A Research Guide for Geography
Research Databases
Core Databases:
- America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
America: History & Life is an index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. The database indexes journals from 1964 to the present and also includes citations and links to book and media reviews. Strong English-language journal coverage but also included are abstracts in English of articles published in more than 40 languages.
- Historical Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new windowHistorical Abstracts covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present. The database indexes academic historical journals in over 40 languages back to 1955.
- Sociological Collection This link opens in a new windowThis full-text database offers a trusted source of sociology literature, making it an essential tool for sociology and social work researchers and students.
Recommended Databases:
- Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new windowThis multidisciplinary database provides access to articles from over 18,000 journals, magazines, and reference sources across all subject areas. Coverage is primarily from 1980 to the present, with some older content.
- Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window
Full text historical collections including period newspapers and magazines from the 18th century to the early 20th century in the United States. Collections include African American Newspapers, Colonial Newspapers, Kentucky County Histories, Ohio County Histories, Civil War Collection, Godey’s Lady’s Book, Anatomy of Protest in America, Invention and Technology in America, National Anti-Slavery Standard, Native Americans in History, Quarantine & Disease Control in America, and Women’s Suffrage Collection.
**Migration Note: On August 30, 2024, the legacy Accessible Archives platform will be retired and all Accessible Archives content will be redirected to History Commons. Existing Accessible Archives links will redirect to History Commons indefinitely.
- ACLS Humanities E-Book This link opens in a new window
Over 4,000 scholarly books from major publishers in the humanities. Books within the collection can be located by searching or by browsing title, author, or subject headings.
- Alt-PressWatch This link opens in a new windowA full text database comprising more than 200 newspapers, magazines, and journals of the alternative and independent press, providing an alternative perspective to the coverage of mainstream media. Coverage is from 1970--present.
- American History in Video This link opens in a new window
Contains award-winning documentaries, featuring dramatic reenactments and engaging analysis from prominent scholars and experts that bring history alive for students and give library patrons hundreds of educational video titles they can view at home or in the classroom.
- Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new window
The most comprehensive index of anthropological materials. Unites two premier indexes created in two hemispheres: Harvard University's Anthropological Literature and the Royal Anthropological Institute's Anthropological Index. Coverage: 1800s to today.
- Bloomsbury Fashion Central This link opens in a new windowComprehensive coverage of world fashion from 1500 BCE to present.
- Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new windowWith more than 2 million entries, PQD&T offers comprehensive listings for U.S. doctoral dissertations back to 1861, with extensive coverage of dissertations from many non-U.S. institutions. A number of master's theses are also listed. Thousands of dissertations are available full text, and abstracts are included for dissertations from the mid-1980s forward.
- Humanities Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Scholarly sources in the humanities. Coverage: 700 periodicals; 1980 - present. Citation only.
- Index Islamicus This link opens in a new window
Citations to over 240,000 articles and monographs dealing with all aspects of Muslim life and Middle Eastern studies, including history, economics, religion and theology, law, art and architecture, and philosophy. Also included are citations to conference papers and presentations, memorial volumes and collected essays.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Digitized, full-text versions of core scholarly journals across disciplines. While coverage of these journals goes back to the first issue, for most journals the most recent issues will be for 3-5 years ago.
- OpenDissertations This link opens in a new windowOpen access to American Doctoral dissertations. Coverage: 1902 - 1932 and 1956 - present, indexing only. 1933-1955, full-text.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new window
Project MUSE provides the full text of several hundred journals and thousands of eBooks from a variety of academic publishers. Content is current with some historical coverage.
- Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new windowSociological Abstracts provides citations and abstracts to international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Content coverage includes culture and social structure, history and theory of sociology, race and ethnicity, social change and economic development, and more. 1952-Present. Individual publication coverage varies by title.
- Struggles for Freedom, Southern Africa This link opens in a new windowContains primary documents on African freedom movements and history. Struggles for Freedom is specifically focused on the liberation movements in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Coverage: Full-text selection of books, journals, and papers. 1960-present.
- World Heritage Sites, Africa This link opens in a new window
Contains documents on African art and history. Coverage: Full-text selection of books, journals, and papers. 1960-present.
Open Access Databases:
- Census BureauOfficial gateway to the data compiled by the US Census. Provides access to data, maps, and publications. Coverage: 1976-present.
- CIA World FactbookThe World Factbook provides basic intelligence on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, terrorism, and transnational issues for 266 world entities.
- Digital Commons NetworkAccess to scholarly journal articles and research in full-text. Coverage: 1 million+ works from 390+ institutions in full-text; 1986-present; includes peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, and conference proceedings.
- Directory of Open Access BooksA directory of open-access books. Coverage: 3100+ Academic peer-reviewed books from 100+ publishers.
- Directory of Open Access JournalsDefinitive index to peer-reviewed, open-access journals with full-text. Coverage: 10,000+ journals (6,400+ searchable by article), 1 million+ articles with links to open-access journal websites in full-text.
- Explore Census DataFind census data from a variety of US Census Bureau publications about the United States, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. Access points include dataset, topics, geographies, race/ethnic groups, and industry codes. Coverage: 2012-present. Some data as early as 2002.
- UN DataDatasets for UN member countries.
Books & Media
Find Books in Steely Library:
- Books & MediaSearch Steely Library's collection for books, media, and print journals. Provides call number locations for items housed in the stacks and links to items available in full-text.
Find eJournals and eBooks:
- Library PublicationsFind electronic journals and eBooks by title in Publication Finder. Browse electronic journals by issue or look up eBooks by ISBN or subject.
Recommended eBooks:
- Cultural Geography: A Critical Dictionary of Key Ideas
- EBSCO eBook (2005)
- Political Geography
- EBSCO eBook (2006)
Browse Books & Media:
- G1—GF - Geography (General)
- G65—69 - Geographers
- G70.212—70.215 - Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
- G73—76 - Study and Teaching of Geography
- G80—99 - History of Geography
- G82—88 - Ancient Geography
- G1019 - Atlases
- GA139 - Digital Mapping
- GA151 - Map Reading
- GA205—213 - Cartography
- GB - Physical Geography
- GF - Human and Cultural Geography
- GF125 - Urban Geography
- HB848—3967 - Population
- HF1021—1027 - Climatology
- QB65 - Astronomical Maps
Websites
Recommended Websites:
- Food Environment Atlas
- Map of US food choices and diet quality.
- GeoCurrents: Peoples, Places, & Languages Shaping Current Events
- Current events in maps. 2009-2016.
- Migration Policy Institute
- Think tank with publications back to 2002 including Select Diaspora Populations in the US.
- National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS)
- US population, housing, agricultural, and economic data. GIS files, 1790-present.
- National Map
- USGS topographic maps.
- Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection (UT Austin)
- Online map collection. Maps for current events highlighted.
- USDA Data Products
- Data, charts, and maps about US food production and markets.
- Last Updated: Mar 25, 2025 3:02 PM
- URL: https://nku.libguides.com/research-guides/geography
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