COMPARING THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY’S GEOLOGICAL LITERATURE AND GEOREF

Geologists doing research are known for looking at both current and historical literature. Generally, when starting to do research in a new area, they search for all previous studies in an area. They usually start with a GeoRef search. However, if a researcher is looking for information about an area outside of North America, they will only be able to find information back to the 1930s, although there are some exceptions. That is because the content in GeoRef is based on the Bibliography and index of geology exclusive of North America which was published from 1933 to 1968. To find earlier work, researchers may have to consult the bibliographies of articles and hope that the citations are correct.

People in research collections may have access to another source for early geological research, the Geological Society’s Geological Literature, which was published from the 1895 to 1935. Geological Literature is a bibliography of publications added to the Geological Society’s library during a given time period, usually a publication year, although publications from earlier years could also indexed. The publications in the bibliography consist of materials that were purchased by the Society for their Library or sent to the Library by authors. Some of years of Geological Literature have been digitized and made available in the Internet Archive and Hathi Trust Digital Library.

This presentation will provide information on how the text from Geological Literature was prepared for comparison with the results of a GeoRef search that identified all materials published in 1896. It will include initial results comparing the publications that are indexed in GeoRef and Geological Literature added to the Geological Society’s Library during the Year ended 1896 with publications indexed in GeoRef, including information on duplication between the two indexes and an analysis of the unique holdings in Geological Literature. It is hoped that the unique materials can someday be added to GeoRef.

American Geosciences Institute. 2019. GeoRef database. Alexandria, VA: American Geosciences Institute.

Geological Society. 1897. Geological Literature added to the Geological Society’s Library during the Year ended 1896. London: Geological Society.