Geography 

Miami University Department of Geography

Please note that this subject guide is a work in progress.  Visit frequently for updates and additions.

This subject guide is designed to help students find good information in Geography. Only in Geography can a Miami student study Science (Physical Geography) and Social Science (Human Geography, and Planning) in the same department! Geography is also the home of Geographic Information Science (GISci), and Regional and Urban Planning.

Materials in Geography are located in either Brill Science Library (Physical Geography, some GISci and Remote Sensing) or King Library (Human Geography and Planning, more GISci). The Library Catalog is essential to find the books and journals you need to use for your research.

The tabs at the top of the page separate the content in this subject guide according to your information needs.

Your feedback, comments, and rankings will be used to make this site as useful as possible.  Please let me know if I can do anything to make the guide better.

If you need more help, or you aren't sure where to start, please reach me using the contact info in the box on the right!

Thanks,

Ken Grabach

New to the library?  Have an assignment for a paper or presentation that requires academic literature research, and you're not sure how to start?  Here are some tips to the kinds of resources the Libraries hold, and when to use them:

Getting the Basics:

If you are completely new to a topic, some Reference sources and text Books may be helpful to learn terminology, get an overview of a field, or even to get ideas for what to write about.  Likewise, you might want to search for review Articles published in scientific and social science journals or in popular scientific and social science magazines.

Digging Deeper:

Once you have a better handle on the topic you are writing about, you may need to turn to the primary scientific and social science literature to find sufficient detail to fulfill your assignment.  This literature usually consist of Articles in scientific and social science journals (and occasionally as chapters of edited Book series).  To track down particular bits of information you need, authoritative Web Sites may be the place to look.

Writing and Citing Sources:

While doing literature research and writing, it is critical that you keep track of the sources you use and Cite them properly in your final product.  The Libraries provide the software RefWorks to assist with tracking and attributing sources.  Zotero is another free, openly available option for citation management.