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Subject resources

Earth Sciences

Library services and literature resources for the Earth Sciences

Main content

The library holds many printed and electronic books, journals, theses, encylopedias and databases relevant for earth scientists. Use the blue search box above to search our literature.

After searching, check left margin for further options. Print-books physically available in the Science Library are marked UBBRB. For books on loan, choose 'reserve', or browse for alternatives using the Virtual Shelf-tab over your chosen book. For browsing our physical shelves, aks staff to help you find the shelves most relevant. 

Suggestions for new purchases? Contact the subject specialist!

Find Earth Science books in the library

Books in the library are sorted by the Dewey Decimal Classification. Books in Earth Sciences have with numbers that start with 55x. 

Literature about different energy sources are sorted under 333.79 (Natural resources and energy) and 621 (Applied Physics)

550 Earth Sciences and geology
     551 Geology, hydrology and meteorology
          551.1 Gross structure and properties of the earth
          551.2 Volcanoes, earthquakes, thermal waters and gases
          551.3 Surface and exogenous processes and their agents
          551.4 Geomorphology and hydrosphere
            551.46-47 Oceanography
          551.5 Meteorology
          551.6 Climatology and weather
          551.7 Historical geology 
          551.8 Structural geology
          551.9 Geochemistry
     552 Petrology
          552.1 Igneous rocks
          552.2 Volcanic rocks
          552.3 Plutonic rocks
          552.4 Metamorphic rocks
          552.5 Sedimentary rocks    
      553 Economic geology
          553.1 Formation and structure of deposits
          553.2 Carbonaceous materials
      554 Earth sciences of Europe
      555 Earth sciences of Asia
      556 Earth sciences of Africa
      557 Earth sciences of North America
      558 Earth sciences of South America
      559 Earth sciences of Australasia, Pacific Ocean islands, Atlantic Ocean islands, Arctic islands, Antarctica, extraterrestial worlds

How to Use E-books

E-books are becoming increasingly common, a number of the University Library's books are only available digitally. Here you find some tipps on how to get access.

Scientific publications

Scientific papers appear alongside books, reports etc. also in Oria. The subject specific reference databases listed below offer advanced search functionality lacking from Oria and Google Scholar.

If you are off campus and click the following links, you will first be directed to a log on screen for the UiB proxy server. This makes sure that you get access even though you're outside the UiB network.

Web of ScienceMultidisciplinary database with about 8,500 journals from Science Citation Expanded®. With cited reference searching, users can navigate forward and backward.

GeoRef: contains references within earth science, and covers the fields of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, geology, engineering, petrology, oceanography, paleontology, geophysics, seismology, hydrology and geopmorphology. The database covers abstracts of scientific papers, books, theses, reports and maps.

NGUs litteraturdatabaseThe database contains references to publications, reports/maps from the mining archive and reports on Norwegian geology. The database consists of several sub-bases: NGU-reports, articles in NGU-publications, maps, master- and doctorate theses in earth sciences, articles from Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift, other geological literature, geological maps and field data.

Subject specific encyclopedias and reference works

Dictionaries: 

Oxford Dictionary of Geology and Earth Science 
Oxford Dictionary of Weather
Oxford Dictionary of Energy Science
Oxford Supplementary Dictionary of Renewable Energy and Sustainability
The Oxford Companion to Global Change
The Oxford Companion to the Earth

Encyklopedier: som gir generell og sammenfattende framstilling av emne

Springer Encyclopedia of

WolframAlpha: Wolfram|Alpha is a unique engine for computing answers and providing knowledge. It works by using its vast store of expert-level knowledge and algorithms to automatically answer questions, do analysis and generate reports.

Maps

You can find various atlases in the Science Library either under UBBRB 912.

Maps - Norway

Bedrock maps over Norway are located under UBBRB Box 554.81.

You can also find various geological maps online from the Geological Survey of Norway (Norges geologiske undersøkelse-NGU).The database gives an overview of available data and the possibility to download data and maps directly. NGU produces both traditional maps and digital maps , like: Bedrock maps, Quaternary geological maps, Geophysical maps, Geochemical maps, Groundwater maps (hydrogeological), Marine geological maps, Sand and gravel maps, Maps of ore and mineral deposits, Total gamma radiation maps, Thematic and combined maps.

Topographic maps (1:50000) and nautical charts over the norwegian coast and sea are stored in a separate room. Just ask one of the librarians to get access to the maps. The maps are from 2005 -2012.

These maps are also available online from http://www.norgeskart.no. You can download the maps in different scales (N2000-N50) and formats (raster and vector) from http://data.kartverket.no/download. The service is free but you have to register. (Guide to open and free goespatial data from norway) You can also find information about boarders and districts on this webpage.

The Norwegian Polar Institute has maps over norwegian polar regions such as Svalbard or Jan Mayen.

Maps about the bathmetry and seabad of norwegian coastal regions can be alo found at mareano.no

Other countries

Many countries offer similar services as the Geological Survey of Norway.

Sweden

Geological maps: http://www.sgu.se/
Topographic maps: http://kso2.lantmateriet.se/

Finland

Geological maps: http://en.gtk.fi/informationservices/map_services/

Iceland

Geological maps http://www.geothermal.is/geological-maps

Denmark

Geological maps: http://www.geus.dk/DK/data-maps/Sider/default.aspx
Topographic maps: http://download.kortforsyningen.dk/ (incl. Greenland 1:250000)

You can find a global overview about geological maps with many links and information at portal.onegeology.org.

Other relevant recources for the reading and writing process

EndNote is a tool for managing references and is available for all students and employees at UiB.  The Science Library offers regularly courses on EndNote.

Zotero is a free reference management tool. It is in particular a nice tool for undergraduates and for everyone who is looking for a tool for unix. It does also allow an easy use with BibTeX/LaTeX.

LaTeX Currently the Science Library does not offer a course in LaTeX.  You can find a lot of information in free online-tutorials (e.g.here ) or contact the staff at the science library for specific questions.

Søk og Skriv Search and Write (also available in english) is a site for all students who would like to learn more about information gathering and academic writing, independent of institution and subject area.

PhD on Track is a resource for PhD students who are beginning their research career, and who would like to learn more about information- and literature for research purposes, and about how to publish research.

Shut up and write is a weekly writers workshop for PhD students who struggle finding the time to write. No registration needed, bring your laptop, coffee cup and come!

Library services

Subject Specialist in Earth Sciences will be happy to make an appointment with you if you need help for your project. Our services include

  • EndNote
  • How  to cite and refer various surces correctly in a paper
  • How to find and use e-books
  • Intellectual property rights issues relating to the publication and use of another's intellectual work
  • Publication Fund
  • The national system for registration, evaluation and reporting of research and research documentation (Cristin)
  • Documentation of search
  • Exhaustive and precise search
  • Overview of current platforms and databases (with strengths and weaknesses)
  • Use of Thesaurus / bases' controlled vocabularies in search
  • Analyzing the literature by bibliometric methods