at the Library
We are at your disposal to answer your questions and to afford you help and support in the following fields:
- Research: acquisition of books and eBooks (individually or in packages) in order to develop the collections on the Environment, in particular in EPFL’s fields of research: atmosphere and climate, water and soil, waste and pollution, monitoring and modelling; processing of purchase proposals made by users.
- Teaching: acquisitions of the books advised in the course bibliographies in order to make the essential books available in the teaching Collection to the students.
- Publication: training is organised to support researchers with respect topublishing: information search strategies, strategies for managing bibliographic references, and to help with publishing, Open Access, copyright, plagiarism, intellectual property, research evaluation (bibliometrics).
- Infoscience: utilisation of and contribution to the EPFL institutional archive.
- Training in information literacy: customised training, one-to-one or class-based, is organised on request.
- Document provision through SLSP network and beyond
Teaching collection: foundation-level books (Bachelor’s and Master’s level) in relation to the courses taught at EPFL and for the most part recommended by the teachers as material for their courses.
Research collection: advanced-level books (Master’s, researchers, PhD students)
Online access is open to all on-site (Library computers); remotely, access is restricted to EPFL members from an EPFL workstation, or via the VPN (using authentication) from a private computer.
Classification of the books on the Environment
The printed documents are classified by subjects, according to the UDC (or Universal Decimal Classification: a classification used in libraries, which divides human knowledge into 10 categories, numbered from 0 to 9. For more information see here). The main categories used for the Environment are the following:
Topic and Classification by call number :
- Agriculture, rural engineering : 630
- Ecology : 574
- Energy economy : 620.9
- Wind energy and facilities : 621.548
- Geodesy, photogrammetry : 528
- Geology, meteorology : 551
- Hydrology : 556
- Soil mechanics : 624.1
- Geology, mines : 622
- Pollution and its control (hygiene of the air, water and soil) : 614.7
- Protection of the environment : 502
- Risks for the environment : 504
- Earth science : 550
- Water treatment and waste treatment, pollution : 628
Each category is divided into subcategories which may specify the subject.
The collection of periodicals on the Environment includes printed titles and titles in electronic format which can be found, by title, in the BEAST catalog of the Library. It should be noted that the current titles are mostly in electronic format. It is also possible to search by topic, via the A-Z list, the electronic periodicals to which the Library subscribes. Online access is open to all on-site (Library computers); remote access is restricted to EPFL members from an EPFL workstation, or via the VPN (using authentication) from a private computer.
The bibliographic databases enable you to find articles published in science journals. There are a large number of multidisciplinary databases which are detailed on our dedicated page. Those useful in Environment are the following:
The Library subscribes to several databases enabling you to find different types of information, for example:
- Journal articles
- Articles from reference works such as:
Each database has its own search interface which sometimes turns out to be quite difficult to use. If you need help, contact us: we will be delighted to answer your questions and organise training on one or the other tool.
Essential
- Scopus. Search for articles in science, social sciences, arts and humanities.
- Web of Science – WoS: Science Citation Index Expanded + Social Sciences Citation Index + Arts and Humanities Citation Index. On Web of Knowledge.
Useful
- Agricola / National Agricultural Library (NAL) (USA)
- AGRIS / Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
- INEE / CNRS database. Directory of databases on the environment, kept up to date by UMS3468 “Databases on Biodiversity, Ecology, Environment, Societies (BBEES)” joint unit of the CNRS Institute of Ecology and Environment (INEE) and of the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) (France)
- Databases of links relating to EU environmental law / Federal Office of the Environment (OFEV) (Switzerland)
- World Bank data, classified by Topics
- EAUDOC / International Office for Water (OIEAU)
- Eco-invent / database provided by the association set up by ETHZ, EPFL, PSI, Empa and Agroscope. Contains lifecycle inventories for energy, materials, waste treatment, traffic, agricultural products and processes, electronic products and processes, metalwork and ventilation of buildings
- GreenFILE. Well researched but accessible information on all aspects of human impact on the environment
- HoWiLit. Bibliographic references in the field of forestry and wood
- Quakeline / Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER). Bibliographic database on earthquakes, earthquake engineering, natural hazards and related fields.
- Sanu. Swiss legislation: protection of the environment, health and safety at work
Encyclopaedias
- Climate vulnerability : understanding and addressing threats to essential resources / ed.-in-chief: Roger A. Pielke — Elsevier
- Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences / editor-in-chief, James Holton — Academic Press
- Encyclopedia of Earth: online encyclopedia under licence CreativeCommons “Attributation-Share Alike”, enriched by worldwide scientifics.
- Encyclopedia of Environmental Change / edited by John A. Matthews … [et Al.].
- Encyclopedia of geology / ed. by Richard C. Selley … [et al.] — Elsevier
- Encyclopedia of inland waters / editor-in-chief: Gene E. Likens — Elsevier
- Encyclopedia of Lakes and Reservoirs / edited by Lars Bengtsson, Reginald W. Herschy, Rhodes W. Fairbridge. — Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands: Imprint: Springer
- Encyclopedia of ocean sciences / John H. Steele, Steve A. Thorpe
- Encyclopedia of soils in the environment / ed. by Daniel Hillel — Elsevier Academic Press
- Encyclopedia of World Climatology / edited by John E. Oliver. — Springer
- Green Wiki
- Engineering Technology. Encyclopaedia covering all the engineering fields.
- Treatise on water science / editor-in-chief: Peter Wilderer — Elsevier
- Water encyclopedia — Wiley-Interscience
Dictionaries
- International Glossary of Hydrology / UNESCO
- A Dictionary of Climate Change and the Environment, R.Q. Nelson, H.W. Lambie, N.R. Wyrwoll, P.R. Grafton; 2012
- World Housing Encyclopedia (WHE): an Encyclopedia of Housing Construction in Seismically Active Areas of the World / Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and the International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE)
- Dictionary of Environmental and Climate Change Law
Numerical and factual data tables
- CIA World Factbook
- ECOTOX / United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The ECOTOX (ECOTOXicology) database provides single chemical toxicity information for aquatic and terrestrial life.
Terminology
- AGROVOC/ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). AGROVOC is a multilingual, structured and controlled vocabulary designed to cover the terminology of all subject fields in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food and related domains (e.g. environment).
The EPFL Library offers numerous printed and digital, recent or old cartographic documents (atlases, maps), as well as a collection of books and eBooks in related fields such as cartography, topometry, photogrammetry etc. All these documents are in the BEAST catalog. Some may be printed, others can be looked up on-site.