Engineering Village, an Elsevier online search platform that provides database content and analysis for engineering researchers, has announced the addition of the American Geological Institute's GeoRef database to its content offerings. Additionally, the new GeoRef database and Engineering Village's existing GeoBase database have both been integrated with Google Maps to create an enhanced results mapping tool.
The additions are expected to optimise geosciences research by plotting geographic locations that are included in GeoRef and GeoBase search results on a digital map. This will show at-a-glance the areas of the world associated with a specific research topic. By providing a visualisation of results, Engineering Village seeks to provide users an alternate way to extract value from information.
GeoRef is seen to provide Engineering Village with a comprehensive, in-depth history of geology and its subfields, featuring over 2.9 million records of geosciences literature. Its coverage of North American geology dates to 1785 and that of international geology dates to 1933; referencing scholarly journals, books, maps, conference papers, reports and theses. GeoRef compliments GeoBase, a multidisciplinary database supplying bibliographic information and abstracts for the earth sciences, including human geography, physical geography, environmental science, geology and oceanography.
Using Google Maps, search results from these two databases can be easily navigated by zooming in, zooming out, moving around, or rolling over an icon. Users can thus find out which location it represents and how many records are associated with that location. Specifically, the mapping function is expected to enhance the users' search experience by giving a visualisation of the geographical features/locations most associated with research topics and where those features are located geographically; facilitating insight into the geographic context of increasingly important research topics, such as environmental trends; and displaying features or locations that researchers were not previously aware of or did not initially think to associate with their research topic.
