AAE Liaison  

Your Librarian

Karen Dunn

Karen Dunn, Steenbock Liaison
118 Steenbock Library
kdunn@library.wisc.edu
(608) 890-2666

  
I am also happy to meet with you by appointment for extended help on any library-related topic.

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Research Databases

These are the top resources for research in agricultural and applied economics. See also:

 

Journal Articles

Reasons to Use

EconLit (1969- )
Updated quarterly 		Leading database for economics, indexes over 300 scholarly journals, as well as some books.
Searching Help | Setting up Alerts
CAB Abstracts
(1910- )
Updated quarterly 		The leading agricultural database, CAB has good international coverage of agricultural and natural resource economics, rural development and rural sociology. Includes journals, books, and conference proceedings.
Tip: Used "Advanced" tab and search for EE* in field CABICODES (CC) to limit to the economics portion of the database.
Searching Help | Setting up Alerts

Google Scholar (advanced)
Dates and update frequency unknown

Good for interdisciplinary coverage. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web.
Searching Help | Enable Find It and citation exporting at Google Scholar Preferences | Simple alert queries can be saved from results/retrieval page.
JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive
Dates vary, updated irregularly 		Archival access to journals in many fields, including economics. Coverage begins with volume one of each title and continues to within 3 to 5 years of the most current issue. Not for recent literature, but a good source for older literature .
Searching Help | Alerts Not Available
Web of Knowledge (1970-)
updated weekly 		Interdisciplinary scholarly database offers the unique Cited Reference search, which allows you to find all the papers that have cited a specific author or article. Easy way to follow the experts to find recent developments, responses, and even retractions.
Searching Help | Setting up Alerts

Preprints and Working Papers

Reasons to Use

AgEcon Search: Research in Agricultural and Applied Economics Provides full text agricultural economics papers from nearly 200 scholarly institutions and organizations worldwide. These papers will not turn up via Google, Google Scholar or RePEC.
Eldis Gateway to Development Information Gateway to free, online materials of strategic, policy or practical interest on development topics. Includes over 18,000 full text documents from over 4500 different publishers.
Predefined email and RSS alerts available
EconPapers/RePEc

Over 900,000 items of research in economics can be browsed or searched, and over 800,000 can be downloaded in full text. Some 1100 institutions participate.
Predefined email alerts available

SSRN: Social Science Research Network

Abstracts of over 130,000 scholarly social science papers, over 100,000 of which can be downloaded. Use this link to access both subscription and free content.

Trade Statistics

Reasons to Use

UN Comtrade Worldwide trade data by commodity, including country-to-country information. It contains well over 1.7 billion data records for the past 45 years.

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Research Guides

Subject guides provide help for doing research in a specific discipline or on a specific topic. They include quick access to databases and web sites that have been critically evaluated and selected for quality of information. Help and Tips are often included as well.

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Literature Alerts

Feeling overwhelmed by information? Don't have the time to keep current with the published literature? AUTOMATICALLY get journal citations on your topic of interest or table of contents of your favorite journals by email or RSS feed!

AAE faculty and staff should ask Linda to create a table of contents search. For a subject search, you can ask Karen to create an optimal search strategy for your topic, or to advise you on creating your own alerts. You can also fill out the online request form to request this service.

Read more about alerts and RSS feeds.

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Managing References

RefWorks (log in here), EndNote and Zotero are great software programs that can help you organize and manage the literature you need in your research and/or teaching. With either you can create your own database and instantly format your bibliographies as you write. RefWorks is a web-based system provided free by the UW-Madison libraries. EndNote is a little more sophisticated, and must be purchased through the DoIT Tech Store for installation on your computer. Zotero is an open source Firefox plug-in.

You can contact Steenbock consultants to find out more about any of them, or to help troubleshoot any problem you may have with your citation manager. She will be happy to set up an individual meeting or just chat with you via email/phone. For online help, see the following:

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Support for Teaching

Reserves

Library Course Page

A Library Course Page can be created to provide extra help for your students. Your students can access it via MyUW; you can also link to it from another web site if you wish. Depending on your needs, the page could include:

  • electronic reserves links
  • a link to a list of print materials on reserve for the class in campus libraries
  • links to research tools such as journal databases and Web sites
  • tips and techniques for making your students' library research faster and more efficient
  • Refworks, for help in formatting bibliographies
  • librarian contact information for personal assistance when students need help in completing assignments

If you request that items be placed on reserve via Steenbock, a course page will be created. To request any other (non-reserves) information on a course page, contact Jean.

See sample course pages.

Course-Related Instruction

Steenbock will provide instruction in the use of library resources for your class. Instruction can range from a quick visit to the class, to a workshop with hands-on components in Steenbock's computer classroom, to preparation of an on-line tutorial to address a specific need. A typical session in the library would cover some of the components below. Library staff will work with you to find the most appropriate mix for the purpose of the class and the time available.

  • Overview of relevant library resources, both print and electronic
  • Library search strategy
  • Finding and locating books
  • Finding and locating journal articles
  • Finding Internet resources
  • Critical evaluation and selection of resources
  • Specialized resources when appropriate, such as RefWorks, statistics resources, presentation software, etc.

Library sessions should be scheduled at least two weeks in advance. The beginning of each semester is a very busy time for the library instruction program, so having an alternative time in mind when you schedule is helpful. The librarian will typically create a Library Course Page to use in conjunction with the class. To request course-related instruction, contact Jean or use this request form.

Read more about course-related workshops

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Faculty Runners

Faculty members and academic staff with teaching or research responsibilities can designate a currently enrolled student or staff member to borrow material in their name from campus libraries. To designate a runner:

  1. Fill in the requested information on the attached form
  2. Print it out on departmental letterhead
  3. Sign it
  4. Have the runner take the signed letter to the Memorial Library Card Application Desk, located in the lobby of the Memorial Library. The runner will need to bring his/her UW photo ID.

Read more about faculty runners

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Recommend a Purchase

We welcome recommendations for purchase of books or journal titles you feel would be valuable additions to our collection.

Please complete our Purchase Recommendation Form

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