Grant Writing: Sustainability Center of Tompkins County
This guide was created for a 2014 course and has not been updated since.
These Subject searches target the national and global context of local sustainability efforts:
Environmental economics
Environmental education
Environmental education
Environmental ethics
Environmental justice
Environmental justice--United States
Environmental policy
Environmental policy--United States
Environmental policy--Citizen participation
Environmental policy--Citizen participation
Environmental protection
Environmental protection--Citizen participation
Environmental protection--United States
Environmental health
Environmental law--United States
Environmental management
Environmental monitoring
Environmental responsibility
Environmental sciences--Philosophy
Environmentalism
Environmentalism--United States
United States--Environmental conditions
Ecology
Ecology--Moral and ethical aspects
Ecology--Philosophy
Green Revolution
Green movement
These Subject searches target pollution, waste management, and sustainability:
These Subject searches target pollution, waste management, and sustainability:
Environmental degradation
Pollution--Environmental aspects
Pollution--United States
Air--Pollution
Air quality management
Water--Pollution
Water quality management
Land use--Environmental aspects
Land use--Environmental aspects
Agricultural ecology
Sustainable agriculture
Alternative agriculture
Organic farming
Sustainable agriculture
Alternative agriculture
Organic farming
Urbanization--Environmental aspects
Automobiles--Environmental aspects
Sewage disposal
Sewage--Environmental aspects
Refuse and refuse disposal--United States [garbage, landfill]
Environmental toxicology
Recycling (Waste, etc.)
Sustainable development [sustainability]
Sustainable development--United States
Sustainable development--New York (State)--Ithaca
Sustainable development--Study and teaching
Sustainable living
Organic living
Simplicity
Ecological houses
Dwellings--Environmental engineering
Dwellings--Energy conservation
Sustainable development--New York (State)--Ithaca
Sustainable development--Study and teaching
Sustainable living
Organic living
Simplicity
Ecological houses
Dwellings--Environmental engineering
Dwellings--Energy conservation
Green technology
Green products
Natural foods
Natural foods industry
Slow food movement
Farmers' markets
Natural foods
Natural foods industry
Slow food movement
Farmers' markets
These Subject searches target energy resources and policy:
Power resources
Power resources United States
Energy policy--United States
Energy consumption--United States
Energy conservation--United States
Energy development
Energy development--Environmental aspects
Renewable energy sources
Solar energy
Wind power
Hydrogen as fuel
Biomass energy
Hydraulic fracturing [fracking]
Hydraulic fracturing--Environmental aspects
These Subject searches target commnity action:
Regional planning--United States
Regional planning--United States--Case studies
Land use, Rural--Environmental aspects
Land use, Rural--United States
Land use, Rural--United States--States--Planning--Case studies
Cities and towns--Growth--Environmental aspects--United States
Greenways
Greenways--United States
Communities
Community life
Community life--United States
Community development
Community development--United States
Community organization
Community organization--United States
Community power
Community leadership
Community activists--United States
City and town life
City and town life--United States.
Urbanization--United States
Land use, Urban--United States
Neighborhoods
These Subject searches target internships and service learning:
Internship programs
Interns
Service learning
Service learning--United States
Service learning--Study and teaching (Higher)
Be sure to notice this e-book on sustainability endeavors in Ithaca:
Choosing a sustainable future : ideas and inspiration from Ithaca, NY by Liz Walker (log-in required)
Hydraulic fracturing [fracking]
Hydraulic fracturing--Environmental aspects
These Subject searches target commnity action:
Regional planning--United States
Regional planning--United States--Case studies
Land use, Rural--Environmental aspects
Land use, Rural--United States
Land use, Rural--United States--States--Planning--Case studies
Cities and towns--Growth--Environmental aspects--United States
Greenways
Greenways--United States
Communities
Community life
Community life--United States
Community development
Community development--United States
Community organization
Community organization--United States
Community power
Community leadership
Community activists--United States
City and town life
City and town life--United States.
Urbanization--United States
Land use, Urban--United States
Neighborhoods
These Subject searches target internships and service learning:
Internship programs
Interns
Service learning
Service learning--United States
Service learning--Study and teaching (Higher)
Be sure to notice this e-book on sustainability endeavors in Ithaca:
Choosing a sustainable future : ideas and inspiration from Ithaca, NY by Liz Walker (log-in required)
General OneFile :
The most user-friendly of our comprehensive databases, covering almost any topic from a wide range of disciplinary angles and offering lots of full text. Use the default Subject search to find the best subject heading for your topic (and when you find a good one be sure to look at the "Related Subjects" to see if there's something even better). Among the Subject Headings available here: "Sustainable development," "Sustainable Urban Development," "Environmental sustainability," "Environmental policy," "Green design," "Renewable energy," "Recycling," and "Waste disposal." For each of these, open the "subdivisions" which can target "Economic aspects," "Forecasts and Trends," "Laws, " "Management," "Methods," and "Planning," to name only a few. Or to target these issues as they play out at the community level, try Subject searches on "Community" or "Community Development" or "Neighborhoods" and look at the subdivisions "Energy policy," "Energy use," "Environmental aspects," and "Environmental policy." "Internship programs" is also available.
If the best available subdivision is still too broad, open it and add your own Keywords in the "Search within these results" slot at the upper left.
User Advisory: When first viewing your retrievals in General OneFile, note that you are seeing only the "Magazines" (popular articles) and must click on the tabs for "Academic Journals" (scholarly articles) or "News" (newspaper articles) to see those results.
The most user-friendly of our comprehensive databases, covering almost any topic from a wide range of disciplinary angles and offering lots of full text. Use the default Subject search to find the best subject heading for your topic (and when you find a good one be sure to look at the "Related Subjects" to see if there's something even better). Among the Subject Headings available here: "Sustainable development," "Sustainable Urban Development," "Environmental sustainability," "Environmental policy," "Green design," "Renewable energy," "Recycling," and "Waste disposal." For each of these, open the "subdivisions" which can target "Economic aspects," "Forecasts and Trends," "Laws, " "Management," "Methods," and "Planning," to name only a few. Or to target these issues as they play out at the community level, try Subject searches on "Community" or "Community Development" or "Neighborhoods" and look at the subdivisions "Energy policy," "Energy use," "Environmental aspects," and "Environmental policy." "Internship programs" is also available.
If the best available subdivision is still too broad, open it and add your own Keywords in the "Search within these results" slot at the upper left.
User Advisory: When first viewing your retrievals in General OneFile, note that you are seeing only the "Magazines" (popular articles) and must click on the tabs for "Academic Journals" (scholarly articles) or "News" (newspaper articles) to see those results.
ProQuest Research Library :
Another comprehensive database with substantial full text. Use the "Thesaurus" (above the search slots) to preview what Subject Headings are available. Subect searching can be a more efficient way to search than with only Keywords, since it guarantees that the articles retrieved actually be about the Subject--not just use a particular word. Both "Sustainable development" and "Renewable energy sources" are available as Subject headings here. You can add Keywords to provide further focus. Or you can combine these Subjects with other Subjects: Sustainability with Community Development or Community Action. Note: Since both Sustainability and Sustainable figure in the Subject headings here, as well as both Community and Communities, one good way to retrieve everything is to use the ProQuest truncation symbol at the ends of the roots: try a Subject search on Communit* and Sustainab* Also note: you can combine Internships with (Environmental or Sustainable)--all as Subjects.
Note that to the right of your search results you can limit your retrieval by "Source Type" (including Magazines, Newspapers, Scholarly Journals), "Document Type," (including Cover Story, Editorial, or Interview), "Document Feature" (including Photographs, Illustrations), and "Location."
Above each set of articles you retrieve ProQuest will display related Subject searches to help either broaden or narrow your focus.
User Advisory: ProQuest is fussy about entering Subject searches in the designated search slot. If your subject is a person, enter the name--last name first--in the "Person" slot; if a named group of any kind--Microsoft, the Catholic Church, Radiohead, the New York Mets--enter it in "Co/Org"; if a place enter it in "Location."
Another comprehensive database with substantial full text. Use the "Thesaurus" (above the search slots) to preview what Subject Headings are available. Subect searching can be a more efficient way to search than with only Keywords, since it guarantees that the articles retrieved actually be about the Subject--not just use a particular word. Both "Sustainable development" and "Renewable energy sources" are available as Subject headings here. You can add Keywords to provide further focus. Or you can combine these Subjects with other Subjects: Sustainability with Community Development or Community Action. Note: Since both Sustainability and Sustainable figure in the Subject headings here, as well as both Community and Communities, one good way to retrieve everything is to use the ProQuest truncation symbol at the ends of the roots: try a Subject search on Communit* and Sustainab* Also note: you can combine Internships with (Environmental or Sustainable)--all as Subjects.
Note that to the right of your search results you can limit your retrieval by "Source Type" (including Magazines, Newspapers, Scholarly Journals), "Document Type," (including Cover Story, Editorial, or Interview), "Document Feature" (including Photographs, Illustrations), and "Location."
Above each set of articles you retrieve ProQuest will display related Subject searches to help either broaden or narrow your focus.
User Advisory: ProQuest is fussy about entering Subject searches in the designated search slot. If your subject is a person, enter the name--last name first--in the "Person" slot; if a named group of any kind--Microsoft, the Catholic Church, Radiohead, the New York Mets--enter it in "Co/Org"; if a place enter it in "Location."
Academic Search Premier :
Comprehensive subject coverage with considerable full text. Note that there is a “Subject Terms” link just above the search boxes, allowing you to search the index of Subject Headings--often a good first stop for more efficient Subject searching whereby you are guaranteed that your topic is indeed a main subject of the articles retrieved.
Comprehensive subject coverage with considerable full text. Note that there is a “Subject Terms” link just above the search boxes, allowing you to search the index of Subject Headings--often a good first stop for more efficient Subject searching whereby you are guaranteed that your topic is indeed a main subject of the articles retrieved.
A good initial strategy in this database is to search a likely topic in the Subject Terms and when you find it “explode” the term by double clicking it--this brings up a list of related Subject terms. You can check as many terms as you like before "adding" them to your search by AND-ing or OR-ing them together. For a broad view, try combining "Sustainable Development" with "Communities" as Subjects. "Sustainable Communities" is also available as a Subject here, as is "Internship programs."
User Advisory: For any retrieved set of articles, there will be a box displayed on the left that will limit the articles to “Scholarly” journals—just check the box and click the “Update Results” button below.
ERIC (Ebsco interface) :
ERIC (Ebsco interface) :
A disciplinary database in Education—at all levels. ERIC provides access not only to relevant journal literature (citations for these end in a number preceded by EJ—ERIC Journal), but also to research published directly to ERIC (citations for these end in a number preceded by ED—ERIC Document.
Education uses its own Subject Headings, so a useful first stop is the ERIC "Thesaurus" (above the search slots) to see what Subject searches will work here. This is also a helpful exercise in that once you have found the appropriate Subject Heading you can "explode" it (double click) and generate a list of related Subject Headings.
Finally, note that ERIC also allows you to set the "education level" at which your topic is addressed without entering a Subject Heading or keyword. Just open the "Educational Level" menu (below the search slots) and pick, for instance, "Higher Education." So, for instance, you could set the level for Higher Education and run a search on Internship programs and even add Environmental as another Subject or a Keyword.LexisNexis Academic :
This is our best database for 100% full text inational and local newspaper articles--and many (many) papers run articles about sustainability efforts at local colleges and universities. Don't settle for the default General "Easy Search" but instead click "News" on the left and then "All news.". Change the default "Anywhere in article" search to the "In Headline & Lead Paragraph" option for better focus, or use the "At Least 5 Occurences" option. Also change the default "Major World Publications" to "US Newspapers & Wires." This would be a good database in which to explore who is giving funding for sustainability projects at the local level. In "Headline & Lead Paragraph" try sustainab! and communit! and (grant! or fund!). The exclamation mark is the truncation symbol here, which is useful in Keyword searching to cover different forms of the same word. For example, sustainab! will retrieve both sustainable and sustainability. Since you want your information about funding sources to be current, set "Specify Date" to "Previous Year." And finally be aware that when you retrieve a set of articles you can still add extra search terms in the "Search within results" slot on the upper right.
GreenFILE :
Try a combined "Community Involvement" as a Subject and Sustainab* as a keyword ("Select a field"). Note: * is the truncation symbol in this database. Also available as Subjects here are "Sustainable Communities" and "Sustainable Living."
ScienceDirect :
Because it’s a large database with a great deal of full text, the absence of Subject searching means that your Keyword searches will often retrieve large sets of articles, many of which mention but don’t discuss your search term(s). One way around this is to limit your initial search to the “Abstract Title Keyword” field. Once you have found an article that sounds on-target, click the “Related Articles” link beneath the citation. This will open a range of articles on the same topic. For example, try a seach in the "Abstract Title Keyword" field on "sustainable communit*" (the quotation marks keep the words together as a phrase and the * is the truncation symbol here, so communit* gives you both community and communities). Then scan for the article that seems most relevant and click on the "Related Articles" link.
- Ebrary
- Citation
- Interlibrary Loan
- Plagiarism Tutorial
Think Global / Surf Local:
The Wider World Wide Web:
Internship Info:
- Sustainable Tompkins
- Green Resource Hub of the Finger Lakes
- Sustainability Center
- Finger Lakes Institute:"Dedicated to the promotion of environmental research and education about the Finger Lakes and surrounding environment." And note: they have an intern project.
- Finger Lakes Project (at IC): "A community of educators dedicated to developing the theory and application of integrating sustainability concepts into diverse disciplines and all aspects of education."
- Sustainability: a round-up of features on efforts at Cornell and in the Ithaca community. And of course check out Sustainability at IC, which also addresses community projects and concerns.
- Tompkins County Natural Resources Inventory
- NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
The Wider World Wide Web:
- Alliance for Sustainability: "The mission of the Alliance is to bring about personal, organizational & planetary sustainability through support of projects that are ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just and humane. " Good site--though presently quite a bit is "under construction." Check out the links under "Sustainable Communities."
- Sustainable Communities Online: Lots of good content here, particularly under "Community" (see especially "Civic Engagement"), and under "Living" see "Education, Training, and Lifelong Learning."
- Partnership for Sustainable Communities: Quite a bit of content from this national organization dedicated to information, research, and advocacy. Click on "Articles" at the top and then use the categories on the left. See especially "Advocacy Tools" and "Development Strategy & Design."
- Community Sustainability Assessment: from the Global Ecovillage Network, this offers a 40-page assessment instrument, which might be helpful in establishing the need for a Sustainability Storefront.
- Sustainable Living Links: Comprehensive gateway from U Mass Dartmouth.
- Right-to-Know Network: Provides means to search by city and zipcode to find records of toxic pollution, hazmat permits, and civil lawsuits in the surrounding area. Click on the word "Databases" on the top left and the categories of pollution will appear down the right-hand side. Enter town and/or zip code. (Only larger communities are included--ithaca, Geneva, Auburn, etc.)
- Living Green: University of Florida site for a sustainable lifestyle..
- Green Architecture & Sustainable Living: Excellent gateway to online resources from University of Missouri-Columbia.
- World Wide Web Virtual Library: Sustainable Development: A sprawling list of links for Web resources--but patience can be rewarded here. In particular, scroll down to the "Projects, Activities" section for ideas and examples.
- Handbook of Sustainability Literacy: A UK site, this Handbook is comprehensive and available full text here: just click on "Chapters from the Paperback," pick a chapter, and scroll down to the pdf download.
- Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy; This is a peer-reviewed (scholarly), open-access (free) e-journal. The practice and policy articles might be especially helpful.
- GreenBiz.com: A business-friendly resource.
Internship Info:
- National Council of Nonprofits: Nonprofit Interns
- Legalities of Nonprofit Internships
- "Nonprofits: It’s Time to “Lean Into” Paid Internships": NPQ Nonprofit Quarterly (Oct. 2013)
- Nonprofit Internships: from Charity Lawyer: Daily Dose of Nonprofit Law
- Nonprofit Volunteers – Minimizing the Risks: from Charity Lawyer: Daily Dose of Nonprofit Law
- National Association of Colleges and Employers: Internships: this is geared toward internships with business organizations, but the benchmarks, best practices, legal issues, and how-to information may be useful.
- MLA citation for books: in print, from databases, on the Web
- MLA citation for articles: in print, from databases, on the Web.
- MLA citation for Web and Multimedia resources, including Web sites, movies, DVDs, CDs, and videos.
- MLA in-text (parenthetical) citation (far less satanic than the first three).
