Geology 580: Junior Seminar in Geology
Background Information
Books are listed here in call number order. You may also want to browse the reference section in the G, Q, QE, and S call number ranges.
Illustrated Dictionary of Place Names, United States and Canada. Kelsie B. Harder.
Ref. E155 .H37
The Columbia Gazetteer of the World. 3 vols.
Ref. G103.5 q.C65 1998
Encyclopedia of World Geography. 24 vols.
Ref. [q.] G133 .E48 2002
Encyclopedia of Hydrological Sciences. 5 vols.
Ref. [q.] GB655 .E527 2005
Environmental Encyclopedia. 2 vols.
Ref. [q.] GE10 .E38 2003
Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change. 5 vols.
Ref. [q.] GE149 .E443 2002
Encyclopedia of Global Change: Environmental Change and Human Society. 2 vols.
Ref. [q.] GE149 .E47 2002
Handbook of Environmental and Resource Economics.
Ref. HC79.E5 H3284 1999
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology. 20 vols.
Ref. Q121 q.M3 2002
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Earth Sciences.
Ref. QE5 .C66 1991
Encyclopedia of Geology. 5 vols.
Ref. QE5 q.E516 2005
The Encyclopedia of World Regional Geology.
Ref. QE5 .F33
Glossary of Geology.
Ref. QE5 .G37 1980
Oxford Companion to the Earth.
Ref. QE5 .O94 2000
Encyclopedia of Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks.
Ref. [q.] QE471.2 .E53 2003
The Encyclopedia of Geochemistry and Environmental Sciences.
Ref. QE515 .F24
The Encyclopedia of Soil Science.
Ref. S592 q.E517 2002
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Guides and Bibliographies
Guide to USGS Geologic and Hydrologic Maps.
Ref. [q.] QE77 .G85
Geologic Reference Sources: A Subject and Regional Bibliography of Publications and Maps in the Geological Sciences.
Ref. Z6031 .W35 1981
Publications of the U.S. Geological Survey
1879-1961 Ref. Z6034 .U49 U53
1962- Ref. Z6034 .U49 U53 Suppl. [year]
See also the USGS Publications Warehouse
Bibliography and Index of Wisconsin Geology 1698-1977. Christine Reinhard.
Wis Z 6034 q.U5 W87 1982
Information Sources in Science and Technology. Charlie Deuel Hurt.
Ref. Z7401 .H85 1998
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Finding Books
To find items owned by the library, search LUCIA. Try a Subject begins with search, for example, geology. This is a subject heading that subdivides by geographic regions, so look through the list of headings that appear--you may find useful resources listed for specific locations. LUCIA will list other subject headings (and subheadings) which may be of interest. For advanced research you should consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings, or LCSH, a guide to the terms commonly used in catalogs like ours. The LCSH can be found on the shelves behind the Reference Desk on the first floor of the library.
To combine terms for a different kind of search, try Keyword Anywhere. LUCIA will look for the terms you specify anywhere in the important areas of the cataloging records, and display a list of those records. You can search for individual terms connected by logical operators like AND or OR. Try a search like geochem* and mineral*. The asterisk acts as a truncation symbol and tells LUCIA to search for all the records in the catalog containing words starting with geochem: geochemistry, geochemical, etc. and mineral: mineral, minerals, mineralogy, and so on. The connecting operator and then tells LUCIA to display all the records containing both terms and all their variants. You can target your search even more effectively by telling LUCIA to look for the terms in the subject area of the records; compare the Keyword Anywhere search with the Subject Keyword search. Try searches like geolog* and resources, or a more complicated search like wisconsin and geolog* and (resources or water).
Books are arranged on the library's shelves by Library of Congress Classification. This is a system that organizes materials by general subjects. Once you have a call number from searching LUCIA, see this guide to call number locations at Mudd and the library floor maps to find out where a book might be on the shelves.
Search LUCIA for materials in our library; try WorldCat to find materials beyond the Mudd. Make sure you've thoroughly searched our library before going to WorldCat. See a reference librarian if you need help.
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Finding Articles
The best index to use will depend on your topic. Be sure to check the Electronic Resources page, particularly the section on Sciences, for other options. Some of our indexes include:
AGRICOLA
Materials relating to all aspects of agriculture, forestry, and animal science. From the National Agricultural Library.
BasicBIOSIS
Provides references to journal literature in the life sciences. Available to researchers on the Lawrence campus through FirstSearch.
EBSCOhost.
Follow the link for EBSCOhost Web. EBSCOhost provides a single Web source for multiple databases; you might want to select the Academic Search Elite. Contains broad and specialized coverage of academic and general periodicals.
Expanded Academic ASAP.
Broad coverage of academic periodicals. Includes full text of some articles.
GeoRef
The most comprehensive database in the geosciences. It's a good idea to look at the GeoRef fact sheet to get a quick understanding of the types of material included and the level of indexing. For college researchers, the Advanced Search which you connect to using the tab on the top of the initial page, is the best searching mode. You can use this to gain access to the GeoRef Thesaurus, and to exclude results that are for abstracts only. Since GeoRef has an international scope, you may also want to limit your searches to items in English. See a reference librarian for help with GeoRef if you have questions.
ISI Web of Science
Provides access to the Science Citation Index, which includes indexing for over 5,900 major journals across 150 scientific disciplines. Author abstracts are provided for more than half of the articles included. Often used for citation searching.
Lexis/Nexis Academic: News
A version of the Lexis/Nexis database for academic users. Provides access to a wide range of periodicals, and includes news, business, legal, and reference information.
Once you have a citation for an article on your topic, try the 
button to see if that particular article is available. For newspapers, you might also want to try looking in LUCIA and in BESS, an
automated search of the library's full text databases. If you don't find it, you can submit a request for interlibrary loan (ILL) of a copy of the article: ILL takes about 7-10 days, so plan ahead. See the library's Interlibrary Loan page for more information.
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Finding Government Documents
Most United States Government Documents are not cataloged in LUCIA. There are several ways to search for government documents, but the two listed below will be the most direct. You might also want to take a look at the library's Guide to Understanding the Government Document Numbering System before you head to the Documents shelves on the second floor. Many sources for government information are on the Web; be sure to look at the library's United States Government Documents page.
Google US Government
The popular and helpful Google search applied specifically to finding government information. Searches local, state, military, and national government Web pages.
GPO Monthly Catalog
Catalog of US government publications, covering 1976 - current. Searchable in many ways, via FirstSearch.
Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications.
An annual index is included at the end of each yearly volume, or you can search the
Cumulative Subject Index to the Monthly Catalog of United States Government
Publications, 1900-197l.
Reference Indexes
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Web Resources
Geology
The Lawrence Geology Department's page.
Illinois State Geological Survey Glacial Images Gallery
Images from the collection of Dr. William W. Shilts, Chief of the Illinois State Geological Survey.
Internet Resources for Geology
Sources gathered by the Lawrence librarians.
National Geophysical Data Center's Images -- Visualizing Data
Global and regional images of land and sea topography. Some are animated. From the National Geophysical Data Center
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Weather, environmental information, and more.
Regional Landscape Ecosystems of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin: A Working Map and Classification
Maps and summary information on the region.
TerraServer USA
Searchable access to USGS aerial imagery and USGS topographic maps.
Toxic Release Inventory.
A publication of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of
Toxic Substances. Indexes include categories such as: facility name index,
standard industrial classification code index, chemical substance index. The library has the TRI on microfiche in the Government Documents collection (EP 5.22:). It is also available on the web at http://www.epa.gov/tri/.
U.S. Geological Survey
Among the pages you might find useful are:
- Mineral Resources Program
- USGS Photo and Image Collections
- Water Resources of the United States
- USGS by State: searchable!
- USGS Publications Warehouse
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
The DNR is concerned with many of the same issues as the EPA, but
broader as well, such as parks and outdoor recreation. The sections on
Environmental
Protection and
Natural Resources will be helpful
Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey
Created by the Wisconsin Legislature in 1897, the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey conducts research and provides basic data for resource, land-use, and environmental management.
Of course, there are many more web resources available that might be useful in your research. You might want to try looking at sources that select the best of the Web, like these:
It's important to think carefully about any information you find in any format, and to evaluate resources for their accuracy, applicability, and so forth. Evaluation of web resources is especially important. You may want to consult this guide to Evaluating Internet Resources, or this bibliography on Evaluation of Information Sources. You can often learn a lot about a page (and a site) by parsing the URL.
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Style Manuals
Academic Citation and Writing
Style manuals of the humanities, physical sciences, and the social sciences in the Seeley G. Mudd Library.
The Chicago Manual of Style.
A standard source for bibliographic format.
Ref. Z253 .U69 2003
Citing Electronic Documents
This page provides guidance on citing electronic documents and links to
other guides, some on specific styles of documentation.
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About Research in Geology
Material related to the topic of this course will be drawn from many fields besides geology; be prepared to look at materials from economics, history, environmental ethics, and policy studies, just to name a few. In addition to consulting catalogs and indexes, be sure to look at bibliographies supplied at the end of relevant articles, chapters, and books, and to search library catalogs for book-length bibliographies.
Your sources must be fully documented in any written work you produce. It may help to look at the information on style before you start your research, so that you will have all the required documentation at hand when you need it. Then as you write, go back to the resources on style for details on the exact format of your citations.
The sources listed in this guide were chosen for the broad coverage they provide. Direct links are provided to Internet resources and searchable databases, as well as links to LUCIA, the library's online catalog. Be sure to check the library's Electronic Resources page regularly to see new databases and indexes; some of these will only be available to users on the Lawrence campus. Also, you may want to take a look at guides on related topics from the Library Research Guides page.
Evaluating the resources you find is an essential part of the research process. See this guide to hints on evaluation of books and articles and this guide to evaluating Internet resources.
As always, if you have any questions be sure to ask a Reference Librarian.
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Definitions of terms and abbreviations:
Ref. = Reference collection, first floor
RRef.= Ready reference, shelves behind the reference desk
Periodicals = Level A
GovDoc = U.S. Government Documents, second floor
Reference Indexes = Alphabetically arranged at the end of the reference collection
Microform Area = Reading room east of the reference desk, near microform drawers
q. = Oversized books: interfiled in reference and M class scores; at end of classes in other collections
Wis = Wisconsin Collection, fourth floor
Wis Docs = Wisconsin State Documents collection, second floor
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