Not finding anything in our catalog?
If you are not finding relevant materials in our collection, here are two places you can try looking:
WorldCat: This is one of the databases that we subscribe to and it includes records from over 71,000 libraries around the world. If you find something useful here that we do not have, then try to borrow it from another library.
Google Books: This is the result of a project in which Google scanned materials from major research libraries around the country, and also colloborated with publishers to provide access to their content. For much of the content you will only be able to see a small preview of the text, but you can search across the full text to see if there is a chapter or a section that focuses on your topic. This is pretty hit or miss but can be worth checking.
General Suggestions
You can try starting off by doing a search for your specific region in our catalog, but you may get few results back.
If so, I would recommend searching by the name of your state or country and then looking to see if any of the retrieved items might be relevant, or have a relevant section, on your topic.
Keep in mind that books on the geology of the broader region around your state or country (such as the "Mid-Atlantic") may have a chapter or section on your topic but often you will need to physically locate the book and search through its index to determine if it discusses your specific region. You might even want to start by doing a very broad search for the geology of your region, e.g. Geology--United States.
When in doubt as to the proper subject heading try a TITLE search on your topic, then make use of the subject headings attached to promising results.
Relevant subject headings for this project include:
In each case, try adding the name of a country or city to the subject heading when searching in the library catalog or other library database. Click here to access our tutorial on choosing search terms.
If someone else has checked out a book that you want, check to see if you can request it from another library.
Example Books/Series
The City and the Coming Climate by Call Number: QC903 .S86 2012ISBN: 9781107016712Publication Date: 2012
Climate Change and Infrastructure, Urban Systems, and Vulnerabilities by Call Number: ONLINEISBN: 9781610915564Publication Date: 2014
Climate Change Governance in Chinese Cities by Call Number: ONLINEISBN: 9781317664482Publication Date: 2015
Routledge Handbook of the Economics of Climate Change Adaptation by Call Number: ONLINEISBN: 0415633117Publication Date: 2014
Planning for Climate Change by Call Number: HT391 .P5443 2009ISBN: 9781138978522Publication Date: 2015
Roadside Geology series & Geology Underfoot series (Mountain Press Publishing Company): Intended to provide useful information to the interested layman, these books provide a good overview of a state's geology. These guides have been created for many, but not all, states in the USA. To check to see if a guide to your state has been published, search our catalog.
The Centennial Field Guide, published by the Geological Society of America, is a six volume series that covers the geology of the United States by region. This is located in the Oversized section of the library.
The Geological Society of America also publishes a number of other series that might have useful content for your papers. Do a keyword search in our catalog for Geological Society of America and the name of your state/region to look for this content.
