Tips on choosing search terms for the best search results:

• Choosing Search Terms video
• Choosing Search Terms audio file

Using search commands to focus your search to exactly what you want:

• Help Searching: Expanding Your Search Using the OR Command Podcast
• Help Searching: Narrowing Your Search Using the AND Command Podcast
• Help Searching: Combining AND OR Commands Podcast
• Searching for Phrases audio file

Use LibGuides @ WSU Libraries to find other search techniques.

Collection Development Policy | School of the Environment | Owen Science & Engineering Library

The Owen library contains many resources for students and faculty interested in Geology. If you have any questions not answered on the WSU Libraries website or would like to request a book or journal on any subject related to Geology, please contact Betty Galbraith. For questions concerning the Geology program, please visit the School of the Environment home page.

Find a Book or Compilation:

• Find a book here at the WSU libraries.
• Borrow a book from anywhere in the world using Interlibrary Loan
• Request that we buy a book for the WSU library (don't forget your WSU contact info!).
• Come by and browse the shelves! Here are the call numbers where you can find most geological science topics on the 5th floor of the Owen Science and Engineering Library. Look for QE.

Find an Article or Conference Presentation:

• For known items, look for the journal title in our Library Catalog to see if we own the issue that you need.
• If you need to find articles on a subject, but don't know where to begin, there are a large number of places to search. WSU pays for some resources to help:
  • Go to the WSU Libraries' databases of Geology journal articles
  • To search within any one of these databases, click on the name and it'll take you to that database.
  • When you find an article, watch for the button:
    • Click on this button and the computer will open a new window where you can see if we have an article electronically, check the catalog for it, or borrow it from another library.

Find an Open Access Scholarly Journal Article:

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• Open Access Journals Search Engine (OAJSE)
• BioOne:  A collection of high impact journals produced by scholarly societies.
• SHERPA/RoMEO
• BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine

Find a Dissertation:

• An international database of dissertations.
• Directions about finding dissertations and theses using Search It.
• Search for WSU dissertations.

Find a Standard:

• Helpful information on finding standards.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology
• NIST Standards

Find a Protocol:

• Protocol Online
• Protocol Exchange

Find a Patent:

• Search for a U.S. Patent.
• Google Patents if you need full text patent searching before 1975.
• Search for a European patent
• Finding Patents with the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO)

Find a Technical Report:

• Think U.S. Government documents:
  • NTIS: the National Technical Information Service
  • SciTech Connect
  • OSTI Searches science, including R&D results, project descriptions, and more, via resources made available by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), U.S. Department of Energy.
  • USA.gov: U.S. government's official web portal
  • Or even science.gov: Technical reports, journal citations, databases, Federal web sites from 14 scientific and technical information organizations

Find an Institutional Repository:

• OpenDOAR
• WSU Research Exchange

Gathering Statistical Resources:

• Follow these links to find information compiled by Lorena O'English on gathering statistical data:
  • Government Data and Statistics

Indexes, Abstracts, and Other Databases:

• GeoRef: GeoRef is a comprehensive geoscience database covering such areas as mineralogy and crystallography.
• Soil Surveys, USDA: A subject gateway to soil surveys, soil geography, major land resource areas (MLRA) and ecological regions (CER), and a soil geochemistry spatial database
• WorldCat: A catalog of library holdings of member libraries found worldwide

Internet Links:

• American Mineralogist Crystal Structure Database
• Canadian Soil Information System
• Directory of European Glaciology
• Environmental Resources, EnviroLink
• Glacier Photograph Collection
• Mineralogy Database
• BISON USGS
• SciCentral
• World Wide Science Portal

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