*	Library Home

Researching Central Valley

Resources for GEOG 3350

Books

A.        From the library homepage click on the Library Catalog link.

·         Keyword search will look for your keywords in all the fields of all the catalog records. 

·         Use the subjects in a good record to find more like it.

·         click on  advanced to combine search terms for a more refined results list.

B.        Worldcat international catalog search (order through interlibrary loan if we don’t own it).

C.        If you find a book on the shelf that meets your need, browse the shelf nearby for more.

Journal Articles

Databases:  Find citations for journal articles and full text by keyword searching

·         Make a list of key terms and synonyms for your topic. 

·         From the library homepage, choose a database from the Articles in journals, magazines, & newspapers link.

·         Start with a simple keyword search.  Evaluate whether you have relevant results, and the right amount.

·         Too many hits?  Narrow your results by adding more keywords joined with and, by using more specific keywords, or by using limiters for date, type of document, etc.  Quotation marks around a multi-word search term forces the computer to find the words together.

“apple pudding” and oranges

·         Too few hits?  Try different keywords, broader keywords, adding synonyms with an or, or switch to a different database.  Truncating to the root word plus an asterisk[*] returns singular and plural endings.

apple* and (plum* or pluot* or prune*)

·         Not on target?  Try switching from keyword to title or subject (topic) search.  Or remove a non-useful word from your results with not. 

apple not computer

·         Find a citation you like?  Click on appropriate subject terms to find more like it.

·         If full text is not in the database, try the FIND IT  button and navigate to possible full text online or print (via library catalog).

·         If you can’t get full text from this library, go to Interlibrary Loan link from the library homepage.

Web Resources

Use the Google or Yahoo! search engine.  Web sites should be evaluated not only for relevance, but also for authority. 

·         Is it relevant to your topic?  Appropriate audience?

·         what is the site’s name and purpose?  .com?  .edu?  .gov?

·         Who owns the site?  What is the site’s purpose?  What are its biases? 

·         is an author cited?  How is she an authority?  Are her sources cited?

·         does it seem up to date, accurate, thorough?

Reference  Collection

·         USGS Topo maps

·         atlases

·         statistics sources (see below)

·         GIS computer lab downstairs in L110G

Statistics

• Government reports.  The government now posts much of its information on its Web site.
   
• Web sites may have relevant, accurate statistics.
   
• Some reference resources include statistics (ask the reference librarian).  

Government Resources

• The Library catalog includes many government documents that we collect, and they will be among your catalog search results.
   
• USA.GOV is the gateway to all online government information from various departments, including the US Census Bureau.
   
• California State Library will have more California State documents that we also collect but do not include in our catalog.  Search the California State Library catalog for the call numbers of California government reports we may have but do not catalog (as well as locations to browse our shelves)
   
• GPO catalog also includes Federal documents we may own but do not catalog (as well as a location to browse).
  
  

Documenting Sources

Geography often uses Author - Date citations from the Chicago Manual of Style.  See online handout for examples.

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This document is maintained by: Tim Held (theld@csustan.edu)
Page updated: 06/24/2008