In practice, all regions of the earth and the solar system are potentially of interest and selections are based on subject content rather than locale. Some regional interests of the faculty at present include sedimentary environments of Australia and Central America, mountain building processes in the British Isles, and surface processes of other planets. Older monographs are typically obtained via Interlibrary Loan. Out of print volumes are occasionally requested but are very difficult to obtain. Unfortunately, these are often difficult to obtain through traditional library vendors and generally require more time on the part of library staff to to catalog and process.
Primary literature is emphasized, as evidenced by the high ratio of journals to monographs.
While scholarly works are given priority over popular works, many books ordered specifically to support introductory level courses are written for the non-scientist. Frequently revised texts are not collected as a general rule, although some exceptions must occasionally be made for the reserve collection. Multi-authored review volumes, especially those providing comprehensive bibliographies of specific topics, are considered quite useful and selected with some regularity. Cancellation of the print source will be considered in the future. Other major indexes received on CD-ROM and available through FirstSearch also serve geology faculty and students.