GEO 420: Geography of Resource Use

This web page will help you find library and web-based information resources useful in your study of the geography of resource use.

It provides guidance for your group project and writing your paper.

In addition to contact information for me and your instructor, you will find information on:

• Tips for the research process
• Finding books
• Finding articles
• Finding news and newspapers
• Sources of Government Information and Law
• Suggested style guides

• Hannah Gosnell
• Office Hours:
  Wlkn 242.

• Andrea Wirth
• Office Hours:
  . Please contact me for an appointment.
• Contact Info:
  AOL IM: VLibAndrea
  
• 
  

  If I'm not online here, please leave a message, email, or call me.

• Evaluate your sources. Don't assume everything you find is true, accurate, timely, or unbiased.
  
• Keep track of the sources you find so you can document them accurately in your bibliography.
• If you don't get results using one approach, try another. Do not assume that nothing exists on the topic.
• Not everything can be found online.
• Ask for help from a librarian if you get stuck or confused.
• Don't put all of your research off until the last possible moment.

The research paper for this class requires that you use a variety of sources.  Different types of sources can be used in different ways and for different reasons throughout the research process.

In this class you can use:

• Peer reviewed journal articles (required for assignment)
• Books and book chapters
• Government Publications
• Newspapers and Magazines
• Internet Sources

So in addition to knowing where to look for these different resource types, you should know when and why to use each.

Peer reviewed, scholarly journals

Articles from scholarly journals go through the peer review process.  An expert (or several experts) in a field writes the article and then a group of the author's peers (anonymous) reviews the material to make sure that it is of sound science and scholarship and suitable for the publication and its target audience.

Why use scholarly articles? They are authoritative, and often focus on a very specific area of research. They can also lead you to other experts in the field through citation tracking and cited references.

For an animated review of how distinguish peer reviewed journals from popular magazines click here (courtesy of Vanderbilt University Library).

Books and book chapters

It's probably safe to say everyone knows the variations that books can take (encyclopedic, compilations of essays and case studies, fiction, non-fiction, etc.).  You should evaluate books just as you would with articles and websites. 

Why use books in this class? A good scholarly book will likely give you an overview of a topic in language that was written for other scholars (you).  In addition it will lead you to other sources through references cited.  Also, the library's catalog record for the book will often provide links to similar resources through the subject headings. You can then use this information to fine tune or broaden your search.

Government publications

Government documents can play an important role in research.  They cover many subjects in a variety of formats.  Raw data and maps, reference materials, brochures, and agency technical reports are just a few examples of what you may find when looking for government publications.  In addition, many federal publications are now online.

Newspapers and Magazines

These popular, non-scholarly sources are often written by journalists who are not experts on a topic.  They are compiling information from other sources and reporting it to a general population of readers. Depending on the publication, editorial concerns may be obvious (does the magazine or its editor have a reputation of being biased about certain issues?).

Popular literature and news sources will help you gauge the interest in your chosen research area.  If you haven't picked a topic yet, these are also good places to get ideas.

Internet sources

As we all know, anyone can contribute to the web. Searching the free web is easy but making sense of your search results in an efficient way is another story.  Why bother with the web if there is so much extra clutter to weed through?

A few reasons to include the free web in your research in this class are to gain background, find organizations, news sources, government documents (as described above), institutional programs and more.

One thing that makes the free web different from all the other sources discussed here - there truly is no established filtering mechanism (no scholar selected the sites, no library purchased the materials, no government agency takes responsibility for the content).  It is entirely up to you to evaluate what you find.  Ask if you need a refresher on evaluating websites (or review Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages from Cornell).

You have several choices when it comes to accessing books and other printed materials (theses, dissertations, government publications).

From the library's homepage, it's easiest to start with our local holdings, but if you don't find what you need, remember you have access to Summit (search and request directly from 36+ regional research libraries) and Interlibrary Loan.

OSU Library catalog

Summit Catalog

Worldcat (once you find something you want you can place an interlibrary loan request for it).

(see Tips for using databases, below)

You will need to use scholarly articles in your term paper.  To find these articles you can use a variety of sources. Research databases provided by the library are a good place to start.

Research databases can be interdisciplinary or subject focused.  In the field of geography, there are many databases that could be useful and one in particular is recommended (Web of Science) for this course, but others may be useful to you as well.

Web of Science Includes Science Citation Index (1996 - present) and Social Sciences Citation Index (1999 - present). It indexes the major peer-reviewed journals in all fields of science.

Two other databases that can complement Web of Science, are:

Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management (ESPM) 1967-present
Covers a wide variety of environmental topics including ecology, human population and resource management, sustainability science, water resources, environmental law, and more.

LexisNexis Primarily focused on news, business and legal topics. Includes and option to search environmental law reviews. Includes full-text

Click "read more" for a few other databases to consider. Many more are listed on the library database page.

• Read More...

Unfortunately, as you may have already discovered, research databases are each a little different.  For a database such as Web of Science, you will want to take the time to learn to use it efficiently because it is *the* recommended resource for finding scholarly articles in this class.

Most databases have similar features.

For example, some common features include:

• Choosing whether to search through several fields at once (often the default) or choose just one field (such as author or title fields)
• Using quotes ("") to make phrases -  "global commons", "land management"
• Using AND will combine words and phrases (all need to be present in the document for it to be retrieved) - "global commons" AND fisheries
• Using OR to broaden your search -- agriculture OR farming
• Using an asterisk (*) to truncate words - fish* allows searching for fishing, fisheries, fisherman, fishery

Some databases will be a little different, luckily most have tips on searching that you can get to from the search interface - use them.

• E & E Publishing Environment & Energy Publishing is a source for comprehensive, daily coverage of environmental and energy politics and policy.
• Lexis Nexis Academic is a good resource for monitoring public opinion as it is covered in news sources (newswires, some radio transcripts, news papers, etc.).
• Newspaper Source 1984-date
  is a full-text database of many national newspapers and useful if you are following the public response to regional land use issues.

• Science.gov [2004] to date
  Science.gov is a new "gateway to authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. Government agencies, including research and development results." When you are not sure which agency may have done current research on a topic this will be a good search service to try.
• TreeSearch 1997 to date
  Indexes research report series published by the US Forest Service and as of 2004, includes the full-text of all peer reviewed research published by authors employed by the USFS.
• EIS:Digests of Environmental Impact Statements (part of ESPM) 1985 to date
  The federal government issues hundreds of environmental impact statements each year - and this one resource provides detailed abstracts of all of those statements, also indexing them for easy reference.
• TRIS online TRIS (Transportation Research Information Service) provides access to over 450,000 bibliographic records covering transportation research published in books, journal articles, technical reports and the media.

• For a good overview of finding information on U.S. and Oregon laws, bills and regulations, see the Statutory and Regulatory Law Subject Research Guide prepared by the library Government Information Librarian, Valery King.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment  - Group formed by the UN to "assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and the scientific basis for action needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of those systems and their contribution to human well-being."

Digital Library of the Commons -  "A gateway to the international literature on the commons." Includes: an archive of full-text articles, papers, and dissertations; the Comprehensive Bibliography of the Commons; and links to relevant reference sources on the study of the commons.

Sustainable Resource Use - Sub-section of the United Nations Environmental Programme. "As a UNEP centre specialising in environmental data and assessment, GRID-Europe prepares and disseminates timely and understandable environmental information, to raise awareness and improve decision-making processes."

Citing your sources appropriately is an important part of writing a term paper.  Early in the assignment, you should choose a citation style and be consistent in its application to your paper.  Remember, check with your instructor to ensure that the style guide you choose is appropriate for the assignment.

For more information about citing your sources, check out the citing sources section of the library's research tutorial.

Here are a few common citation guides used in the sciences:

APA
Book: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
Call number: BF 76.7 .P83 2001 (at reference desk)

Online: APA Documentation from U Wisconsin

CSE (Council of Scientific Editors) formerly CBE

There many guides on the web that address creating thoughtful, thorough, organized annotated bibliographies.   Be sure that you use a style that meets the needs of the assignment you are working on for this class.  Here are links to a select few (a Google search will retrieve many more):

Cornell University Library
How to prepare an annotated bibliography

OWL Online Writing Lab (Purdue University)
Annotated Bibliographies

University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz
How to write an annotated bibliography