Geography and the Environment

Contact

Sue Bird, Geography Librarian, Radcliffe Science Library
tel: +44 (0)1865 272839
email: sue.bird@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Collection overview

The development of Oxford's collections for geography and the environment are driven by the research and teaching activities of the School of Geography and the Environment, the Transport Studies Unit, and the Environmental Change Institute.  These activities include: an undergraduate BA in Geography; a range of taught masters courses; and extensive doctoral and post-doctoral research programmes. 

Collection Policy for Geography and the Environment

Libraries and reading rooms

Principal collections

Books cited on reading lists, recent research texts and key reference works (physical and human geography) are housed on open-shelf in the Radcliffe Science Library in Library of Congress classification order. Most journals are available online; those only available in print are on open-shelf, shelved alphabetically by title. Additional materials from the former Departmental Library for Geography and the Environment are currently stored offsite and can be requested via OLIS (deliveries are daily, Mon to Fri).

The Radcliffe Science Library is the primary holding library for post-2005 legal deposit books in geography and the environmental sciences. Previous works are held in Bodleian Library Bookstacks or in offsite depositories. Where possible and if desirable, resources for geography and the environment are made available online in preference to, or as a supplement to, printed versions.

In addition, the Social Science Library provides collections and services in support of a broad range of disciplines within the Social Sciences Division including Economics, International Development, Politics and Sociology.

Associated collections

Other relevant collections include the Bodleian Library (cartography and spatially referenced data); Bodleian Law Library; Earth Sciences Library, and the History Library.  Area studies libraries include Rhodes House Library (materials and documents on Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa), the Latin American Centre Library ; Middle East Centre; and the Oriental Institute Library.

Important e-resources

The varied interests of geographers are well served by online provision of almost 40,000 electronic journals and over 800 databases including: GeoBase (available via SCOPUS); GeoRef and EconLit (available via OvidSP); Ecology Abstracts, Sustainability Science Abstracts & Water Resources Abstracts (available via Illumina, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts); International Bibliography of the Social Sciences; and the Web of Knowledge.  There is also a growing collection of geography ebooks and online reference works. 

Other links

Geography