Stewart Library - Weber State University

Research Guide:

GEOG 1000 - Natural Environments of the Earth

Finding Books

Online Catalogs: 

Use library online catalogs to find availability and location of books, government publications, and other media:

Browse the Shelves: 

Books on Physical Geography and related fields are located on the Top Level of the library in the General Collection under the following call numbers: GB [Physical Geography], GC [Oceanography], GE [Ecology], GF [Human Geography], and QE [Geology].

Bibliographies: 

When you find a good book or article, check the bibliography to identify other resources on your subject.

Interlibrary Loan: 

If we do not own a particular book you need, we will borrow it for you from another library through ILLiad, our online Interlibrary Loan system.

Finding Articles

Article Databases:

An article database is a searchable database of references to articles from journals, magazines and newspapers. Some article databases also include the full-text of the article.

Note: To access our article databases from off-campus, you will need to enter your WSU ID Number (W number). For more information on off-campus access, go to our Connecting from Home page.

The following article databases are the best places to look for articles on Physical Geography and related fields:

  • Academic Search Premier: This huge database contains thousands of full-text articles from hundreds of magazines and scholarly journals, including many in Geography and related disciplines. To limit your search to scholary journal articles in Academic Search Premier, click on the box next to Scholarly (Peer-Reviewed) Journals . You may also limit your search to articles available in full-text on the computer by clicking on the box next to Full Text.

  • Newspaper Souce: The database provides the full-text of articles from hundreds of national and regional newspapers. It is the best place to look for newspaper articles on specific topics.

  • ScienceDirect College Edition: Physical Sciences Journal Collection: This database contains the full-text of current articles from hundreds of scholarly journals published by Elsevier, including many in Physcial Geography and related fields. Be aware that our full-text access only goes back to 2002. See Locate the Article below for imformation on finding articles not available in full-text in this database.

  • BioOne: This database contains the full-text of current articles from several scholarly journals in the Biological Sciences, including disciplines such as Ecology and Environmental Studies.

  • Applied Science Full Text: The database contains references and select full-text for scholarly journals articles in Applied Science and Technology, including Geosciences and Geology. See Locate the Article below for imformation on finding articles not available in full-text in this database.

  • GeoRef: This database contains references only (no full-text) to journal articles, books, reports, dissertations, etc., in Geography and related fields. See Locate the Article below for imformation on locating articles you identify using this database. Be aware that many of the items indexed in this database are very obscure and can be very difficult to locate.

  • Geobase: This database contains references only (no full-text) to journal articles, books, reports, dissertations, etc., primarily in Physical Geography, Geosciences & Geology. See Locate the Article below for imformation on locating articles you identify using this database. Be aware that many of the items indexed in this database are very obscure and can be very difficult to locate.

  • Environmental Studies and Pollution Management: This group of databases contains references only (no full-text) to articles, books, reports, dissertations, etc., in Environmental Studies, Ecology, and related fields. It will also retrieve relevant web sites. See Locate the Article below for imformation on locating articles you identify using this database. Be aware that many of the items indexed in this database are very obscure and can be very difficult to locate.

Locate the Article: 

If the article is available in full-text in the article database you are using, download and/or print the article.

If the article is not available in full-text in the article database you are using, check the library's EJournals list to see if full-text for the journal containing the article is available in another article database. This list will also tell you if we subscribe to the journal in print format. You can also search the EJournals list by subject.

If the article is only available in print, do a Journal Alphabetical search in our Online Catalog to identify the call number for the print journal. Recent issues of magazines and journals in Geography and related fields are found in the G through GF and QS section of the Current Periodicals Area on the Middle Level of the library. Earlier issues are shelved by call number in bound volumes on the TopLevel of the library.

If the article is not available either online or in print, use ILLiad (our online Interlibrary Loan system) to request a copy of the article from another library. This usually takes 2 to 4 days.

Evalute the Article:

Use the recommendations on our Evaluate Information and Scholarly vs. Popular Articles web pages to evaluate the articles you find and determine if they are scholary or popular.

Bibliographies: 

When you find a good book or article, check the bibliography to identify other resources on your subject.

Finding Web Resources


A good place to begin is the Stewart Library's list of web resources in Geography.  Most of the sites listed will provide links to additional sites, so explore!  Use Internet search engines to find additional information and be sure to use the recommendations on our Evaluate Information web page to determine the quality of any web pages you find.

Research Tips

As you do your research, keep the following tips in mind:

 

Updated February 1, 2007 . Please send comments to Wade Kotter
Weber State University, Stewart Library. Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved.