SEARCHING FOR CURRENT GEOSCIENCE LITERATURE

Keeping up with the literature, conducting comprehensive geoscience literature searches, and efficiently finding the most relevant literature in today’s changing world of publications and accessibility is challenging. How well do the geoscience information tools meet this challenge?

A comparison study of four tools (two geoscience databases, one science database, and one Internet search engine) looked at the geographic coverage, subject content, source material indexed, formats included, and currency of each of the tools. The results of the study provide data for selection of appropriate information tools and improvement of the traditional tools.

The databases included in the study were GeoRef, produced by the American Geological Institute; GEOBASE, produced by Elsevier; Science Citation Index Expanded, produced by the Institute for Scientific Information; and Scirus, a comprehensive science-specific Internet search engine.