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In the sciences, secondary sources are books and articles that provide an overview of a discipline or the current state of research, rather describing one specific experiment and its method and result. Review articles are secondary sources, and one excellent way to search for them them is to find a subject-specific journal in the Annual Reviews database, as well as limiting database search results to review articles. Books are most often secondary sources.
Examples of secondary sources:
Reference sources may include dictionaries, encyclopedias and books which provide the history, background and overview of a topic. They are a useful way to gain general background information on a topic during the preliminary stages of your research and to help you build foundational portions of your research, such as the introduction.
STEM related items in print are shelved on Honnold 1 near the cafe. eBooks and print book are searchable via Library Search.
Books are are important in the sciences because they take a broader view of a topic that does a research article or a review article. When you are new to a topic or starting a big research project (like a senior thesis or a literature review), starting with books helps you get the background or broader view on a topic before diving into highly specialized articles.
The Claremont Colleges Library uses the Library of Congress Classification System. A Library of Congress call number will contain a combination of letters and numbers, and will typically end with a four-digit year. For example, QL737.P2 C35 2011.
To learn how to find items in the collection using a call number watch, Learn How to Read Call Numbers.
This rotating list of titles is an effort to highlight the works of BIPOC authors with the intention of bringing more awareness and recognition to diverse voices and perspectives in this field of study.
The Claremont Colleges Library is committed to promoting diversity and equity and has made a public statement in support of diversity, equity and inclusion and advocates for anti-racism through library programs, guides, committee work, and by developing library collections that are reflective of the diversity of our region, our student population, and faculty and student research interests.
Lessons from Plants by
An exploration of how plant behavior and adaptation offer valuable insights for human thriving. We know that plants are important. They maintain the atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. They nourish other living organisms and supply psychological benefits to humans as well, improving our moods and beautifying the landscape around us. But plants don't just passively provide. They also take action. Beronda L. Montgomery explores the vigorous, creative lives of organisms often treated as static and predictable. In fact, plants are masters of adaptation. They "know" what and who they are, and they use this knowledge to make a way in the world. Plants experience a kind of sensation that does not require eyes or ears. They distinguish kin, friend, and foe, and they are able to respond to ecological competition despite lacking the capacity of fight-or-flight. Plants are even capable of transformative behaviors that allow them to maximize their chances of survival in a dynamic and sometimes unfriendly environment. Lessons from Plants enters into the depth of botanic experience and shows how we might improve human society by better appreciating not just what plants give us but also how they achieve their own purposes. What would it mean to learn from these organisms, to become more aware of our environments and to adapt to our own worlds by calling on perception and awareness? Montgomery's meditative study puts before us a question with the power to reframe the way we live: What would a plant do?
Memoirs of Black Entomologists by
Memoirs of Black Entomologists collects the real-life stories of 20 successful black entomologists and their advice for black students interested in careers in the life sciences.
Roots of Our Renewal by
Honorable Mention: Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award In Roots of Our Renewal, Clint Carroll tells how Cherokee people have developed material, spiritual, and political ties with the lands they have inhabited since removal from their homelands in the southeastern United States. Although the forced relocation of the late 1830s had devastating consequences for Cherokee society, Carroll shows that the reconstituted Cherokee Nation west of the Mississippi eventually cultivated a special connection to the new land--a connection that is reflected in its management of natural resources. Until now, scant attention has been paid to the interplay between tribal natural resource management programs and governance models. Carroll is particularly interested in indigenous environmental governance along the continuum of resource-based and relationship-based practices and relates how the Cherokee Nation, while protecting tribal lands, is also incorporating associations with the nonhuman world. Carroll describes how the work of an elders' advisory group has been instrumental to this goal since its formation in 2008. An enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Carroll draws from his ethnographic observations of Cherokee government-community partnerships during the past ten years. He argues that indigenous appropriations of modern state forms can articulate alternative ways of interacting with and "governing" the environment.
