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Geography
Introduction
Welcome to the Geography Subject Guide!
This is the place to learn about:
- doing library research for your geography classes,
- grants and and scholarships in the field of geography, and
- job opportunities and careers in geography, and professional associations.
Contact Information
My name is Erin O'Toole. I'm a librarian and a liaison to the Geography Department. The best part of my job is answering people's questions and teaching them how to do research. So if you have questions, please contact me in the manner most convenient to you. I'm frequently out of my office, so if you'd like to meet in person, please make an appointment with me first.
Phone: 940-891-6750
Email: erin.otoole@unt.edu
Chat: enter Meebo at the right when I'm online
Office: Willis Library, Room 155
Starting Points
How do you get started doing library research on a geography topic?
- Reference Sources. If you have little or no familiarity with your topic, encyclopedias and dictionaries are a good place to start. They can give you the background on a topic, the historical research in the area, and potential keywords for your catalog and database searches.
- Books. Search in the UNT Library Catalog
for books. They will give you an in-depth coverage of a topic that is
usually broad in scope. The information in a book is usually two to
three years old by the time it is published. Check the index of a book
to see if a particular aspect is covered and on which pages. The UNT
Libraries provide access to numerous e-books through netLibrary (see tutorial for assistance) and other ebook collections.
- Articles. Search in electronic databases, both general and science-specific, for journal articles about your topic. Articles are the most current source of peer-reviewed information and are narrow in scope, with the exception of literature reviews. Visit the Geography category for a list of electronic databases related to geography. Read the descriptions to find out the time coverage, subject coverage and availability of full text in the databases.
- Websites. Use a search engine (see list here) to find websites, which provide the most current information and hard-to-find information. Beware - you must evaluate a site for credibility, authority and accuracy before using it as a reference for your research. Learn how to evaluate a website here.
