Research Guides: Environmental Conservation Education: Encyclopedias / Overview Resources

Reference Resources

Reference resources are a great way to get started with your research. They can help you gather fast facts about a topic, focus your argument, and find lists of further readings written by experts in the field. Use the indexes and tables of contents to understand what you will find in each and go from there.

General Reference

Many of the encyclopedias listed below are accessible via Credo Reference. You can do a more general (not publication-specific) search in the Credo Reference database:

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Online collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical sources, quotations, bilingual dictionaries, and measurement conversions covering topics from the arts to the sciences.

Environment and Education Resources

There are numerous encyclopedias that provide an overview and background information on every education topic imaginable. There are also a number of encyclopedias on ecology. These entries are citeable and can provide useful perspectives on how topics might be organized and/or keywords/phrases to use in more in-depth searching. See the Education research guide for a list of resources that focus more specifically on teaching and learning.

Oxford Bibliographies Online: Education
The multidisciplinary nature of education makes it challenging to stay informed regarding applicable areas. Moreover, much of the relevant scholarship has moved online with the most recent scholarship, research, and statistics appearing in online databases. Thus, there are consistently new discoveries, new interpretations, and new theoretical concepts to take into account. With Oxford Bibliographies in Education, students and scholars now have a reliable, selective, and authoritative guide to the best literature in the field.
Oxford Bibliographies Online: Environmental Science
Environmental Science arose from disparate disciplines as a distinct field in the last half of the 20th century. Initially fueled by awareness of environmental degradation, risk of species loss, and global climate change, it straddles the divisions and seeks to integrate synergies between them in research and application. This includes but is not limited to the physical sciences, the planning and social sciences, the health sciences, engineering, governance, policy, and more. Such complexity, which speaks to the cross-disciplinary nature of the science, also characterizes its diverse configurations in academia and research institutions. Oxford Bibliographies in Environmental Science engages this complexity. It provides the base for initiating, continuing, or expanding your research on all issues related to the environment and our interaction with it.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Climate Change Communication, 2017
This encyclopedia explores the origin and evolution of our understanding of climate change as it is presented in communication and media. It includes a scholarly examination of the effects of climate change communication on public opinion and policy decisions; journalistic coverage and media portrayals of climate change; communication strategies and campaigns; and the implications of effective communication, including those of outreach and advocacy efforts. It also reviews climate change communication research methods and approaches. Available as an ebook.
The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice, 2017
This handbook presents an introduction to the diverse, rapidly growing body of research on pressing issues of environmental justice and injustice. It covers current debates, controversies, and questions in the history, theory, and methods of environmental justice research. Available as an ebook.
A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation, 2017
This dictionary includes entries on scientific and social aspects of the environment - its key thinkers, treaties, movements, organizations, concepts, and theories. It covers subjects such as sustainable development, biodiversity, and environmental ethics. Available as an ebook.
A Dictionary of Ecology, 2015
This dictionary contains over 6,500 entries on all aspects of ecology and related environmental scientific disciplines such as biogeography, genetics, soil science, geomorphology, atmospheric science, and oceanography. Entries cover topics such as plant and animal physiology, animal behavior, pollution, conservation, habitat management, population, evolution, environmental pollution, climatology, and meteorology. Available as an ebook.
International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education, 2014
This handbook addresses important concepts, findings and theories that have been developed by EE research, and critically examines the historical progression of the field, its current debates and controversies, what is still missing from the EE research agenda, and where that agenda might be headed. Available as an ebook.
Encyclopedia of Global Warming & Climate Change, 2012
This encyclopedia is an academic (non-technical) resource to understand the importance of global warming, to appreciate the effects of human activity and greenhouse gases around the world, and to learn the history of climate change and the research enterprise examining it. Available as an ebook.
Environmental Leadership : A Reference Handbook, 2012
This handbook covers issues relevant to leadership in the realm of the environment and sustainability. Available as an ebook.
Environmental Encyclopedia, 2011
This encyclopedia provides in-depth, worldwide coverage of environmental issues. Each article is written in a nontechnical style and provides current status, analysis, and suggested solutions whenever possible. Available as an ebook.
Oxford Bibliographies in Education, 2012
The Education bibliography provides bibliographies of scholarship on many subjects within education, all prepared by leading voices in those areas. Available as an ebook.
Encyclopedia of Environment and Society, 2007
This encyclopedia brings together multiplying issues, concepts, theories, examples, problems, and policies, with the goal of explicating an emerging way of thinking about people and nature. Available as an ebook.
International Encyclopedia of Education, 2010
The International Encyclopedia of Education captures the extraordinary technological, societal, and institutional change in education recent years. It aims to encapsulate research in this vibrant field for students and researchers. Available as an ebook.
The Praeger Handbook of Urban Education, 2006
This work approaches the study of schooling in cities as a complex universe of the poorest students and schools alongside the wealthiest. Available as an ebook.
Dictionary of Environmental Health, 2003
This dictionary includes over 3,000 common, and not so common terms, concepts, abbreviations, acronyms and a wealth of supporting data on the management of environmental and public health. Available as an ebook and in print.

Environmental Issues: Background Resources

Water Encyclopedia, 2005
This encyclopedia explores the natural resource of water to provide a better understanding of its scientific and technological aspects. It addresses topics such as water quality, wastewater, ground water, surface water, oceans, industrial water, water chemistry, drinking water, ultrapure water, and water resources. Available as an ebook.
Encyclopedia of Environmental Biology, 1995
Available in print only. Bobst Main: QH540 .4.E52 1995 vols 1-3
Environmental Contaminants Encyclopedia, 1998
This data source summarizes information about contamination that effect fish, wildlife, invertebrates, and other non-human living resources. It differs from existing databases in that its emphasis is on environmental toxicology and it summarizes information on these issues into a searchable source. Available as an ebook.