Geosciences

What is a "Series"?

A Series is a sequential publication, often numbered but not always, that is monographic in nature.  Volumes in a series are usually published irregularly, i.e. not on a set schedule like a periodical.  Some series are enormous and publish many volumes in a year; others are less frequent and may publish only a few volumes over a number of years.  Publishers may be governmental agencies (e.g. the USGS), professional organizations (e.g. Geological Society of America), or for-profit companies (e.g. Elsevier).  The library may acquire a series selectively, or in its entirety via standing order.  Historically they were only in print; now they may be available electronically on subscribed platforms (particularly Geoscience World, AAPG Datapages, Lyell Collection), or as individual e-books.

Are all Series Volumes listed separately in the Library Catalog?

No!  While most printed series are cataloged as separate books, some are not.  And some series available on electronic platforms are not listed in our Catalog at all.  If you don't find what you're looking for, ask.

Finding a specific report or issue for a series can be tricky. Some reports can be found by their individual titles; other reports can only be found by their series titles. Some series may be shelved in sequence at the same call number in the library; other series may be scattered according to the topic of each issue or report.  You may need to try a variety of search techniques in the Library Catalog to locate what you are looking for.

These are important pieces of information to have.  You can often find them in GeoRef.

• SERIES TITLE
• REPORT NUMBER
• REPORT TITLE
• REPORT AUTHOR(S)
• ORIGINATING AGENCY/PUBLISHER

Search in the LIbrary Catalog by:

• Individual title or author: do a keyword or author search. (Hint: If you find a catalog record that matches, there should be a series and report number traced on the record. By following the series tracing link, you can find other reports in a chronological list.)
• Series title: do a keyword search; include the report number as well.

Example Reference:

Hentz, Tucker F.  2010. Sequence stratigraphy, depositional facies, and reservoir attributes of the upper cretaceous Woodbine Group, East Texas Field. Report of investigations (University of Texas at Austin. Bureau of Economic Geology) ; no. 274.

Breaking down the reference:

• AUTHOR:  Hentz, Tucker F. 
• YEAR:  2010.
• REPORT TITLE:  Sequence stratigraphy, depositional facies, and reservoir attributes of the upper cretaceous Woodbine Group, East Texas Field.
• SERIES TITLE:  Report of investigations
• SERIES PUBLISHER: (University of Texas at Austin. Bureau of Economic Geology) ;
• SERIES NUMBER:  no. 274.

Searching options:

• Search query for author/title:  hentz sequence stratigraphy upper cretaceous woodbine
• Search query for report series/number:  bureau economic geology report 274

Just use enough words from the reference you have to be fairly specific, and if the report is individually cataloged it should pop right up.  If it doesn't, then try searching only the series or serial title (no author or number) to see if the series is available. 

Be sure to select "Library Catalog" as your search scope:

This search results in the single record you're looking for: