Purpose of this guide: This guide provides a starting point for library research on the geology of New England. It will help you locate the best search engines and databases of authoritative, scholarly, and scientific journal articles, and help you find selected information tools. It includes links to resources for evaluating, citing and managing sources, as well as links to obtain additional assistance in the research and writing process. Feel free to contact Kresge librarians for additional assistance.
• You will also want to use the Dartmouth Library to access the catalog, other electronic resources, course reserves, library services, etc. The eResources section of the Dartmouth Library website contains a subset of electronic resources including: Research Guides, Article Indexes, Databases, Electronic Journals, and e-Books. Dartmouth Library eResources subject folders are available for broad topics. The eResources folder for Earth Sciences is also a convenient access point for research in this area.
• Print and digital books, government documents, maps, magazines, journal titles, and other materials available through all the Dartmouth College libraries can be found by using the Dartmouth Library Catalog. Search by author, title, subject headings or keyword; the Library Catalog will give you the call numbers and locations of the print items, and the URLs for the digital materials.
HOWEVER magazine, journal and newspaper articles are NOT listed by author, title or subject in the Catalog. Use Article Indexes to identify individual articles by author, title and topic within journals, magazines and newspapers.
GETTING STARTED - Reference Sources
Reference materials like encyclopedias, dictionaries and handbooks are useful starting points when you need some background on a topic, definitions of unfamiliar terms, a few facts to back up an argument, or ideas for paper topics. Articles in these references sources help you get oriented and often provide a bibliography of important references. Here are just a few examples.
| Reference Materials |
Location |
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AccessScience
Excellent online dictionary and encyclodedia for all areas of science and technology
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Print version:
Kresge
Q121 .M3 1997
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GeoDIL: A Geoscience Image Digital Library
Contains pictures and descriptions of minerals.
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GeoDIL |
Encyclopedia of Minerals
Has great color plates of minerals, along with crystal system and other properties plus literature references.. |
Kresge Ref.
QE355 R6 1990
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Field Trip Guidebooks: Geological Guidebooks of North America Database
Field trip guidebooks are an excellent, and often the only, source of detailed information on the geology of a small area. These are often the product of a fieldtrip organized as part of a conference.Newer guidebooks are listed in GeoRef, but this is the source for those pre-2002.. Searchable by geographic and stratigraphic terms.
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Kresge Ref. Z6034 .N65 under the previous title Union List of Geologic Field Trip Guidebooks of North America
most current online
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Glossary of Geology
Professional, definitive terminology for all aspects of geology.
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Kresge Ref.
QE15 G37 1987
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Handbook of Mineralogy
Presents a great deal of data on a large number of minerals; many literature references as well. |
Kresge Ref.
QE366.8 .H36 1990
multiple volumes
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McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
On the Web, along with a dictionary and biographical information, as AccessScience
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Kresge Ref.
Q121 .M3 |
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Minerals Yearbook
Authoritative source for the mineral industry, supply and distribution information.
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Kresge Ref. Print TN23 .U612
Online version at:
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/myb.html
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Sciences of the Earth: An Encyclopedia of Events, People, and Phenomena
Interesting short pieces on all aspects of the history of studying the earth.
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Kresge Ref.
QE11 .S38 1998 |
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Written in Stone: a geological and natural history of the northeastern United States
by Chet Raymo and Maureen E. Raymo
Chester, Conn. : Globe Pequot Press, c1989
A "must read" geological history of New England; very helpful to imagine New England in the Triassic.
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Kresge Ref. QE78.3
.R39
1989
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SUBJECT HEADINGS - Use Library of Congress Subject Headings to target your searches in the Dartmouth Library Catalog. Discover additional subject headings that relate to your topic by following the hyperlinked call numbers and subject headings. In indexes like GeoRef, use the Thesaurus to locate the best subject headings to use to limit your topic. Some suggested subject headings:
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Cod Fisheries
Copper Mines and Mining-Vermont
Meteorite Craters
Cratering
Geological History-New England
Geology-Northeastern States
Glacial Landforms
Glacial Lakes
Impact
Meteorites
Mines and mineral resources
Ores
Paleontology-Mesozoic
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Searching by subject is more specific, keyword searching is broader. A combined subject and keyword search is possible (use keyword access and "s:" for the heading).
Keyword search example:
s:(Meteorites or meteor* or comet*) and impact*
Note: using a boolean "and" limits a search, and "or" broadens it.
In GeoRef, use the Thesaurus to identify the subject headings that will help narrow your search. For example, you can specify a depositional environment by using the Thesaurus.
In GeoRef, in addition to the boolean "and" and "or", you can use operators like "near", or just type in a phrase to search words in that exact order.
You can add geographic subject terms like" Connecticut River Valley"or "New England" to any subject or keyword search to narrow it. But the catalog will usually only have one geographic term for a book, while GeoRef will have many for one article.
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INDEXES & ABSTRACTS
Articles in journals and other sources (e.g. newspapers) can be found using article indexes (searchable databases of article records). In many cases these indexes link through to full-text articles (look for the  ArticleLinker icon); if not, use the Library's Catalog to locate the source of the article. Note that the Catalog does not contain records for individual articles.
Article not available at Dartmouth? Try DartDoc. (Also see the section, Getting Materials .)
Selected indexes relevant to geological and interdisciplinary topics are listed here. See eResources for a complete listing of electronic indexes, databases, and other eResources licensed by Dartmouth. Still not sure where to start? Try Search360 to search multiple article databases with one search!
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| INDEX |
Scope/Comments |
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Applied Science Abstracts 1983-present
Part of Wilson Web
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Indexes 390 technical and engineering journals; covers journals include: AAPG Bulletin, Geological Society of America Bulletin, Geology |
General Science Abstracts
Part of WilsonWeb |
Indexes popular science magazines to professional science journals. Covers about 135 popular multidisciplinary journals, including: Geotimes, Mineralogical Record, Science, Scientific American, Nature, American Scientist; covers all the sciences. |
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GeoBase
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Focuses on all aspects of human and physical geography; good for studies on landforms, glaciation, ocean currents, surface features, geoarcheology, and ecology. Worldwide coverage, includes abstracts for all references. |
GeoRef
All aspects of geology, 1785-present. |
American Geological Institute's worldwide technical literature resource covering all aspects of geology and all kinds of materials, from journal articles to technical reports to USGS publications in print and digital formats. This is the best source for reports on local area geological studies worldwide, as well as the best research papers on earth history. GeoRef has detailed geographic location and geologic time period indexing to help you narrow your search by those dimensions.
GeoRef provides a subject thesaurus which helps you locate the proper forms of geographic, stratigraphic, formation, mineral and other geological terms, in order to make your search more precise and complete.
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Scirus
Science-specific web search engine.
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Although not exactly an index, it is included here because it covers web based materials as long as they are scientific, and includes important government, education and commercial sites. It also includes ScienceDirect citations, citations from New Scientist, many preprint servers and the US Patent and Trademark office materials. |
Web of Science
1900- present
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Science Citation Index offers the unique Cited Reference Searching which allows you to go search forward in time based who has cited a paper. Indexes the major journals in geology but no conference proceedings or books. |
| WilsonWeb |
Applied Science and Technology Abstracts 1983-present ; Biological and Agricultural Index Plus 1983-present ; Book Review Digest 1983-present ; General Science Abstracts 1984-present ; Readers Guide Abstracts 1983-present ; Readers' Guide Retrospective; Social Sciences Abstracts 1983-present. |
GOVERNMENT INFORMATION
- Images, Regulations, Fact Sheets, Reports, Data, Experts, Standards
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| JOURNALS - selected listing |
| To find articles within these journals, see the Indexes and Abstracts section of this guide.
Earth Science electronic journals-link to all earth sciences ejournals subscribed to at Dartmouth by title
ScienceDirect from Elsevier lists many journals in the Earth and Planetary Sciences and provides a search engine for the article titles, authors and full text.
Selected journal titles:
American Scientist - Kresge (current year only), Dana; online
American Mineralogist -Kresge, Storage; online since 1998
Bulletin of the Geological Society of America Kresge print and online since 1980
Contribution (University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Dept. of Geology and Geography) Kresge call number varies with topic
Discover - Baker/Berry Q/1/D57
Economic Geology -Kresge
Geochimica et cosmochimica acta -Kresge, Storage; online since 1951
Geotimes (popular level newsmagazine) Kresge journal
Geology -Kresge print and online from 1973- (Geological Society of America)
Geology Today-Kresge print and online (Geological Society of London)
Geotimes -News magazine for the profession; Kresge; online since 2000
Green Mountain Geologist Kresge QE171 .G7
New England Intercollegiate Geological Field Trip Guidebooks Kresge 1954-1970: QE80.N4; From 1971- each is cataloged as a book separately and can be found in the catalog by author, title, subject, series.
New Hampshire local geological information by quandrangle QE140 various
Mineralogical Record -Kresge
Nature -Kresge; online since 1997
New Scientist - Baker/Berry Stacks Q/1/N21; Dana; Kresge, current year only
Northeastern geology and environmental sciences Kresge print journal
Popular Science - Baker/Berry, Storage AP/2/P8; online since 2001
Science Kresge; online current issues and from 1880 to 1998 via JSTOR
Science News - Dana, Kresge, Baker/Berry Q1 .S
Scientific American - Kresge, Dana and Baker/Berry T1 .S5; online archive since 1993
Vermont Geology Kresge QE171 .V47
Vermont local geological information by quandrangle Kresge QE171 various
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EVALUATING, CITING, & MANAGING SOURCES
"Testing the Surf: Criteria for Evaluating Internet sources." This 1997 article provides a time-tested list of criteria that you should apply in considering using any information resource.
Critical Evaluation of Resources, a guide from the UC Berkeley Library that covers issues like determining bias and objectivity in a source.
Sources Their Use and Acknowledgement (Dartmouth College)
The Student Center for Research, Writing & Information Technology can also assist with paper topics, research assignments and multimedia projects.
EndNote is a bibliographic management database that can be used in several ways to help you organize and track citations to the literature. You can download searches from databases such as the online catalog, GeoRef, General Science Index and Web of Science directly into EndNote. EndNote provides an index to the articles by author, keyword, date, etc.., and can be used to produce a bibliography when combined with a word processing program like WORD.
RefWorks is a very easy to use reference management program, with in-context guidance. You can access your reference lists, add to them and work on your paper from any networked computer. All help files are online, so you always have access to the documentation. It is useful for groups working at a distance because they can all share the same files. View this workshop guide for additional help using RefWorks.
Kresge Library will offer workshops on EndNote and RefWorks upon demand. See Choosing a Reference Manager for help in what program to use.
More information about reference management programs is on the Managing your References page.
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LIBRARY LOCATIONS, MAPS, HOURS
GETTING MATERIALS
Borrow Direct: Delivers books from the combined library catalogs of Brown, Columbia, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale within 4 business days.
Please fill out the DartDoc Form for documents that are in Storage or that are not in the Dartmouth Library system (Interlibrary Loan requests). See the Document Delivery webpage for more details on these services.
You can also use the Request Selected Item feature of the Library Catalog to request books or articles from Storage.
ACCESSING RESOURCES FROM OFF CAMPUS
Most library resources require that you be on campus so that the Dartmouth IP address is recognized. However, you can access resources from off campus by setting up your computer connection in several ways. This page describes many of the ways you can set up your computer so you can use library resources when you are not on campus.
Accessing Resources from Off-Campus
Guide compiled by Barbara DeFelice for: EARS 21 Summer 2005
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Ask Us
Off-Campus Access