GEOGRAPHY

• Geographical Abstracts. New York: Elsevier, 1989–. An index to books and articles relevant to human and physical geography. The work provides bibliographic citations along with abstracts of more than 2,000 books and reports and more than 3,000 articles. The electronic version is called Geobase.
• The Online Geographical Bibliography. Milwaukee: American Geographical Society, 1985–. An electronic index to journal articles, books, and maps from the American Geographical Society collection. This work provides citations to research on topics such as biogeography, climatology, human geography, hydrology, and physical geography as well as regional geography. The most recent additions to this database are listed in Current Geographical Publications: Additions to the Research Catalogue of the American Geographical Society, which was first published in 1938 and is now available only online.

• American FactFinderhttp://factfinder.census.gov Provides a wealth of information about populations and places in the United States. The powerful search facility can be used to pinpoint tables of data and to create maps based on the variables you supply, with tools that enable creation of thematic maps from national to street level. The site is provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Geosource. http://www.library.uu.nl/geosource A directory of Web sources for human geography, physical geography, planning, geoscience, and environmental science. The information is organized by topic, region, and country and by type, such as organizations, journals, and institutions. The site is maintained by Jeroen Bosman of the Central Library, Utrecht University.
• Perry Castañeda Library Map Collectionhttp://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.htmlAn excellent and frequently updated list of links to over 2,400 online maps in digital form. Organized primarily by region and country, the site also includes maps of current interest, linked to world events. The site is a service of the General Libraries, University of Texas at Austin.
• Places Onlinehttp://www.placesonline.org A map-based set of links to "the world's best" sites for visual information about places around the world, chosen to provide a high-quality sense of a specific place. The site is a service of the Association of American Geographers.
• TerraFlyhttp://terrafly.com Provides aerial satellite images of specific places. Users can zoom in and out or "fly" across an area. Additionally, clicking on a point in any U.S. location opens detailed data in another window, down to census block level. Based at Florida International University, this project combines information from the Census Bureau, NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other public sources into a single, powerful tool.

• Columbia Gazetteer of the World. Ed. Saul B. Cohen. 3 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Provides the exact location of places and geographical features around the world and gives a very brief definition or description. This is the most complete gazetteer available.
• Dictionary of Concepts in Human Geography. Ed. Robert P. Larkin and Gary L. Peters. Westport: Greenwood, 1983. Covers the historical development of theories in the field, with references to classic studies. Newer resources should also be consulted.
• Dictionary of Human Geography. Ed. Ron Johnson et al. 4th ed. New York: Blackwell, 2000. Defines and discusses terms, topics, and concepts in human geography. Brief bibliographies follow many of the entries.
• Encyclopedic Dictionary of Physical Geography. Ed. Andrew Goudie et al. 2nd ed. New York: Blackwell, 1999. Defines and discusses terms and concepts in physical geography and includes brief, selective bibliographies.

Maps and atlases are basic tools for the geographer. Atlases, because of their size, are often shelved in special bookcases; maps may be housed in a special collection of their own. Think in terms not only of the familiar sort of world atlas, such as the Atlas of the World, 8th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), but also of atlases that provide information on population, trade, history, water resources, and so on. Additionally, at some institutions, sophisticated GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software may be available for creating your own maps.