Information on the environment is available from a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, including books, articles in books and journals, government publications, theses and dissertations and maps. They can be found using a wide variety of sources:
Books & Government Publications - can usually be found using online catalogs, such as WestCat, I-Share or WorldCat. See Finding Books for information on how to search online catalogs.
Government Publications - WIU students also have access to several digital collections of government publications, including the Serial Set, a collection of reports, documents and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives from 1817-1994, and the American State Papers, the papers of the U.S. Congress from 1789-1838. See the Government Publications page for information on and links to these resources.
Maps & Photographs - maps can be used to view information about the land before settlement, or study how land use has changed over time. A separate set of pages in this guide provides links to digital map and aerial photograph collections and links to information about types of maps and map reading. Most of the maps in the WIU Libraries are not cataloged. For information about maps in the collection, contact Linda Zellmer.
Journal Articles - usually summarize information presented in primary source materials. They can be found using indexes and databases. See the Indexes page for information on sources that might be useful in finding articles on environmental history.
Theses & Dissertations - summarize information from primary sources. They can be found using Dissertation & Thesis Abstracts, which is linked on the Indexes page.