Overview
Collection description
The collection in Earth and Environmental Studies reflects a wide range and diversity of subject material.
The majority of the collection is electronic, with the print collection housed in the Van Pelt Library. Electronic access is favored over print for all publication types. The collection is strong in geomorphology, stratigraphy, biogeochemistry and palaeontology. Other areas of concentration are environmental policy, global climate change, water resource management, sedimentation, and sustainable development. Social, political, economic and regional aspects of these areas are also collected. The Library has strong social science, physical science, biomedical science, business, architecture and planning, and government document collections that help to support the broad field of study.
Relevant databases include GeoRef, the American Geological Institute's database of geoscience; Agriculture & Environmental Sciences database; Scopus, Web of Science and GREENR. Additionally, there are a wide array of databases that support the interdisciplinary nature of environmental science. They include policy, business, sociology and medical databases.
Special collections
The library holds a large map collection produced by national and international government agencies, including the United States Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Canada. The map collection is located in our high density storage facility (Libra) in West Deptford, NJ. However, the collection is no longer being updated or actively curated.
Doing research
The Penn Libraries provides access to multiple Earth and Environmental Science related databases, ebooks, journals and videos. Good starting points are listed below:
