About this collection:Environmental Policy Collection UNT Digital Library

http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/ESDC/

The Environmental Policy Collection contains a variety of open access resources that provide a balanced view on environmental issues and their potential consequences. The current focus of the collection is climate change, and the documents come from such agencies and individuals as:

• United States Climate Change Science Program
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
• Climate Change and Agriculture and Food Security
• Earth System Science Partnership
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• United Nations Environment Programme
• World Meteorological Organization
• University of North Texas (UNT) graduate students

About This Project

"The Environmental Policy Collection is one of 30-plus digital collections within the University of North Texas Digital Library. Its current focus is climate change. Reports and books from local, state, regional, national, and international governmental agencies and scientific organizations make up a majority of the collection, although 60 environmentally focused UNT dissertations and theses are also included. Resources are from authoritative sources including the US Climate Change Science Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, UN Environment Programme, Great Britain's Office of Climate Change, the World Meteorological Organization, and Japan's Ministry of the Environment. In addition to policy, the collection hosts documents in supporting disciplines such as environmental science, ecology, and climatology. An overwhelming majority of the content is in English and was published between 2000 and 2009. Although the documents are currently available from producers' Web sites, the UNT collection is meant to serve as a permanent archive.

The Digital Library platform has a clean layout, intuitive navigation, and basic and advanced searching functions. Faceted searching allows for limiting results, and several options exist for sorting and viewing them. Two UNT librarians in the library's Information Technology Services Department manage the collection; the role of reference librarians in the selection process is unclear. The collection's scope note states that it contains "resources that provide a balanced view on environmental issues and their potential consequences." This reviewer is uncertain about the extent to which the goal of presenting a "balanced view" guides selection decisions. While sizable, this collection is not exhaustive. The site could be viewed as an extensive subject guide, but due to the technical nature of the content, it will be of use mainly to upper-class undergraduates, science majors, and graduate students." from Choice, September 2010.

About this collection:Environmental Policy Collection UNT Digital Library