Research Guides: Introduction to Environmental Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches, ENVS 1101: Other

Government Documents

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
Finding aid for federal government publications that includes descriptive records for historical and current publications and provides direct links to those that are available online. Dates of Coverage: 1976-present, with older publications regularly being added. For earlier documents, also use HathiTrust and/or WorldCat.
GovInfo
Provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. Dates of coverage vary.
HathiTrust Digital Library
HathiTrust contains the digitized collections of some of the nation's great research libraries. Over 2.5 million works in the public domain in HathiTrust are open to all researchers ("full view"), including over 850,000 federal documents. Many works in the collection are protected by copyright law, so large portions of those protected works cannot ordinarily be publicly displayed unless permission from the copyright holder is obtained. Dates of Coverage: 1500-present.
Bowdoin College is a HathiTrust member. Log in to take full advantage of the features of membership, i.e., browse, search, read books online, download books, and create collections.
To log in, either:
- Go to HathiTrust
  - Click "Log in"
  - Find your partner institution: Bowdoin College
  - Click "Continue"
  - Log in using your usual Bowdoin email credentials
- Or, go to Bowdoin College's sign-in page
  - Log in using your usual Bowdoin email credentials
  - Choose "HathiTrust"
Alternatively, anyone can use HathiTrust without logging in to browse, search, or read books online.
Accessible Text Request Service:
If you are blind or have a print disability and are a Bowdoin College student, faculty member, or staff member, you can request a copy of any copyrighted book in the HathiTrust Digital Library Collection. (Copyrighted books are listed as "limited (search-only)" in HathiTrust.) For more information or to register for the Accessible Text Request Service, please contact Guy Saldanha.
Consult our HathiTrust guide for more information.
ProQuest Congressional
Congressional publications and legislative research materials covering all topics, including government, current events, politics, economics, business, science and technology, international relations, social issues, finance, insurance, and medicine. Includes finding aids for and/or full-text of congressional hearings, committee prints, committee reports and documents, the daily Congressional Record, historical bills and resolutions, compiled legislative histories, and CRS Reports. Hearings can be excellent sources for information, data, and perspective on public policy-related issues. Dates of Coverage: varies.

Statistical sources

Statistical Abstract of the United States.
Formerly published by the U.S. Census Bureau. "Comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States." A great place to start looking for data. Even if the data that you want are not there, look at the footnotes for relevant tables and the introduction to the relevant section for pointers to more comprehensive sources. Previous editions, 1878-, are also available.
Historical Statistics of the United States.
Comprehensive, searchable collection of statistics, including 37,000+ data sets that can be downloaded. A historical supplement to the Statistical Abstract of the United States. A great place to start looking for data. Footnotes to tables lead you to more detailed or more current data. The introduction to each section provides a helpful summary of major sources. Previous editions are available from the Census Bureau, HathiTrust, and elsewhere online and in print.
Census of Agriculture, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Most recently taken every 5 years ending in "2" or "7".
Landings. 1950-present, National Marine Fisheries Service.

Diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, letters, interviews, oral histories, speeches, etc.

Books and other materials in library catalogs

Suggested very broad keyword searches:
[YOUR TOPIC OR NAME] AND (diaries OR diary OR correspondence OR letters OR interviews OR "personal narratives" OR "personal narrative" OR "oral histories" OR "oral history" OR autobiograph* OR memoir* OR sermon* OR speeches OR speech OR addresses OR address)

[YOUR TOPIC OR NAME] AND ("documentary histories" OR "documentary history" OR archives OR sources)

For a more specific search, search Compass, MaineCat, or WorldCat (a national database of library catalog records):

for a name, class of persons, or ethnic group and the word "diaries", e.g.
Cocteau AND diaries
soldiers AND diaries
"Canadian Americans" AND diaries
to broaden the search: "Canadian Americans" AND (diaries OR diary)
for the name of the writer or addressee, class of persons, or ethnic group and the word "correspondence", e.g.
"Scholl, Hans" AND correspondence
"college students" AND correspondence
naturalists AND correspondence
for a name, class of persons, or ethnic group and the word "interviews", e.g.
Mitchell AND interviews
businesswomen AND interviews
on a name of event or war and the quoted phrase "personal narratives" to retrieve eyewitness or autobiographical accounts, e.g.
"Hurricane Katrina" AND "personal narratives"
"Korean War" AND "personal narratives"
on the name of the individual using a subject search to retrieve autobiographies or memoirs, e.g.
"Twain, Mark"
subject search in Compass, WorldCat, HathiTrust, or Historical Abstracts for travelogues on the name of your country and the word "travel", e.g.
china AND travel
similarly search on:
[YOUR TOPIC OR NAME] AND (sermons OR sermon)
[YOUR TOPIC OR NAME] AND (addresses OR address)
[YOUR TOPIC OR NAME] AND (speeches OR speech)

To narrow your search even more, you can search the following terms/phrases in subject headings:
addresses, correspondence, diaries, interviews, letters, personal narratives, sermons, speeches, archives, sources.

Databases

NCCO: Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature
The Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature archive includes a myriad of maps representing the nineteenth century.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories provides a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada. With more than 100,000 pages of personal narratives, including letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral histories, the collection provides a rich source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines. Much of the material is previously unpublished. Several thousand pages of Ellis Island Oral History interviews, indexed and searchable for the first time, are included, along with thousands of political cartoons.