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Montgomery County and the State of Maryland post information on their Web sites:
Montgomery County, Maryland Web site
State of Maryland Web site

The State of Maryland has information about the Chesapeake Bay, for example, at BayStat Chesapeake.  They have a page about oysters in the Bay.  The Maryland Department of the Environment maintains a page about Chesapeake Bay Restoration.  The Department of Natural Resource's page, Eyes on the Bay, reports monitoring of water quality.

The Chesapeake Bay Program, A Watershed Partnership, has information about the Bay on their Web site at www.chesapeakebay.net

The University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science emphasizes research about the Chesapeake Bay.  In 2008, they issued a report about global warming entitled Global Warming and the Free State: Comprehensive Assessment of Climate Change Impacts in Maryland.  The State of Maryland also has a Maryland Commission on Climate Change, which released a Climate Action Plan in 2008.

Non-governmental organizations such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation also provide information on their Web sites.  The Chesapeake Bay Foundation recently released a report about the blue crab population entitled Bad Water and the Decline of Blue Crabs in the Chesapeake Bay.

The federal government keeps statistics on many topics by state, county, or metropolitan area.  Normally it takes two years or more to compile, analyze, and publish statistics.  Statistics from the 2000 census are available from the Census Bureau. 

You can do a general keyword search in the Library catalog, and limit to the Germantown campus.  If you get too many irrelevant results, try searching your topics by Subject Keyword.  You will still be able to limit to the Germantown campus.  Search types with an asterisk, such as "*Subject contains" cannot be limited to one campus.

Put phrases such as "Chesapeake Bay" in quotes for a Keyword search, but not for a Subject search.  A Subject search will search every character typed as a phrase, including the quotation marks.  

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For current information on local topics, the best place to search is a database of newspaper articles.  Both the Montgomery College Library and the Montgomery County Public Library have the ProQuest National Newspapers database.  At Montgomery College, this includes the Baltimore Sun. 

At the public library, you will have to search the Baltimore Sun separately.  Use your public library card number to sign on from outside the public library.

Some local newspapers, such as the Gazette in Montgomery County, have archives that are only available on the Web.

Examples of searches that produce good results in a newspaper database are:
(gambling or "slot machines") and Maryland
("teenager* or adolescent*) and depression
(child or children) and obesity
  "childhood obesity"

Use quotes to enclose a phrase.  Group synonyms or similar concepts in parentheses.  In most databases, an asterisk can represent singular or plural (an s at the end of a word, or no s.)

If you have a complex topic with multiple keywords, you can also use the Advanced search tab's menu boxes to combine your terms.

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The "Current Issues" box at the top of the page contains two useful databases: SIRS and Opposing Viewpoints.  Both sites will give you a list of current topics.  If your topic is in the list, you can click on the matching term to start your research.

SIRS and Opposing Viewpoints divide the results by tabs for newspaper articles, magazine and journal articles, essays, and other types of results.

After your day at the Montgomery College Library, you can continue to use Opposing Viewpoints through the Montgomery County Public Library databases.

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On the Montgomery College Library page of databases of journal articles, the first two databases listed are the largest:  Academic Onefile and Academic Search Complete. 

Select the "Full Text" box to narrow down your search. 
Both databases have a Subject Guide or Subject Terms list that will help you to narrow down your search.  
Since both of these large databases are global in their scope, be sure to add "and Maryland" to your search if your topic is in Maryland.

Here are some examples of searches in Academic Search Premier: 
(teenager* or adolescent*) and (stress or depression or "eating disorder*")
("stem cell" and human and therap*)

If you have a complex topic with multiple keywords, use the menu boxes under the "Advanced Search" tab to combine your terms.

After your day at the Montgomery College Library, you can continue to use Academic OneFile through the Montgomery County Public Library databases.

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All of the databases have Help screens.  If you need more assistance, please do not hesitate to stop by the Reference Desk in Germantown, or ask a librarian over the phone or by e-mail.  You don't have to come in to the library.  You can ask a question in any one of the four ways mentioned at
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