Online Databases and Other Internet Resources for Earth Science

Citation

Neville, K. (2009), "Online Databases and Other Internet Resources for Earth Science", Library Review, Vol. 58 No. 2, pp. 154-155. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530910937041

All busy professionals know how difficult it is to keep up‐to‐date with online resources and the same is true of specialized professions such as earth science. Email journal and citation alert services, blogs and wikis are a few of the newest electronic resources at the disposal of professionals. However, in order to utilize these services, the researcher needs to know that they are available and how to find them.

This book is part of a specially commissioned series aimed at the information professional who requires current and practical information in an easily digested format. The author has doctoral level experience in geochemistry and petrology (at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalar, India) and has over 20 years of experience as a professional geologist. So he seems suitably qualified to write a book on internet resources for earth sciences.

The year 2007‐2008 is acknowledged as the Electronic Geophysical Year and, with the implementation of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems within ten years, the available data on earth science is likely to increase greatly. This book is a timely resource to help the earth science professional locate useful resources on the internet. The author says that the purpose of the book is to fill gaps in the market by providing “exhaustive lists of links to earth science databases” in the public domain, grouped under subject headings. He has attempted to produce a comprehensive list of useful resources, making an effort to ensure accuracy and reliability of the web‐links by highlighting government, university and other respected professional sites.

Since the internet was first used by the scientific community, there have been complaints regarding unstable web pages, links that lead nowhere, and the lack of digital archiving. It is a difficult task to keep up‐to‐date in scientific internet resources, and the variety of earth science resources available on the internet is substantial. It encompasses journals, databases, graphics, multimedia, directories, newsgroups, wikis and blogs. There are over 1,000 earth science journals currently available, most of which electronic versions of print journals, and some exclusively electronic journals.

Most of the book is divided into areas of earth science, such as geochemistry, geophysics and marine science. Each section lists useful internet resources. Each web address is accompanied by a brief description of the contents, along with details of the host organization, and this is helpful in determining the authority of the links. A seven‐page bibliography and a detailed index conclude the book.

Overall, the book is a current, easy‐to‐read resource in earth science. One downside will be the inevitable speed with which such contents date: this is in the nature of the subject itself. I would recommend it for university and colleges (including colleges of advanced education) that have an earth science (or related) department and teaching/learning programme, and where academic and library staff and researchers regularly draw on such resources.