Southern Oregon University
AC-10: Support for Research

Southern Oregon University's student Green Fund reserves one-third of the total fund for student sustainability research and projects. Student sustainability research projects funded by the program include research on composting agricultural waste, sustainable mycology harvesting, and natural building.

SOU's Green Fund is also available to faculty working on sustainability research projects with students. During the first year that the Green Fund allowed requests for sustainability research funding, Environmental Studies and Sociology faculty members worked with several students to research developing a farm and sustainability center for campus, with support from the SOU Green Fund. Faculty members must have a student partner who requests funds from the Green Fund to be eligible.

At SOU, faculty are evaluated on their scholarly activity involving interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research, often through collaborations between and among faculty across disciplines as demonstrated through the following various achievements: · Artistic Performances · Books · Encyclopedia entries · Gallery Exhibits · Grants · Invited book chapters · Journal Articles · Monographs · Patents · Presentations · Published poems, plays, recordings, stories, and similar creative works · Software Development Scholarly activity is measured using several criteria including meaningfulness. To demonstrate scholarly activity is meaningful, achievements must contribute to the profession or the public good. Contributing to the profession may include, but is not limited to, looking at how work is cited or used by other scholars. Contributions may also be measured by how they build new knowledge within the discipline, integrate disciplinary knowledge into a multidisciplinary context, apply disciplinary knowledge in new ways to meet needs in the public or private sector, or convey disciplinary knowledge in new and creative ways to others.

Hannon Library provides considerable information resources, services, and instruction that provide ongoing support for sustainability research and learning at Southern Oregon University. BOOKS Currently Hannon Library’s collection of 336,395 print books (as of April 2018) supports sustainability research. The print collection is supplemented by frequently updated e-book collections through the Orbis Cascade Alliance. Hannon is a depository library for federal and state government documents, with print versions totaling 250,498 federal and 48,993 State of Oregon documents. Students and faculty also have the opportunity to request print books at no cost from our consortium which includes 37 academic libraries in Oregon and Washington in addition to SOU Hannon Library. Summit, the union catalog of the Orbis Cascade Alliance, contains over 10 million titles representing 30 million items. Materials are picked up and delivered daily via a courier system, with a delivery turnaround time of two to five business days. Below are examples of Hannon Library catalog and Summit searches relating to sustainability education (results may overlap slightly between topics); results include materials at Hannon Library or available through the Orbis Cascade Summit lending system, including academic books and government documents; numbers in parentheses are for print books at SOU, which are included in the total for Summit: Sustainable development – 8,876 (1,279) physical and electronic books, including 1,389 (235) published 2014 or later Environmental or Ecology with Economic or Sustainability (and related Subject words) – 29,445 (6,294) physical and electronic books,4,969 (1,399) published 2014 or later Global warming/Climate change – physical and electronic books, 3,110 (1,037) including 602 (203) published 2014 or later Alternative energy and related Subjects – physical and electronic books 5,433 (1,328), including 841 (322) published 2014 or later Searches may be refined to find or exclude materials not available at SOU, materials that are or are not government documents, and more. Subject specialist librarians select books to support the university’s academic programs including Biology, Business, Environmental Studies and Policy, Environmental Education, and other disciplines relevant to sustainability research. Over 2012-2013 additional funds were allocated to purchase books to support the Green House first year curriculum focused on “Food, Water and Garbage.” More funds to support the Green House curriculum and provide reference materials for organic farming on campus were specially allocated and spent during 2013-2014. Most recently materials were purchased to support food sustainability topics including food deserts, sustainable food production and distribution. FILMS In addition to Hannon’s Library’s extensive collection of VHS and DVD film recordings and more available through Summit, Hannon Library offers the online Filmmakers Library of over 1,000 films in streaming video (including sub-collections in business/economics and environmental studies and, most recently, Academic Video Online, a collection of over 64,000 films in streaming video, including selected BBC documentaries. All films have been added to the library catalog. Streaming video films can also be accessed through the Filmmakers Library website and browsed by subject headings. JOURNALS Hannon Library provides access to more than 4,400 print and electronic journals that deal with aspects of sustainability and environmental sciences. The majority are accessible as full-text online content in the sources listed below. DATABASES AND ONLINE JOURNALS Hannon Library provides online access to electronic resources that are useful for sustainability research. These include: Academic OneFile – suitable for University Seminar, Green House, and lower division research American Chemical Society journals – suitable for lower and especially upper division research for students with a background in chemistry ArticleFirst - suitable for upper division, graduate and faculty research Biological abstracts - suitable for upper division, graduate and faculty research Biology Database - suitable for lower division and upper division research BioOne - suitable for lower and upper division research on sustainability in life sciences Catalog of U.S. Government Publications - for all levels of research in materials from legislative, executive and judicial branches of the federal government CQ Researcher – suitable for University Seminar research on public policy issues EconLit – suitable for lower and upper division research in economic aspects Environmental Studies and Policy Collection – suitable for lower and upper division research GreenFILE – suitable for lower and upper division research drawing on life sciences and government sources GREENR – suitable for lower and upper division on emerging green technologies JSTOR Arts & Sciences I, II, and III – suitable for lower and upper division recent and historical research Nature - core journal Nexis Uni - suitable for lower and upper division research in news, legal and business sources Opposing Viewpoints - suitable for first year research on sustainability issues Proquest Environmental Science Collection - suitable for lower and upper division research Sage Journals Online – suitable for lower and especially upper division research in social science and scientific aspects Science Online - core journal SpringerLink – suitable for lower and upper division research drawing on life sciences Taylor & Francis Social Sciences & Humanities Library - suitable for upper division, graduate and faculty research; includes coverage of sustainability in environmental sciences and business Wiley Online Library - suitable for lower and especially upper division research in science and social science aspects RESEARCH GUIDES Librarians at SOU create research guides (LibGuides) for academic programs. Research guides that will support sustainability research include those created for Business, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Education, Environment Studies and Policy, Green House, International Studies, Government Information, University Seminar, and more INSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH ASSISTANCE Subject librarians provide instructional sessions to classes in all academic programs as requested. Additional subject librarians meet with students for detailed research consultations and conduct research instruction in the classroom in their subject areas. Those most involved in instruction, in class on individually, for topics in sustainability include: Jim Rible – Biology, Chemistry, Green House Kate Cleland-Sipfle – Environmental Studies, International Studies Dorothy Ormes, Government Information Research, University Seminar Melissa Anderson – Business, Economics, University Seminar Dale Vidmar – Education, University Seminar All librarians staffing the Reference Desk are prepared to field questions in sustainability studies. Referrals are made to subject specialists as needed or appropriate.