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Searching Columbia Earthscape
Earthscape is a large digital library of earth science material, covering disciplines ecology, environmental science, physical geography, geology, meteorology, oceanography and paleontology. This section provides directions and tips for searching the site.

Simple Search
Advanced Search: using additional criteria to narrow your search
Reading the search results
Tips for searching earthscape
Earthscape Annotated Subject Tags

Simple Search
The Simple Search will access the full text of every document on Columbia Earthscape.

Use Earthscape's Simple Search by clicking on the Search button in the left-hand navigation panel.

To search for two or more terms, enter them in the search field without commas or quotes. (For example; a search for habitat destruction will produce resources on the word habitat, resources on the word destruction, or documents with both terms).

To search for documents that must include both words, but in any order and not necessarily as a single phrase, enter them in the search field separated by a plus sign (For example; +habitat+destruction).

To search for a term made up of more than one word, enter it in the search field in quotes (For example; "environmental sustainability index").

Limit by Format Type

Search can be focused by selecting publication format, like book or video. Select the checkbox next to the format type to search for resources in one format.

Searches can be conducted for material in more than one type of format. For example, searching journals and papers for material related to coastal prairies brings up journal articles and papers about coastal prairies only.

Formats available in earthscape:

Books: full text and selected chapters are available from a variety of publishers. The list of books available also includes the complete list of earth science books from Columbia University Press

Journals: Full-text journal articles and abstracts from research- and policy-related journals

Papers: includes reports, government factsheets, working papers and conference proceedings.

Videos: include ABCnews video clips and animations.

Image banks: selections of annotated images on a variety of topics.

Lectures: lesson plan outlines and class lectures about climate change, . To browse lectures, visit the classroom models section.

Case Studies: detailed descriptions and analyses of earth science-related projects or programs

Labs: Class and laboratory exercises for all grades

FAQ/Glossary: earth science terms and definitions, questions with answers for earth science students

Advanced Search

Use additional criteria to narrow your search for still more focused results. Click 'Advanced Search' at the upper right of the Simple Search page.

(You can return to the Simple Search page at any time by clicking on 'Simple Search' at the upper right of the Advanced Search page.)

Should contain / Must contain / Must not contain
The option to search for documents that 'should contain,' 'must contain,' or 'must not contain' the search terms. These options are equivalent to the boolean AND, OR, and NOT, respectively.

Selecting 'must contain' from the pull down menu, and typing search terms, will return only documents with the chosen subject term in the text or the title.

Selecting 'should contain' from the pull down menu, and typing search terms, will return documents that may or may not have the search term.

Selecting 'must not contain' from the pull down menu, and entering terms will return documents that do not have the search term.

In the body / In the title / In the institution name
Searching for terms 'in the body' will return documents with the desired terms anywhere in the text of the document. Searching for terms in the title will only bring back resources with search terms in the title. 'Institutions' are generally institutions that partner with Columbia Earthscape. (For example, a search for Columbia University Press will call up only publications from that institution.)

the words / the phrase
In the first section of search options, you can specify whether the search terms should be treated as separate words or a complete phrase. 'Phrase' is the equivalent of surrounding the search terms in quotes. (For example; searching for the words intertidal ecosystem will bring up documents with either word or with both words, approximately 90 results. Searching for the phrase intertidal ecosystem narrows your search results to documents with these words as a single term.)

LIMITING THE ADVANCED SEARCH

Searches can be limited to returning results with only selected subject terms, regions of interest or within a certain date range.

'Subjects' are terms assigned by the editors to classify materials.

Limiting your search request to documents published 'in the past year' results in list of documents from the last rolling year, not the past calendar year. This means a search executed on April 1, 2004 for documents 'in the past year' will return documents published between April 1, 2003 and April 1, 2004.

READING SEARCH RESULTS

Click 'Search' and search results will appear beneath the search form.

In the search results, by default you will see the most relevant resources first, at the top of the list. Each search result includes the title of the resource, the first few lines of text, and the date of first publication. The individual author or contributing institution will also appear if available, along with the subject, as designated by the Earthscape editors.

For a quicker review of search results, click on 'Hide Summaries.' You will see only the titles that match your search criteria.

The title of each search result listing is a link. Simply click on that link to reach the full-text of the article. To go back to the search results, use your browser's back button.

To start a new search, click on 'Start New Search' in the upper left corner.

To narrow your list of results further, click on 'Search these results.'

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