Natural Resource Policy

a guide to library resources

Reference Books - Law & Politics

• West's encyclopedia of American law. Online and in paper in Reference at Ref KF 154 .W47 1998
• Environmental law handbook. Ref KF 3775.E64 1997
• Conservation and the law : a dictionary. Ref KF 5505.A68 D66 1998
• Black’s law dictionary. Ref KF 156 .B53 1990
• Congressional Quarterly almanac. Ref JK 1.C66 annual survey of activity in Congress

Reference Books - Environment & Resources

• Environmental encyclopedia. Ref GE 10.E38 2003
• Conservation and environmentalism: an encyclopedia. Ref GE 10.C68 1995
• The Environmental movement. Ref GE 197.G76 1994

News sources

• The New York Times - online in full-text 1980-date. Earlier years are searchable online, then find the full stories on microfilm. See the "Newspaper search" page on the library web site
• Other newspapers - both ProQuest Newspapers and Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe provide access to many recent newspapers

Congressional Sources - via Lexis-Nexis

• Go to "Lexis-Nexis / Legal / Federal & State Codes" to search for
  • United States Code - the text of current U.S. federal law
  • Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) - current regulations in effect
  • Federal Register - July 1, 1980 - date. Federal agency documents, such as regulations proposed, temporary, amended and final

Congressional Sources - using CIS

• For the years 1970-1993 the library has the annual Congressional Information Service (CIS) paper volumes (at KF 49.C62) that can be very helpful for finding hearings, reports, Congressional Record dates, and other documents relating to legislation. Use the "Index" volume for the appropriate year to look by subject - and follow up in the "Abstracts" volume with the H-### or S-### numbers. These volumes give synopses of the hearings and reports, and the titles and SuDocs numbers. At the end of each year's volumes (or in a separate volume in later years) there are "Legislative Histories" that are organized by Public Law (P.L.) number.

Congressional Sources - via the library's Government Documents web page

• Search for U.S. government publications, including Congressional hearings, reports, and documents.
  • Catalog of U.S. Government Publications - Covers print and online publications 1976-date
  • USA.gov - searches for online publications only
  • Google Uncle Sam - Google's version of a government document search engine
  • The Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications - a printed index at Ref Z 1223 .A18. It is the only comprehensive index for pre-1976 government publications.
  • On the library's web page on Congress (http://wwwx.potsdam.edu/library/USGovPubs_Congress.php) there are links to
    • THOMAS: Legislative Branch
    • Congressional Committees Online
    • Congressional Hearings: Browse : Search
• Finding the documents themselves
  • Most recent U.S. documents, including Congressional committee publications, are available online
  • Committee reports from the 95th Congress (1978) and earlier (scattered older holdings) are found in the printed Serials Set volumes in the library basement.
  • Committee reports from the 96th Congress (1979) are on microfiche at X96-Sess.#:H.RP.#, and Senate Reports as X96-Sess.#:S.RP.#. The House Reports from the 97th Congress to date are filed under SuDocs microfiche number Y1.1/8: and Senate Reports under Y1.1/5:
  • Committee hearings may be in paper or microfiche. Search GPO Catalog and check by SuDocs #.
  • Government documents that are not in the SUNY Potsdam collection may be requested through interlibrary loan
• Congressional Record. see the page on Congress on the library web site

Regulations

• The Federal Register - "the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations" online from 1994 to date.
• Regulations can also be searched in Lexis-Nexis.

Law reviews and other periodical articles

• Lexis-Nexis - indexes U.S. and Canadian law reviews. Go to "Lexis-Nexis / Legal"
• CQ Electronic Library - includes the full-text of CQ Weekly from 1983-date. On microfilm 1960-1982.
• Academic Search Premier - indexes a broad spectrum of news and scholarly journals
• Environment Index - an index to journals and other documents

Other useful resources

• Congressional Research Service reports (CRS) - this is a collection of reports on environmental and related topics
• A.L.R. Federal Cases and Annotations (ALR Fed) - we have v.1 - v.136(1997) at KF 105.A54
• Annual Survey of American Law. we have 1966-1995 at KF 178.A5

"BearCat": the online catalog

• Subject Searching: use "Subject Keyword" mode to search with terms such as:
  • Endangered Species Act
• "Title plus contents keywords": this search mode searches all words in the title of books, and "Contents" when they are available
• "Keywords anywhere": use any name, place, or other term. Searches titles, contents notes, and subject headings
• Browsing: "Basic Browse Search" can help with finding good subject headings
• Note: many older U.S. government documents (pre-1980) are listed in BearCat, but most recent documents are NOT.

Other library catalogs

• From the library website you can link to other library catalogs to do a wider search for books.
  • Local libraries: for ex. St. Lawrence Univ.
  • All SUNY libraries: use the SUNY Union Catalog
  • All major U.S. and some foreign libraries: use WorldCat

Legal citation abbreviations: a short guide

• 40 CFR --- = Code of Federal Regulations: title 40
• 33 USC --- = United States Code: title 33
• 13 F 3d 305 = Federal court opinion (not available here)
• 498 U.S. --- = U.S. Supreme Court opinion
• Pub.L or P.L. --- public law #
• 120 A.L.R. Fed --- = American Law Reports: Federal; vol. 120
• S Rpt or Sen Rpt = Senate (committee) report
• H Rpt or House Rpt = House (committee) report
• H.R. 4194 = House bill number (numbering starts over with each congress)
• S. 24 = Senate bill number
• Cong.Rec. = Congressional Record