Q. What are the best library resources for the study of geography?

Online collections

To research countries, states, provinces, and their cultures, there are several databases with resources for students of all ages. You can simply search on the city, state or province, country, culture, holiday, or other topic of interest.

• Gale in Context: Elementary
• Gale in Context: Middle School
• Gale in Context: High school
• For all ages, multiple World Book databases
• For middle school to adult, Gale eBooks under topic headings "nation and world" and "multicultural studies"
• For adults, Nations of the World and World Geography, in Salem Online – History

Catalog

Catalog searches can be tricky because there is so much fiction in the collection, and so many potential topical keywords. That's a great time to ask a librarian for help. But dedicated do-it-yourselfers can search for their place name along with qualifying words like civilization, customs, culture, politics, description, guidebooks—one word at a time, not all in one search. For best results, use the subject search type rather than keyword.

Examples:

• Scandinavia civilization
• Middle East customs
• California guidebooks

Once you have your search results, then you can use filters such as nonfiction and audience.