Oregon Outside
Outside Oregon FIG
Guides Home | News | Tutorials | Reference Sources | Citing Sources | Evaluating Sources
This page should help you with your library research assignment. Feel free to contact me with questions. You may also want to try the UO Libraries LibX Toolbar for your browser!
Librarian for: Biology, Environmental Studies, Geology & Neuroscience
ph: 541-346-3076 dpwalton@uoregon.edu
Find an article here:
The above search box is searching the following specific databases, that you might want to try individually:
- The database for geology. Covers books, geological survey reports, conference proceedings, as well as journal articles.
- A Geography and Geology database.
- Interdisciplinary science database, a heavily-used source for science literature. Highly recommended.
USGS Historic Topographic Maps
- Access point for all of the USGS topographic maps.
- Geographic map index to Oregon topographic maps.
- Archives of the Eugene Register Guard Newspaper.
- A database of local and international news for local and international newspapers covering items of the last 10 years.
- A simplified and downloadable Oregon geology by University of Oregon's Dr. Marli Miller.
See also:
- Google for academics.
Find a book
Print
(Located in the Science Library)
Encyclopedia of Geology. (5 vols.) SCI REF QE5 .E516 2005
Glossary of Geology SCI REF QE5 .G37 2005
Hiking Oregon's Geology, 2nd ed. Science Reserve GV199.42 .O7 B57 2004
Roadside Geology of Oregon Science Reserve QE155 .A47 1991
*Encyclopedia of Hydrological Sciences
*Gale Virtual Reference Library
*Oxford Reference Online: Earth Sciences
Tutorials
Reference Sources
(Located in the Science Library)
Citing Sources
For more information about citing sources generally, other style formats, and citing electronic sources, see:
This web page contains a wealth of information on evaluating information sources both in print and on the Web: Critical Evaluation of Information Sources
To determine whether a particular periodical (magazine, journal) is scholarly (peer-reviewed, refereed) or popular, see these pages:
What is "peer-review"?
Here are a couple of pdfs that provide good explanations of what it is (and is not), and why it's particularly important in the sciences:
(NB: both of the above are produced in the UK, so there are a few Britishisms that may not make sense)
- in UOWorldCat (UO Libraries and beyond)
-
- Use less specific terms than when searching for articles. E.g., if you want books that will tell you about electronic noses, you might need to search for a book on chemical sensors or sensor systems, which would include electronic noses.
- UO WorldCat searches for articles, and many other formats besides books. To limit to books, click on book under format on the left side.
- You may get better results if you do a Subject Heading search for a broad term. To do a search by Subject, go to Advanced Search. You also can click on the subject heading links at the bottom of the full record display for a book that you like, to get more like it
- Excluding the UO books, WorldCat is only updated a few times a year so many recent purchases could be overlooked using this tool.
- Arranged by geologic province.
-
- Arranged by ecoregions that somewhat correspond to the geologic provinces, this could be useful in identifying biotic resources and land use issues for your area.
- A guide to the geology viewable from Oregon's highways.
-
- An online encyclopedia of geology, geography, and environmental science.
- Could be useful if you're looking for background information on snow and glacier dynamics, or soils, groundwater, etc.
- You can search the whole collection. The sources under "Environment" are the most likely to be useful for this assignment.
-
- Encyclopedia-type entries on geology and related topics.
- Contains the above, plus dictionaries related to the earth sciences.
-
- Do the articles have identified authors? Are the authors' credentials and affiliations available? Do the articles have references or bibliographies? If so, are there differences in the kinds of references given?
- Wikipedia is a very handy, free Internet source, but it is not necessarily reliable. For a humorous demonstration of this phenomenon, watch this excerpt of the Colbert Report. (Some improvements have been made to Wikipedia security since this was aired.)
- Scholarly or Popular?
- Types of Periodicals (pdf)
- Peer Review in a Nutshell
- Sense About Science Short Peer Review Guide
A few book search tips:
Oregon's Living Landscape: Strategies and Opportunities to Conserve Biodiversity QH76.5 .O7 O78 1998
Online
*(You must be on campus, or an authorized UO user if off campus, to access)
Encyclopedia of Earth
Oregon Dept of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) website
*Oxford Companion to the Earth
Compare the above reference sources with:

