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FIND JOURNAL ARTICLES | FIND BOOKS | ADDITIONAL LIBRARY RESOURCES | WEB LINKS | RESEARCH TIPS

Selector Name Barbara Cox (library subject specialist) | U of U  Department of Geography | TBA fall 05 (Department Representative)

Use these indexes to find articles--and sometimes conference papers, reports, government documents, and book chapters. You usually search by subject, author, or keywords; you get a citation (author, article title, journal / source, date) and often an abstract -- a short synopsis. Most indexes try to describe everything within a discipline, no matter where it is published. No library owns every item listed; search the Marriott Library catalog by the journal name to find if we do and what the call number or URL is.
"All I see is the abstract, how do I find the actual article?"

MAJOR INDEX

Geobase
(1966) 1980 - present
Most comprehensive index of geography journals worldwide; also covers major journals in geology, ecology, and international development. Abstracts, no full-text. UU owns some of the 2000 journals covered.
Geographical Abstracts (1966-1999), the printed precursor to Geobase, is shelved at G1 G45 etc. Stacks, Level One.

SPECIALIZED INDEXES

If your topic is likely to be of interest to another discipline (geology, biology, economics, etc.) check its database list or research guide for more suggestions.

Web of Science
(1955) 1980 - present
Consolidated searching of Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index, multidisciplinary databases listing articles in 8500 of the most important scholarly journals. This broad coverage makes it particularly useful for interdisciplinary topics. A distinctive feature is its ability to find articles which have cited a known article or given author in their bibliography. Very up to date. Search by topic, author, journal title, author's institution, cited author, cited work, date. Articles may be earlier if they were CITED from 1997 on - Charles Darwin is in current indexes). Some direct links to fulltext. UU owns many of the journals indexed.
Use online Science Citation Index for 1980 -1997 . Printed indexes cover 1955- (Q 1 A1Z, Science Reference, Level 4); the social sciences are covered by printed Social Science Citation Index ,1956-, H61Z .S65 General Reference, Level 3.

Digital Dissertations
1861 - present
Index to doctoral dissertations (and a few masters theses), primarily from the U.S. and Canada. The complete text of post-1996 works is almost always available for download.

Periodical Contents Index
ca. 1800-1990
Provides title keyword and author access to citations from major journals in social sciences (including geography) and humanities from their beginnings (back to 19th century if applicable) till 1990. Citations only, no full-text. UU owns most of the journals indexed. Every word of 9 major geography journals' backruns can be searched and read through JSTOR.

Statistical Universe 1973 - present
The Documents Library is your first stop in finding statistics from both government and private sources. We own many federal publications; we can borrow the rest from the regional depository at Utah State University . The U.S. government has been a leader in putting text online.

Cambridge Scientific Abstracts
dates vary by database
This interface is used by major databases for geologists, meteorologists, biologists and others. Physical geographers may find it useful to run a search against several of these databases -- the searches can be done simultaneously.

Worldcat
1000 - present
The most comprehensive list of books and other materials held by libraries worldwide.

Oxford Reference Online large, searchable collection of authorative dictionaries and subject encyclopedias from Oxford University Press. e.g.: multilingual dictionaries, Dictionary of Geography, Oxford Companion to the Earth.

Columbia Earthscape
Selects, annotates and links to resources - including scholarly journals, conferences, books, and datasets- of interest to earth scientists and students. Most useful for interdisciplinary or public policy issues like climatic change. Includes full-text of some books from the National Research Council and various university presses

Columbia Gazetteer of the World G 103.5 C65 1998 General Reference, Level 3. Most comprehensive printed list of place names with short descriptions. More specialized gazetteers can be found by searching our catalog for "subject -names, geographic". e.g. Utah--names, geographic . There are several online gazeteers.

Physical geographers can find much of interest in the earth science encyclopedias in the QC 854 and QE 5 section of Science Reference, Level 4.

Map Collection
The library has over 200,000 map sheets. We receive virtually all topographic and geologic maps published by the US Geological Survey. We also have geologic maps from many state geological surveys and coverage, at the scale of at least 1:1,000,000, of most other countries. We try to have 1:250,000 topographic coverage of most land areas.
Maps are listed in the library's catalog. Keyword searching is generally the easiest way to find maps.
yellowstone and maps
geology and iceland and maps
Use the narrowest geographic term which best defines your area and then broaden the search as necessary. Berkeley > Alameda County>San Francisco metropolitan area. Map publishing is complicated; we may have coverage of an area as part of a much larger set. Don't hesitate to ask the map or science librarians (581-7533) for help.
Most maps can be checked out.

Government Documents

Federal publications are an excellent source of earth science and statistical information. Ask at the Documents desk for help.

Call numbers of interest to geographers

During the 2005 -2008 library renovation collections will be shifting. Ask about current locations.

Level One, Stacks
G 1- 1000 General geography. Geographic methods. GIS. (also Tourism. Exploration)
GA Cartography
GB Physical geography. Geomorphology. Hydrology.
GE Environmental studies
GF Human ecology
HA Statistics
HB Economics. Demography
HE Transportation. Communication.

Level Two, Stacks
HT Urban and regional planning

Level Four, Science
G1000-3999 Maps and atlases
QC 800- Meteorology
QE Geology
QH Natural history. Biology

Books can only sit on one shelf, even though they often cover several topics. Documents from the U.S. federal government are arranged by agency. Some formats, like maps or microforms, need special shelving and are housed separately. Electronic resources don’t sit on any shelf at all. All this means it is prudent to use our catalog and indexes. The serendipitous finds when browsing the stacks of a large research library can be rewarding, but it is not an efficient way to do research.

Suggest a Web Link

Finding information in the earth sciences
Extensive 13 p. guide to effective searching techniques for indexes, catalogs, Marriott Library, and WWW sources in geography, geology, and meteorology.