmouth.
RefWorks RefWorks is a web-based reference management program that allows users to create their own personal database of references by importing references from online article databases. RefWorks makes it easy to search, sort, and cite these references in writing papers and then to automatically format the paper and the bibliography. To get started with RefWorks, go to http://www.refworks.com and click on the "User Login" button on the menu bar. Then click on the "Sign up for an Individual Account" link and fill out the form. RefWorks in-context help, or the online tutorial, will guide you through the basics. See the overview for details on importing citations from various article databases into RefWorks.
BORROW DIRECT: Delivers books from the combined library catalogs of Brown, Columbia, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale within 4 business days.
Please fill out the DartDoc Form for documents that are in Storage or that are not in the Dartmouth Library system (Interlibrary Loan requests). See the Document Delivery webpage for more details on these services.
You can also use the Request Selected Itemfeature of the Library Catalog to request books or articles from Storage.
For assistance with any part of your research project please contact: Jane Quigley, Reference Librarian, Kresge Physical Sciences Library, 6-3564 Ann Perbohner, Reference Librarian, Kresge Physical Sciences Library, 6-3845 Noah Lowenstein, Reference Librarian, Kresge Physical Sciences Library, 6-9958
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