The literature of Geology is a bit more complex than in most of the other sciences. There are many different kinds of publications that Geology students must know how to find in the library.
Books and journal articles are important, of course, and the Library Catalog is the best way to find out what books and journals the library owns. Check out Find books, articles and other library materials for more information.
The Federal Government is an important publisher of geologic information. Government publications are organized according to the agency that produced them. The United States Geological Survey, the Department of Agriculture, NOAA (a bureau of the Commerce Department) are just a few of the agencies that publish information of interest to geologists. The Library receives about 30% of the federal documents published, and most government documents are now available online, and findable via the library catalog. Fortunately, GeoScienceWorld indexes many federal documents.
To find documents in the Library, once you've found references with call numbers: The Science Library has USGS documents (call numbers beginning with I 19). This is a special section at the end of the 2nd floor stacks for print documents and also a filing cabinet for CDs on the first floor. Maps are on the ground floor. You’ll find all other government documents at the Main Library, in the reference section, or in the Government Documents Department on the lower level.
Reports of state Geological Surveys can also be important information sources. We have some publications from Maine and other states in the Science Library, all of these series are cataloged just like books, have ordinary call numbers, and are listed by series in the Library Catalog. Some of the Maine publications are held in the Government Documents Department at the Main Library. The best index we have for searching for state publications is GeoScience World.
