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A Guide to Doing Geology Research in HSU Library

Before beginning your research project, it is recommended that you think about how comprehensive your research must be, how current your sources of information need to be, and your intended audience's level of expertise. Then define your research topic as specifically as possible and don't be afraid to refine your topic as you learn more about it. Suggested guidelines for doing library research follow and may be adapted to fit your needs.

Table of ContentsTable of Contents

Finding background information
Finding books on my topic
Finding articles on my topic
Another way to research -- via citations!
Keeping Current
Does the Library have the item I need?
If the Library doesn't have the item...
Resources on the Internet/WWW
Citing references
Critical evaluation is needed

How do I find background information on my topic?


Reference Materials -- can provide you with background information, major theories or researchers, and definitions of key terms. Print and selected electronic reference materials are listed in the HSU Library Catalog and may be located by adding terms such as encyclopedia?, director?, dictionar?, etc. to your search. You might also try searching for electronic and print reference materials by choosing Reference Collection (including Eref) from the pull-down Optional Limits menu (Title and Keyword Searches Only).
 
Examples of reference materials appear below:
Dictionaries/Encyclopedias:
Guides to the Literature:
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How do I find out if the Library has books on my topic?


HSU Library Catalog - the guide to books, periodicals, videos, compact discs, DVDs, etc. in the HSU Library. Most government documents are not included in the library catalog.  Beginning in March 1998, U.S. government documents are included in the library catalog.  California state documents published after mid-1999 are also in the library catalog. For information on how to search the HSU Library Catalog, see HSU Library Catalog Help Contents. The default screen is for the Basic Search. You may conduct more complex searches using the Advanced Search option.
  • If you are not looking for a particular book or if you do not know the author or title, you must look by subject. The best way to search for a subject is by doing a keyword search.   Brainstorm and use synonyms to describe your topic.  Then when you find one really good book on your topic, you can look at the Subject(s) portion of the record for that book and use the link(s) to find other books on the same subject.
  • If you browse the shelves around the book you want, you may find other books of interest.  This is because the Library of Congress classification system used in HSU Library is based on the subject of the book.
  • Books tend to treat a subject in depth but are generally not the most current source of information, especially in the rapidly changing areas of science and medicine.
  • Master's theses done at HSU may be found by using the HSU Theses search option. You may use the pull-down menu to browse by department/degree area and/or the optional search box to search for keyword(s), author, year, subject, title, etc.

    See also Theses and Dissertations with an Emphasis on Natural Resources for more information on finding theses in the HSU Library. Two print copies of all HSU theses are housed in the HSU Library. Since 2005, electronic copies of HSU theses have been added to Humboldt Digital Scholar, with links to the full text from the HSU Library Catalog.

  • Journals (aka periodicals) are usually the most current sources of research information and may appear in print and/or electronic formats. However, journal articles are not indexed in the HSU Library Catalog. You must use indexes/abstracts/databases to find articles on your topic.

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How do I find articles in journals on my topic?


Articles in journals may be found by using Databases that index the literature related to geology. Most of these databases (or indexes) also provide summaries (abstracts) of the articles as well as links to the full text of the article. For this reason, databases may also be referred to as Indexes/Abstracts.
The databases most appropriate for geological research may be found at Articles and Databases: Geology.
In addition to journal articles, indexes/abstracts may also index articles/reports published in conference proceedings, government documents, technical reports, dissertations, and other sources. Indexes/abstracts vary in scope, depth and breadth of subject coverage. The Search Strategy Worksheet gives a step-by-step description of how to develop your search. There are also search strategy guides tailored to science: Identifying Concepts and Generating Search Terms and AND, OR, NOT (Boolean Operators).

 

NOTE: Most electronic indexes/abstracts/databases are available only to HSU faculty, students and staff.  You will need to identify yourself in order to search them.  See Off Campus Access to Databases  for more information.

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Another way to do research -- Citation Searching!!!


NOTE: Due to severe budget constraints, only HSU graduate students and faculty may directly access the citation index databases, SciSearch and Social SciSearch. Undergraduate students may ask for assistance at the Information Desk (hours) if they need to use SciSearch or Social SciSearch. Google Scholar may also be useful when searching citations - please see How to Use Google Scholar and the HSU Library. More sources may be found in the Citation Searching section of Searching the Scientific Literature.

 

If you know of a particularly relevant or "classic" article on your topic, you may use Scisearch (1974 to date) to locate more recent articles which cite that relevant article. The principle here is that the citing article is on a subject closely related to that of the earlier article. Use the Citation Searching section of Scisearch to look up the author of the highly relevant or "classic" article. If any of the author's works have been cited or listed in the bibliography of works published since 1974, a list of titles of articles will appear. This is a way to search the literature forward from an earlier article to the present time as opposed to the more familiar practice of finding a recent article and following its bibliography or list of citations backward in time.

 

In order to keep our costs down, we ask that you do not click on the title to retrieve the entire record unless you know it is something you really want as it costs several dollars to display each record. Instead we recommend that you search for the title of the article using Google Scholar or Google.

 

More detail on citation searching may be found in Cited Reference Searching: An Introduction or ask for assistance at the Information Desk (hours).

 

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Keeping Current


Listed below are several databases that will send you the table of contents when a new issue of a key journal is available.  Some of these databases will also run your stored search strategy periodically and send you any new references that result from the search. Also see Current Awareness in the Sciences for more ways to keep current.

ACS Publications - This database contains the full text of articles in 37 journals published by the American Chemical Society.  You can sign up for free email alerts which are of two types: (1)  ASAP  (As Soon As Publishable) Alerts of articles posted to the web before being assigned to an issue; and (2) Table of Contents Alerts sent when the complete issue is posted on the web.

CSA Alerts - Receive weekly notification of new research indexed in the GeoRef, BioOne, or Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management databases. To set up your profile, click on the Alert me link at the top of the Results List. You may also set up an alert by clicking on the Search History link in the upper right hand portion of the search screen and clicking on the Save OR Alert link for the search statement(s) you wish to have searched automatically.

ScienceDirect - Elsevier's full text database of over 1800 journals in 24 fields of study has three types of alerts: (1) Search Alerts of articles added that match a saved search strategy;   (2) New Issue Alerts which send tables of contents as issues are published; and (3) Citation Alerts which send a notice when new articles that cite a specific article of interest are added to the database.

SpringerLink - Complete contents of more than 1100 journals published by Springer and Kluwer in subjects including many in Geosciences. You can sign up for table of contents alerts and/or keyword search alerts to keep up in your field of interest. There is a training video that gives more detail and will help you set up your alerts.

Wiley Interscience - Wiley-Blackwell's full text database of over 1100 journals has a Alerts service which sends tables of contents as issues are published. You may also save a search and have any new content matching your search cirteria sent to you via email. Individual users may register to create personal home pages incorporating data files, article links, and stored searches.

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How do I find out if the Library has the item I need?


Once you have a list of citations or references on the topic you are researching, you must determine if HSU Library has the article, book, report or document cited. While you are searching a database, click on the  icon next to each citation and a link to full text availability of that article or book will appear.

If there is no  icon, see if there is another link to full text.  If not, check the HSU Library Catalog if the reference is to a book, report, dissertation, or other non-serial publication. If the reference is to an article in a journal or other serially published title, the best way to determine if it is available is to use the Journal and Newspaper Finder, a searchable guide to the 15,000 journals, magazines, newspapers and other serials accessible online (fulltext) as well as to the periodicals  & serials in HSU Library.  The Journal and Newspaper Finder has been enhanced with common periodical abbreviations. Using the Contains search option you can search an abbreviation, e.g.,jacs, and retrieve Journal of the American Chemical Society.

If you have a full reference to an article that includes at least the year, volume, issue and starting pages of your article, you may use the Citation Linker to locate it if the Journal and Newspaper Finder indicates that the full text of the journal is available in electronic format for the date(s) of interest.

Indexes and abstracts often use abbreviations in their citations which you may need to decipher. Many indexes and abstracts publish separate lists of the abbreviations used. See Periodical Title Abbreviations for resources which can help you determine the complete title from an abbreviation. A particularly useful resource is All That JAS: Journal Abbreviation Sources.  Do not guess at what abbreviations mean!

Remember that most government documents prior to 1998 are not listed in the HSU Library Catalog. If you wish to find a government document, consult the guides: Finding Federal Documents and Finding California State Documents. You may also ask a reference librarian for assistance at the Information Desk on the first floor (hours) or outside the Humboldt Room, room 308 (hours).

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What if the Library doesn't have the item I need?


If the Library does not have the book, report, document, article, etc. which you need, you may request it through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). See Interlibrary Loan Frequently Asked Questions for more information.  Requests may be placed by logging on to the Interlibrary Loan System. There are also links to the ILL System from Image of SFX button pages when the HSU Library doesn't have full text. This process can take as long as TWO WEEKS for books and ONE WEEK for articles so it is a good idea to begin your research early.

Books available in other CSU libraries may be requested using the CSU Catalog Interlibrary Loan Service. Simply click on the "Request this item" button.

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What about resources available on the Internet or World Wide Web?


There are many resources of geological information available on the Internet and World Wide Web. A list of select Geology Resources on the Web highlights the most important sites. 

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How do I cite references in my geology paper?


Once you have written your paper, you need to cite the articles and other resources you used as references. The Geological Society of America (GSA) has Style Guidelines that will help you format your references in GSA style. More style guides in the sciences may be found in the Citation Style Guides section of Communciation and Citation in the Sciences.

Other style guides are available on the Reference Resources & Quick Facts: Style Manuals page.


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A final caveat: Evaluate what you find!


You must critically evaluate the resources found online (as well as in the Library) by asking yourself the following questions:

  More detailed information on how to evaluate resources may be found in the following:

Be especially careful when surfing the Web!!  The following references are especially helpful and tell you what to look for (and look out for):


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