Case Western Reserve University
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

The Summer Undergraduate Research in Energy and Sustainability (SURES) exposes students to basic concepts in energy and sustainability research, as related to their chosen discipline (all are disciplines welcome). During the 10 week summer program, students work closely with their research mentors on their proposed projects, learn about the broad area of energy research and attendant societal issues and, via a weekly seminar series, are exposed to topics central to their professional development as future scientists, social scientists, humanists, and engineers. Students also must make a final summary presentation about their work at the end of the summer session. Each SURES participant is paid a $3,500 stipend for full-time commitment. Many SURES alumni have gone on to graduate school and/or industry in energy related fields.

CWRU maintains and encourages a number of interdisciplinary alliances throughout the University including the Great Lakes Energy Institute, Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence, Infectious Disease Alliance, Institute for Advanced Materials, Institute for Science of Origins, Social Justice Institute, the Sustainability Alliance and others. Each of these alliances bridge departments and schools within the University to work together on common research and initiatives. Additionally, each alliance appoints a delegate to sit on the Council of Alliances to discuss further opportunities and funding.

The Kelvin Smith Library supports all departments in Arts & Sciences, Engineering, and Business, It supports all classes offered to undergraduates or graduate students from these schools and their included academic departments and research centers. The library buys resources and creates Research Guides in support of the sustainability related centers and institutes, faculty research, classes, and sustainability project efforts. Other campus libraries (social science, law, and medicine) may also acquire items and support research needs.

The library has created and maintains 22 Research Guides that target or mention sustainability. Many of the guides support classes in which librarians were invited to lecture on research skills. See: http://researchguides.case.edu/srch.php?q=sustainability or http://case.summon.serialssolutions.com/advanced#!/search?ho=t&fvf=ContentType,Research%20Guide,f&l=en&q=(sustainability)/ Library may also create guides to support guest speakers on campus, such as a lecture by Majora Carter in late 2015. See: http://researchguides.case.edu/majoracarter.

Additionally, books are regularly cataloged with a "sustainability" tag: http://catalog.case.edu/search/X?searchtype=d&searcharg=sustainability&submit=Search.
Through all libraries, campus users gained access to 2,652 books published in 2016 related to "sustainability". See: http://case.summon.serialssolutions.com/advanced#!/search?ho=t&fvf=ContentType,Book%20%2F%20eBook,f&rf=PublicationDate,2016-01-01:2016-12-31&l=en&q=(sustainability). Campus users also have access to 189 journals related to sustainability. See: http://case.summon.serialssolutions.com/advanced#!/search?ho=t&fvf=ContentType,Journal%20%2F%20eJournal,f&l=en&q=(sustainability).

The library tracks and promotes campus output. One such example is the library promotes faculty authored books (http://researchguides.case.edu/faculty-authors), which includes many that talk about various sustainability topics. See: http://researchguides.case.edu/srch.php?q=sustainability&guide_id=558192.

The Kelvin Smith Lbrary subscribes to two sustainability related databases: GREENR (Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources) and GreenFILE. See: http://researchguides.case.edu/az.php?q=sustainability.

The library provides select online resources for alumni, which includes a database called Environment Complete and some sustainability journals titles from the publisher Liebert. See: http://researchguides.case.edu/alumni.

Library information provided by Brian Gray, Librarian: Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Macromolecular Science & Engineering

SURES information provided by Dr. Sheila Pedigo, Director of SOURCE (Support of Undergraduate Research & Creative Endeavors)