Entomology: a Guide to Information Sources, 2Nd Ed

Selected resources for horticulture research at the TAMU University Libraries

------Libraries: The TAMU University Libraries have excellent resources for research in most subjects. There are also services to make your library research easier. Library home page: http://library/tamu/edu. Locations: Evans Library houses the main collection including many of the agriculture resources. Cushing, next door, houses special collections and rare books. West Campus Library (WCL) still houses most of the agriculture collection on west campus. Medical Sciences Library (MSL), also on west campus, houses the agriculture references, new materials, and the agriculture subject specialist librarian. Other libraries are the Evans Annex, and Policy Sciences and Economics Library.

Guides to the resources: Subject guides are created by the librarians to help sort out the extensive resources. See the horticulture sciences subject guide at http://library.tamu.edu/subjects/hort, or other subjects that might interest you at http://library.tamu.edu/subjects/.

Services: All electronic resources can be accessed from off campus by logging in with your NetID name and password at the “My Portal” button on the library home page. deliverEdocs: The library will move books to the library location nearest you for your check out ease. Any article not available electronically can be requested using this service and it will be posted electronically for you. If the library doesn’t own the item, we will try to borrow it from another library.

Catalogs list materials that the libraries own. Items in MSL are in Chiron (http://chiron.tamu.edu) and those in the other libraries are in LibCat (http://libcat.tamu.edu). (There are links to both on the library home page.) Or use “Search Now” on the library home page and select “TAMU Lib. Catalogs” on the “Choose topic” pull down menu.

Periodicals: The libraries subscribe to thousands of periodicals. Many are available online only. Use the “E-Journals” tab on the library home page, and the catalogs to locate the periodicals you need. Some may be listed in only one place. Most of the indexes have a SFX/Find text @TAMU button which will locate the article if it is an electronic resource.

Indexes to the periodical literature will save you time. An Index (in library terms) lists the literature of a specific subject. Other databases that often look like indexes may not address an entire subject. They may collect specific journals based on publisher such as Science Direct, or historically heavily used titles such as JSTOR, or some other criteria. They are very convenient for electronic access, but important publications in many fields, such as society publications, are not included. To find the complete literature of a field it is necessary to use one or more relevant indexes. It is important to know what criteria are being used to selected materials for the database you are using. Many indexes use a controlled language (subject headings or descriptors) to list all entries on a subject under one heading, i.e. in CAB Abstracts “pigs” is used for swine, hogs, boars, etc. Listed below are a selection of the over 650 indexes and databases provided by the library. Note how far back in years each index goes. The early literature of soil and crop pre-dates any of these indexes.

CAB Abstracts Online 1910- CAB Abstracts in the major English language index agricultural literature. There is some overlap with Agricola.

Agricola Online 1972- Agricola is by the National Agricultural Library. It focuses on American literature especially literature not indexed elsewhere.

Biosis Online 1926- The major index to biology literature.

Biological and Agricultural Index Online 1983- Indexes 294 periodicals in biology and agriculture including many that are not in Agricola.

Food Science and Technology Abstracts (FSTA) Online 1969- FSTA is a specialized index to the literature of food processing and marketing.

USDA CRIS http://fundedresearch.cos.com/usda/usda-intro.html The USDA Current Research Information System (CRIS) gives summary reports of current research projects funded by the USDA.

Plant Management Network Online Web-based resources for plant sciences. Texas A&M University is a member.

Business Source Complete Online varies, some 1886- Includes articles and company information.

Medline / PubMed Online 1966- Produced by the National Library of Medicine, this is the major index to the medical literature in the United States. It also contains material on plant pathology.

Librarian: For help with any library related questions you can contact: Nancy Duran, MS, MA, MS Assistant Professor, Agriculture and Life Sciences Librarian Medical Sciences Library, [email protected], 979-862-1050 It is best to contact me via e-mail if I don’t answer the phone. 7/07 nd