Earth sciences reference sites and website directories serve as valuable information resources
to earth sciences students and researchers as well as internet users with
a casual interest in the earth sciences. An earth sciences reference
site contains a large volume of information whose ownership and scope of
responsibility may be either internal or external to the organization
maintaining the site. Furthermore, such sites may contain multiple
information formats such as documents, photographs, diagrams, video
clips, audio clips, data sets and hyperlinks. An excellent example of an
earth sciences reference site with internal sources is the NASA
Earth Sciences Portal hosted by the Goddard Space Flight Center.
Earth sciences reference sites that access external sources of information are often organized as
website directories. A website directory is a collection of links to
other websites arranged in an organized structure. A good
website directory will also display some information about each link
within its directory structure. I consider the best example of an earth
sciences reference site organized as a website directory to be
Geosource, maintained by the Central
Library of Utrecht University in The Netherlands.
GeoSource is also an excellent example of a
themed web directory.
Earth sciences reference sites are not always established by organizations.
Some dedicated individuals with the love of a specific branch of the
earth sciences build impressive reference sites. Visit
Oceans of Kansas if you would like to see a superb individual
effort in paleontology by Mike Everhart.
Whether you are performing research in the earth sciences for a class project
or a Ph.D., or if you simply have a natural interest in the earth sciences,
earth sciences reference sites are important resources that should never
be overlooked.
Authored by Kenneth L. Anderson.
Original article published 20 August 2005.
Follow links to the right to learn more about earth sciences reference sites.
At the left margin, Related Links address topics of interest
pertaining to individual earth sciences and other science topics. View the
Technology & Science SiteMap
for a complete list of technology and science-related topics.
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