Bio 102 Guide
Books & other secondary (or tertiary) sources
OBIS
Library Catalog.
Search the specific organism name or larger group name as a Keyword, initially; if you find relevant titles, see what subject headings have been assigned to each book and search them in the Subject Heading search.
OhioLINK Central Catalog Search the catalogs of all academic libraries in Ohio simultaneously; request books for loan with your OCID.
The following sources vary in the amount of information you can find on a single organism:
- Birds of North America - the bird life histories in this database are fine secondary sources
- Grzimek's Animal Life - an encyclopedia that also links to news and journal articles
- Plants Database - brief descriptive entries
- National Biological Information - covers all life forms, very brief entries
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles (primary sources)
Science Databases
Search several databases simultaneously:
- BIOSIS (expanded version of Biological Abstracts)
- Medline (content is the same as PubMed)
- Science Citation Index
Multi-disciplinary Databases
JSTOR older archive of selected titles which excludes the current 5 years; scholarly articles.
Reference Management Software: RefWorks
Organize and format your references with RefWorks. It does the work of formatting citations in the correct style, and keeps all of your references in one place, with links to the full-text online when that is made available to Oberlin subscribers.
QUESTIONS? Email the science librarian.