Disasters
Hornsby Shire Library & Information Service
Linking Lives to Learning and Leisure
Preparing for your assignment – Questions to ask
Before you start, ask yourself these questions:
When is the deadline for your assignment?
How long does your assignment need to be?
What information do you need?
Follow the questions on your assignment sheet. For example, are you looking for floods, bushfires, cyclones, earthquakes, volcanoes, plane crashes, pollution, ozone depletion or nuclear accidents?
Do you need pictures for the assignment?
How much material can you use from the Internet?
Search the websites and other online resources listed below.
Ebooks and Searchable Online Information
To use the Library’s specially chosen online ebooks and information:- Go to the Library Homepage
- Click on Online Resources from Home or Online Resources @ the Library
- If working from home, enter your library card and PIN.
- If you do not know your PIN, contact Hornsby Library on (02)9847 6614
- Click on a subject from the subject list. To search for disasters, click on Environment, History, Newspapers & Journals, and Science
- Click on the title you want to search
WebFeat Search Engine
To search all our online information at once:
- Go to Library Homepage
- Click on Online Resources from Home or Online Resources @ the Library
- If working from home, enter your library card number and your PIN.
- If you do not know your PIN, contact Hornsby Library on (02)9847 6614
- Click on WebFeat Search Engine
- Key in a keyword or a phrase – for example, disasters, natural disasters, volcanoes, or earthquakes
- Tick the box labelled Full-text articles only
- Tick the boxes next to the subjects Environment, History, Newspapers & Journals, and Science & Nature
- Click on Search, and wait until the search is complete
- In the Results display mode box, choose Clustered and click on the terms you want to search
- Click on View to see the article
Websites
General InformationNatural Disasters Websites
This site is provided by the NSW Country areas program. Includes links to information on earthquakes, bushfires, volcanoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters.
Australia
Newcastle Earthquake
Records the events and response to the 1989 Newcastle earthquake, with links to a searchable database
Natural Disasters in Australia
This article from the Australian Government Culture Portal contains information on the impact that violent and destructive natural disasters have had on Australia.
Australian Bureau of Meteorology
This site provides access to Australian weather forecasts, weather observations, flood warnings and high sea forecasts from each state and territory.
Ash Wednesday - Country Fire Authority
Contains information about the Ash Wednesday fires in Victoria in February 1983.
Cyclone Tracy
Contains information on Cyclone Tracy (Darwin, 24 December 1974).
Using the online Library Catalogue
- Go to the Library Homepage
- Click on Library Catalogue
- For general information about diasters, click on Subject Exact and key in Disasters or Disasters Australia in the Search box.
- For specific information on topics such as the earthquakes, click on Subject Keyword and key in earthquakes in the Search box
- To go to the next page of subjects, click on the symbol at the end of the subject list
Searching the Library Shelves
You can search for these shelf numbers in:
- the DVD collection
- the reference collection
- the junior lending collection
- the adult lending collection – including the magazines
| Subject | Shelf Number |
| Diasters | 904 and 363.34 |
| Bushfires | 363.379 |
| Earthquakes | 551.22 |
| Volcanoes | 551.21 |
| Tsunamis | 551.463 and 551.47 |
| Floods | 363.34 and 551.489 |
| Drought | 551.577 |
Need more help? Ask at the Information Desk, and remember to bring your assignment sheet with you.
