Geography
This is a guide to library resources at the OSU Libraries for the undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs in Geography. In this guide you will find suggestions for locating books, articles, and other resources.
You may also wish to consult the Map Collection Research Guide or other subject guides (such as History or Geology).
| Finding Books | |
| Finding Articles | |
| Science Databases | |
| General Databases | |
| Current events/News | |
| Internet Sources | |
Finding Books in Catalogs
OSU Libraries Catalog: Use the catalog to find books, journals, government publications, maps, and other materials owned by OSU Libraries. Do not use the catalog to search for journal articles.
Geography books are located in variety of places in the library, depending on the focus (i.e. physical, human, political, etc.).
Use the library catalog for efficient access to books. This list is meant only as an introduction to a few areas you may frequent as a geography student or researcher.
- G - General geography and atlases (6th floor & 3rd floor)
- G70.212 - GIS manuals and training
- GA - Mathematical geography and cartography (6th floor)
- GB - Physical geography including geomorphology, hydrology, and natural disasters (6th floor)
- GF - Human Geography (6th floor)
- H - Many topics relevant to geography can be found in the H call number range including economics, transportation, land use, area studies and more (5th floor)
- JC319-323 - Political Geography (5th floor)
- Map collection - see map research guide
- Geography reference books are located in reference stacks on the 2nd floor (dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, etc.) and in the maps reference stacks on the 3rd floor ( atlases, gazetteers, country studies, regional resources).
Summit Catalog: This catalog expands patrons’ access to academic library collections throughout Oregon and Washington.
You can request materials directly through Summit. Materials take approximately 3 business days to be delivered to your home library.
OCLC WorldCat: Index to over 60 million records cataloged by libraries worldwide. Materials indexed include books, journals, conferences, films, videos, recordings, musical scores, computer software, maps and manuscripts. You can also request materials that OSU Libraries do not own directly from the Worldcat record -- look for the "Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Request" link in the detailed record for the item.
Geography Databases
(Selected list of databases that have good coverage of Geography)
(Try this one first) Geobase - Index only: 1980-present. Index to worldwide literature on geology, geography and ecology.
Geography relevance: Geography is a primary focus of this database.
CAB Abstracts - Abstracts and Index: 1973-present. Covers journal articles, conference proceedings and other materials in a variety of applied life sciences disciplines.
Geography relevance: Includes agriculture, environmental sciences, human health, food and nutrition, leisure and tourism, and more.
eHRAF (Human Relations Area Files) Collection of Ethnography - Full text: present. A unique database because each culture or ethnic group included in the files contains a variety of source documents (books, articles, and dissertations) that have been indexed and organized according to HRAF's comprehensive culture and subject classification systems.
Geography relevance: Includes topics of economy, food, resource exploitation, and more. Search results returned by region.
GeoRef - Index with some abstracts: 1785-present. Index to U.S. Geological Survey publications, U.S. and Canadian Masters' theses and Ph.D. dissertations, journal articles, books, maps and government reports.
Geography relevance: Topics related to Geography include oceanography, hydrology, environmental geology, and soils.
Web of Science (Social Citation Index and Science Citation Index) - Index: 1996-present. The Web of Science accesses bibliographic information gathered from thousands of scholarly journals.
Geography relevance: Web of Science is useful for searching across all science and social science disciplines, tracking citations to specific articles, and evaluating the impact of journals (through Journal Citation Reports).
General Databases
(Multidisciplinary databases that are helpful places to begin discovery of Environmental Sciences topics)
Academic Search Premier (recommended general search database)- Full-text and abstract/index: 1975-present. Academic Search Premier provides full text for nearly 4,600 scholarly publications, including full text for more than 3,500 peer-reviewed journals. Also includes magazines and newspapers. Coverage spans virtually every area of academic study.
Geography relevance: A recommended database for undergraduates and others beginning a term paper or project. Users can search academic journals, newspapers, and magazines.
Other Geosciences databases - A complete list of databases provided by the library that include Geosciences topics can be found here.
GIS resources
- The most comprehensive guide to GIS resources available on campus is from the Geosciences department (GIS @ OSU).
- In addition, the library has has ArcGIS (9.x) on the computers in the Information Commons (2nd floor).
- If you are an OSU student or staff member, you are eligible to sign up for free ESRI virtual campus courses for self-paced training.
Current Events and News in Geography
(A short selection, many more news sources are available on the web)
- National Geographic News (RSS feed available)
- ScienceDaily- Geography (RSS feed available)
Internet Resources
Geography links on del.icio.us. Websites include GIS, online maps, geography blogs, and more.
For links to the websites with the most heavily used tags, choose from the list below.
