Carter: International Energy

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Welcome! Click on a tab below to find books, articles, and websites for use in this course.

You'll need a College of DuPage Library card in order to use most of these resources from off campus.

Questions? Feel free to contact me, stop by the Reference Desk, or contact us by email or chat Want to know more about the COD library? Check out our orientation video.

Image Credit: TAFE SA TONSLEY: ''energy-clean-wind-solar_iStock_000016699748''
  1. Pick a Country
  2. Find Articles
  3. Evaluate Sources
  4. Cite

Picking Your Country/Narrow Your Topic

Start by examining your assignment on Professor Carter's site.

Next, you'll want to examine the statistics on the IEA website. Pick "Energy Supply" for World and take a look at the chart that appears. Next, pick a country somewhere else in the world by typing that into the search box. Compare the statistics you find for your individual country with those from the rest of the world. Next, take a look at how your country's statistics have changed over time. What stands out about the data you're looking at?

Next, start to gather some context. A couple of options you can use to do so are:

  • Look for a short entry in the Encyclopedia of Energy on your country. Most entries are about 2-3 pages long, and include great summaries of a country's energy sources, the context of how they get the power they do, and future goals for energy source and production. REF TJ163.16 .E47 2013
  • A Google news search can give you headlines from around the world on topics like "Geothermal Energy Honduras."

Finding Articles in Databases

In order to find 3 longer articles, you should find good results in the following databases:

Academic Search Complete has a mixture of popular and scholarly articles on a variety of subjects. You'll want to be sure that you're using a source appropriate for class when searching. Make sure that you've picked a length of greater than 3 pages, and limit to full text.

Proquest National Newspapers Core has the full text of a number of major newspapers. There is no page limit in this search, so use your best judgement.

See the full list of science databases.


Evaluating Sources

While you're gathering articles to either narrow your topic or in order to dig up more information on certain subject, you want to be careful to decide if the information you find is trustworthy.

When it comes to science, nearly everyone has opinions: should we be labeling genetically modified food for consumer's awareness? What will fracking do for our economy or our groundwater supply? Your job is to evaluate the information you find, whether you find it through Google or through a library database.

Authorship: Who wrote this article? What is their background on the topic? Are they trustworthy?

Bias: Who published the article? What kind of articles does the magazine normally publish? Does that limit the facts they present or how the facts are presented? Is there an editorial board?

Date: How old is the information that is presented? Is it still accurate?

Questions? Check out the COD Library's guide to evaluating information.

Need an extra copy of the library worksheet? You can find it here.

Cite Your Sources

Find directions about how to cite your sources on the library citation guide.

Both Academic Search Complete and Newspaper Source will have a Cite link that you can also click to get article citations. The library citation guide (above) will give examples for how to cite the data that you use from IEA.

Finally, you are welcome to use NoodleTools if you'd like to use a program to create and organize your citations. You must "Create a New Folder" when you use NoodleBIB for the first time. Click on "I am citing a(n):," choose the type of item you are citing, and then fill in the online form. Your bibliography will be formatted for you.

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