All Guides: GEOG 254: Population 8 Billion: Getting Started

Topic Overviews: Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Access to general and subject-specific reference books (encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and books of quotations and proverbs). Provides a graphics-based Concept Mapping option for topic exploration.
eBooks (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Search across subject-specific reference encyclopedias.
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Resource of reference materials such as dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. Provides database-wide searching, subject searching across sources, and individual title searching.

Sources for Background Information:

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Access to original reporting and analysis on issues in the news. Coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy.

Pew Research Center
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. It does not take policy positions.

Library Databases (Academic Articles and more)

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Interdisciplinary resource with popular, scholarly, and peer-reviewed articles and citations. Includes speeches, newspapers, and polls.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Search across a wide range of scholarly literature from around the world. This custom link for Google Scholar includes the Macalester Library code and will display a "MACLINKS FULL TEXT" link next to resources available from Macalester Library. You will also see MACLINKS if you are logged in to the on-campus network. If you are off campus and don't use the above custom link, you can configure Google Scholar to display MACLINKS by customizing your library links settings.
GEOBASE This link opens in a new window
International index to the literature of geology, geography, urban geography, and ecology. Includes journals, books, monographs, conference proceedings, and reports.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the latest research in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Large collection of scholarly journals and books from all disciplines, with stronger coverage for the humanities and social sciences. Current issues from journals (the most recent 3-5 years) are generally not available in JSTOR.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Access to journals in the humanities and social sciences, covering literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, and economics.

WorldCat Search

Orgs, Think Tanks, and More

Harvard Kennedy School Think Tank Search
A Google Custom Search of more than 1200 think tanks and research centers.
PRB: Population Reference Bureau
US-based group that works to inform policy makers, NGOs, advocacy groups and others on population issues. Their Resource Library and Data Center provide a wealth of information.
UNFPA: United Nations Population Fund
United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. The website provides links to data and publications related to health issues, population issues, and more.

Data

Census Bureau (replaces AmericanFactFinder)
Portal for accessing U.S. Census data. Includes data from decennial summary files, American Community Survey, Economic Census, and more. Most census data collected in the past two years are not included.

World Development Indicators (WDI) This link opens in a new window
Data source on the global economy containing statistical data for development indicators and time series data for over 200 countries and 18 country groups. Includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators which can be scaled, indexed against a particular year, viewed by percentage change and charted. Exporting options are available.