LibGuides: Geography Research Guide: Books & Dissertations

Finding Books, Reports & Dissertations

Start at the Library Catalog to find books owned by UT Libraries:

Google Books is also a good place to start finding books that match your interests. Google Books searches through the full-text of millions of books, so it can locate texts using very specific terms, while library catalogs generally search in titles a subject headings. If Google Books doesn't allow access to the full text, then check the Library Catalog to see if we own a copy.

If you need assistance, visit our Search Help pages, or Ask A Librarian!

Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is an online library providing free and open access to the legacy literature of taxonomy and biodiversity. Materials in BHL are provided by a consortium of natural history and botanical libraries who have come together to digitize the literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to make it available as part of a global 'biodiversity commons.' The bulk of material in the BHL is in the public domain in the United States, meaning that the publication date is prior to 1923. Many of the collections contain rare published literature previously available only to those who could visit the institutions. Users may search the entire library by multiple access points, read the texts online, or download selected pages or volumes as PDFs. For more information about what types of materials are included in the collection, see BHL's Collection Development Policy.
Cambridge Books Online: Geography Full text, online access to Cambridge geography eBooks
GeoScienceWorld Books A non-profit, multi-publisher book platform dedicated to the study of the earth sciences. It includes more than 1,000 earth science titles from 10 leading society publishers Special Note on UT Holdings: Since the UT Libraries already license materials from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and The Geological Society of London, and some Geological Society of America items, our license is restricted to approximately 700 titles of the original 1000 in this database. For materials that will not open here, try the original publisher’s database entry.
Global Think Tanks Global Think Tanks provides access to more than 30 million pages of books, articles, working papers, reports, policy briefs, data sets, tables, charts, media, case studies, and statistical publications from thousands of policy organizations. Includes more than 100,000 publications from 650+ defunct and inactive think tanks.
North American City Reports North American City Reports preserves the full text of surveys, budgets, statistical records, case studies, planning documents, training manuals, policy guidelines, reports, and news from the six hundred largest cities in North America. It includes select materials from hundreds of related agencies and non-governmental organizations. The larger cities are monitored for added items weekly, others monthly.
Taylor & Francis eBooks: Geography Full text access to scholarly books published by Taylor & Francis and their family of publishers (including Routledge and CRC Press). Please note that downloads from off campus are not working. Users can still download the full book or chapters on campus and off campus they can use the read online option.
World Scientific Books An open blue lock with "Full Access" indicates an owned title. Citations can be sent to several citation managers including EndNote. There is multiple concurrent access and books are DRM-free.

Dissertations can be tricky to find because they are archived on so many difference platforms, but these are two great places to start. For Google Scholar, try adding "dissertation" to your search terms.

Dissertations and Theses Global
Unlimited users.
Updated monthly. Contains more than 2 million doctoral dissertations and master's theses. Provides full text for many dissertations and theses, including most done after 1997. All subject areas are covered. The database includes more than 90 percent of the doctoral dissertations accepted each year in North America with selective coverage for other parts of the world. Each dissertation published since July 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master's theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts. Only bibliographic citations are available for earlier years. More than 55,000 new citations are added to the database every year. Many dissertations from The University of Texas at Austin are included in the database, though theses from the University are only rarely included.
Google Scholar
Unlimited users.
Google Scholar uses the popular Google search engine to enable searches for scholarly materials such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from broad areas of research. It includes a variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. Google Scholar includes full text and citations.

Use this link to access Google Scholar, and see our Google Scholar Guide for information on using this resource.

To find theses and dissertations from UT Austin, search in our Library Catalog for older materials that may still be held in print, and search or browse in Texas ScholarWorks to find electronic copies.

Texas ScholarWorks
Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. Holds digital works and provides related services that constitute an institutional repository for the University of Texas at Austin. Archives and provides persistent and reliable access to the digital works of faculty, staff, and students and aims to provide the greatest possible dissemination and recognition to these works as possible. Digital works include research and scholarship, as well as works that reflect the intellectual and service environment of the campus.