Access information resources from Penn State Berks Thun Library and beyond to advance sustainability initiatives, curriculum, and research.
Jump to a collection:
- Ethics & Sustainability Collection – ethics and policy analysis.
- Engaged Scholarship Collection – research methods handbooks.
- Idea Collection – introductory background information.
- Ebooks
- Films – streaming and DVD formats.
- Databases
- Library Guides – curated research guides.
- Teaching Resources – guides for teaching sustainability and climate change topics.
Ethics & Sustainability Collection
Thun Library has an entire collection dedicated to serving the sustainability needs of Penn State Berks. This collection comprises hundreds of recent titles on climate change, pollution, recycling, policy, activism, as well as environmental issues specific to nearly every academic major. Integrate the collection into research assignments as a suggested research resource, advertise it in campus programs or social media, or browse it for personal reading.
Collection Highlights
Environment and Pedagogy in Higher Education. A toolkit of teaching ideas to stimulate environmental action among students.
Environmental Justice: Key Issues. An introduction to the field of environmental justice.
Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History. Recounts many parts of American history as attempts to control the environment.
A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind. Demonstrates how minorities bear a disproportionate burden of the impact of environmental disasters.
The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, and Climate Change. A pathbreaking book on the new school of ecocritical art history.
Shopping for Change : Consumer Activism and the Possibilities of Purchasing Power. Examines consumer activism for the environment.
Sustainable Marketing: How to Drive Profits with Purpose.Outlines the elements of a sustainable marketing plan, leadership supply chain management, social responsibility, waste and packaging reduction, recyclable materials, renewable energy, partnerships.
Electrify: An Optimist’s Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future. A fast-action plan for decarbonizing the U.S. economy.
GMOs Decoded: A Skeptic’s View of Genetically Modified Foods. An overview of the pros and cons of GMOs.
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World. How trees form their own communities and what this means for humans.
Nature and The Environment in Amish Life. Explores beliefs and practices in Amish communities, a human ecology perspective.
Vegans on Speciesism and Ableism: Ecoability Voices for Disability and Animal Justice. Looks at the intersection of disability studies and animal rights initiatives.
Engaged Scholarship Collection
The Engaged Scholarship consists of research methods handbooks, service-learning guides, and student- or -novice-oriented writing and presentation guides. Many books in the collection can help guide sustainability research.
Collection Highlights
The Field Guide to Citizen Science: How You Can Contribute to Scientific Research and Make a Difference. A field guide of fifty citizen science projects, including climate change and endangered species-related projects. Useful for designing learning experiences and research projects.
Measuring Tomorrow: Accounting for Well-being, Resilience, and Sustainability in the Twenty-first Century. Discusses research methods and metrics for measuring well-being and sustainability across various domains, including economics, health, education, social well-being, institutions, and the biosphere. Useful for designing research projects or class discussions on alternatives to traditional measures of development (like GDP).
A Research Agenda for Global Environmental Politics. Reviews research techniques for examining global politics on sustainability-related issues, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Topics include trade, finance, governance and politics, waste, food, and climate justice. Useful as course readings, research topics, or for class discussions.
Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Environmental Studies. Reviews a range of research methods in environmental studies, including mixed methods, qualitative methods (cultural consensus analysis, structured mental model approach, fuzzy cognitive mapping, action research), and quantitative methods (energy return-on-investment, input-output analysis of water flows, multiple factor analysis, network analysis, vulnerability assessments, and game theory). Useful for designing research projects or evaluating research methods.
Idea Collection
The Idea Collection features introductory texts and thematic surveys of facts and trivia. It is meant to be a launch pad for student research projects.
Collection Highlights
The Ecology Book. Uses infographics and engaging visual design to deliver a primer on 85 key concepts related to ecology, environmentalism, and climate change.
Sustainability: What Everyone Needs to Know. A primer introducing systems thinking to understand sustainability topics and issues.
Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know. A primer on climate change, projected impacts, and potential interventions.
Renewable Energy: A Primer for the Twenty-first Century. An introduction to renewable energy topics, resources and techniques.
Earth 2020: An Insider’s Guide to a Rapidly Changing Planet. (Open access from openbookpublishers.com.) A series of essays from expert contributors on sustainability and climate change-related topics.
Environmental Ethics: A Very Short Introduction. An introduction to key concepts in environmental ethics.
Earth System Science: A Very Short Introduction. An introduction to key concepts in earth system science.
Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction. An introduction to key concepts on the Anthropocene Epoch – a time characterized by humans’ impact on nature.
Renewable Energy: A Very Short Introduction. An introduction to key concepts in renewable energy.
Ebooks
Ebooks can be utilized as course readings by linking out in Canvas.
Collection Highlights
Climate Toolkit: A Resource Manual for Science and Action – Version 2.0. This is an open education textbook for non-science majors who want to do something about the climate crisis. The introduction explains “Unlike a standard textbook, it is designed to help readers do their own climate research and devise their own perspective rather than providing them with a script to assimilate and repeat.”
Handbook of theory and practice of sustainable development in higher education. 4-volume set filled with examples of courses, assignment ideas, community projects, research, building designs, and more. Best practices and practical, evidence-based solutions applicable to Penn State Berks!
Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education. Find overviews of environmental issues at universities related to policy-making, greening of campuses, pedagogy, research techniques, and more.
Sustainability–New Directions for Teaching and Learning. Gold mine of teaching ideas for faculty, ranging from online projects, service learning, minority participation, sustainability in introductory classes, and more.
Braiding Sweetgrass. 2022 MacArthur Fellow Robin Wall Kimmerer’s composed this ebook that fuses Indigenuous views of environmentalism with modern scientific views.
Films
Key environmental films from the library that are available in streaming and DVD formats. Search the entire Penn State collection of videos by entering keywords here. Please feel free to email requests for additional films to your Berks liaison librarian.
Collection Highlights
Streaming Films from Kanopy. Browse a list of Penn State’s current Kanopy streaming films on environmental science topics.
Half-mile, Upwind, on Foot [streaming]. A documentary about the Mariner East pipeline project, which has been a focal point for environmental debates in Pennsylvania.
Mariner East, The Web Series [streaming]. A series of video interviews with residents of Pennsylvania affected by the Mariner East pipeline.
Meat the Future [streaming]. Jane Goodall narrates this film about animal rights and the possibility of creating meat without slaughtering animals.
Radar Talks: Anne Currie on Cloud Native and Going Green [streaming]. Examines how climate change is shaping technology development.
Nature’s Cleanup Crew [streaming]. Spotlights oft-overlooked urban animals who scavenge garbage produced by humans.
Plant This Movie [streaming]. Takes viewers to urban farming projects around the world, including Philadelphia. Screened by the PSU Berks Sustainability Team in 2019.
Thirst for Justice [streaming]. Covers the water crisis in Flint, Michigan; the Navajo Reservation; and Standing Rock.
Kiss the Ground [streaming]. An inside look at the Regenerative Agriculture movement, a multinational campaign to balance farming with sustainability.
On the Fenceline : A Fight for Clean Air [two streaming films]. Traces the fight of Philly Thrive, a local environmental league, to block an oil refinery from operating in the Philadelphia area.
The True Cost [streaming]. Expose of fast fashion.
Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story [streaming]. A couple finds out just how much food is wasted each year in America and decides to make food wasted by others their main staple.
Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch [streaming]. Learn how a swirling, giant mass of plastic refuse coalesced in the Pacific and what can be done about it.
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power [DVD]. The follow-up to An Inconvenient Truth.
The 11th Hour [DVD]. Explores the impact of human activity on the planet and proposes restorative practices.
Before the Flood [DVD]. A documentary on the dramatic impacts of climate change, and what some are doing to reverse them.
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret [DVD]. Examines the impact of the cattle industry on climate change.
Databases
Research databases hand-picked for the Sustainability Council at Berks. Browse the alphabetical list of all databases on the library’s web site or identify databases for specific subjects by scrolling down to “Library Guides” in the next section.
Collection Highlights
Opposing Viewpoints. Find articles that represent multiple perspectives on environmental issues. For example, find articles for and against the use of solar energy.
Gale Virtual Reference Library. Find quick, readable summaries of environmental topics by experts. The “wikipedia of the library.”
GreenFile. Find articles on global warming, pollution, preservation, extinction, renewable energy, and most other sustainability topics.
Policy Commons. Search gray literature, reports of environmental groups and quasi-government organizations, for recommendations on policy.
Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE). Research what incentives are available for industries considering sustainable changes in their operations.
Environment & Energy Newsletters. Very up-to-date news and video interviews with environmental leaders
Ecology Abstracts. Research how organisms interact with each other and the environment.
Environmental Sciences Collection. Scholarly journal articles about ecology, sustainable engineering, and all types of pollution. Please note it may require some technical knowledge to read these materials.
Wildlife & Ecology Studies Worldwide. Wildlife management and general zoology.
Library Guides
These curated lists of resources are gateways to research in various subfields of environmental science. Instructors: you can integrate any of the existing subject guides below into your Canvas course by using this form. To have a guide designed specifically for a course assignment, please contact your Berks liaison librarian.
Collection Highlights
BI SC 003 Environmental Science. Guide for students in Dr. Mahsa Kazempour’s BI SC 003 Environmental Science course. The goal of this page is to provides resources to support their work for the Environmental Awareness & Community Action Project (EACAP)
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Access library resources curated for each of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Environmental Science and Resource Management. Best starting point for general environmental research.
Energy and Sustainability Policy. Covers scientific and social aspects of energy sustainability.
Energy Resources and Engineering. A guide for each type of renewable energy source.
Fracking. Research the environmental impact of this controversial petroleum extraction method.
Community, Environment, and Development. Extensive coverage of farming and industry.
Wildlife and Fisheries. Research the impact of human activities on animals.
Teaching Resources
Ejournals, books, and web sites for instructors about the theory and practice of sustainability teaching.
Collection Highlights
Ejournals
The Journal of Environmental Education
Journal of Sustainability Education
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
Environmental Education Research
Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science
Books
Revolutionizing sustainability education : stories and tools of mindset transformation. “Guides educators and practitioners, their students and colleagues for taking action on finding urgent solutions for the grand challenges stated in the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
The Wiley handbook of sustainability in higher education learning and teaching. “A reference for the higher education community to embed sustainability in learning and teaching.”
Teaching and learning strategies for sustainable development. Team of international scholars discuss the integration of the UN Goals into curriculum.
Environment and pedagogy in higher education. “The book provides innovative pedagogical approaches and instructional tools for educators to inspire, motivate, and lead students to take active steps toward environmental respect, sustainability, and preservation.”
Narratives of educating for sustainability in unsustainable environments. Variety of “how I did it” stories by college instructors.
Teacher education for sustainable development and global citizenship : critical perspectives on values, curriculum and assessment. Ideas on how teachers and college education faculty can operationalize the UN goals.
Handbook of Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development in Higher Education. “Offers a unique overview of what universities around the world are doing to implement sustainable development (i.e. via curriculum innovation, research, activities, or practical projects) and how their efforts relate to education for sustainable development at the university level. The Handbook gathers a wealth of information, ideas, best practices and lessons learned in the context of executing concrete projects, and assesses methodological approaches to integrating the topic of sustainable development in university curricula.”
Higher education for sustainability: cases, challenges, and opportunities from across the curriculum. “Provides a glimpse at the ways colleges and universities have integrated sustainability across the curriculum.”
Web sites
College Assignments on Sustainability–Merlot. Peer-reviewed worksheets, lesson plans, and more for college faculty.
Tips for Teaching Sustainability. Practical advice, including the use of ecological footprint calculators and discussions about eco-rhetoric.
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Offers general ideas for integrating sustainability in education. Paid members can also access a “campus hub” with toolkits.
Teaching Sustainability in Higher Education: Pedagogical Styles That Make a Difference. Pedagogical models for approaching environmental education.