E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database
A New Partnership: Tall Timbers E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database
and the Southern Fire Portal (SFP)
In an effort to reach an expanded audience for the Tall Timbers E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database, the Library is helping create a new web-based gateway for fire information called the Southern Fire Portal (SFP). The goal of the SFP is to provide portal users with single point access to fire data, documents, projects, tools, and websites related to fire and natural resource management in the southern United States. A diverse group of federal, national, regional, and state organizations is partnering to create and publicize the SFP. The Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Database and the Southern Research Station's online Encyclopedia of Southern Fire Science are key components of the SFP. The Joint Fire Sciences Program (JFSP) is a major source of funding for the SFP project. To learn more about the SFP and its Partners and Supporters, please visit the web site at http://frames.nbii.gov/southernfire.
Tall Timbers supports increased visibility for the Tall Timbers E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database which has been accessible on the Tall Timbers web site since 1998. The database provides access to bibliographic records for a unique, extensive collection of fire ecology literature. Citations for all papers (with abstracts) from 22 Proceedings of the Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conferences are in the database. The donation of personal research collections from E.V. Komarek and H.L. Stoddard, founders of Tall Timbers, was the original impetus for the Tall Timbers Board of Trustees to mandate creation of a computerized bibliographic database. Since its inception in 1987, the database has been continually expanded under direction of the Tall Timbers librarian. Although international in scope, the database emphasizes the southeastern United States, the USA, and North America. Historical and current works are included. As of January 2008, there are nearly 22,000 citations in the database and nearly 12,000 abstracts. The Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Thesaurus is the tool created by the library for indexing database records.
Document delivery of materials cited in the database is not provided. Users are encouraged to access local library resources or a commercial document delivery service to obtain materials listed in the database. Most URLs in database records lead to publisher's Web sites. In some recent records, links to PDFs are available.
Database topics include:
- fire ecology
- prescribed fires
- wildfires
- fire histories and case studies
- ecology of the southeastern United States
Bibliographic sources include:
- journal articles
- books and government documents (federal & state)
- conference proceedings (including all Proceedings of the TTRS Fire Ecology Conferences, with abstracts)
- magazine and newspaper articles
Database indexing for each item includes:
- fire terms ecological and forestry terms
- geographic designations (by state, region, country, continent, etc.)
- habitat types
- management types
- scientific names of plants and animals
Using Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Thesaurus and Other Search Aids
In
the Tall Timbers Fire
Ecology Thesaurus you will find a list
of words or phrases (i.e., keywords) that are used to describe
topics covered by citations listed in the Tall Timbers Fire
Ecology Database. Keywords are shown in bold format (if your
browser supports it). You may print out a copy of the entire
Thesaurus or you can click on the alphabetic links to view
the corresponding section of the list. Click on Geographic
Names to skip past all subject keywords to the last Thesaurus
section for geographic terms. Some geographic terms used
in the database but not part of the Thesaurus, e.g. Everglades,
Yellowstone National Park, Ozarks, Piedmont, Rocky Mountains,
etc., are included in List
of All Terms. The Thesaurus contains
scope notes and cross references that explain the indexing
system with its use of broad, narrow, and related subject
terms.
Terms in brackets. Please note that in the Thesaurus words
and terms in brackets are not used as keywords in the database.
When
you find a bracketed term, do not use it for searching in the
database Keywords field. Instead, use the associated keywords
that appear in bold in the column on right.
The table below
shows you how the Thesaurus works. The bracketed terms in the
left hand column are not used in the database Keywords field; instead, look at the terms in bold in the
right hand column;
these are used in the database Keywords field. Examples:
If you are interested in: |
Use these keywords instead: |
[abundance] |
species diversity (plants) and/or species
diversity (animals) |
[biodiversity] |
species diversity (plants) and/or species
diversity (animals) |
[dormant season burning] |
season of fire |
[ecosystem management] |
ecosystem dynamics |
[escape fires] |
spot fires |
[forest fires] |
wildfires |
[growing season burn] |
season of fire |
[prescribed burning] |
prescribed fires |
[season of burn] |
season of fire |
Other Database Search Aids
The Keywords List shows a list of
subject keywords only without scope notes and cross references.
The List
of All Terms shows
every searchable term from the keywords field with a record
count of times used; list includes scientific names of plants
and animals and all geographic descriptors.
Use Comments to
submit questions, ideas, corrections, additions, or omissions
regarding the Database or Thesaurus.
|