Office: Library 210 Phone: ext 2354 Email:
sburks@smcvt.edu My Reference Hours: Variable,
I work Monday evenings this semester-- 6 to 10 p.m. Appointments: Contact me via phone or email General Reference Hours: Mon to Thurs (9 am
-10 pm) Fri (9 am - 5 pm) Sat (12-4 pm) Sunday (2 pm - 8 pm)
The following simple search statement can be broken down to searchable terms.
Each term can be broken down to synonymous, broader, or narrower terms.
What are the
factors that effect schooling behavior in fish
Searchable Terms
can be combined by the Boolean search term AND
Fish
1.Fish populations
2.Aquatic Animals
3. Danio rerio
4. Zebra Fish
5. Family -- Cypriniade
6. Fishes
Schooling Behavior
1. communication
2. behavior or behaviour
3. selfish herd
4. Population ecology
5. Ecological Communities
6. cluster analysis
7. Spawning Aggregation
8. foraging
9. anti-predator
Possible searches using the above
terms in computer databases could be the following:
1. fish AND schooling
2. fish populations AND behav*
The Boolean Term AND narrows
your search
The Boolean Term OR broadens your search
Truncation symbols (?, *, !) will provide variant spelling after the root
word.
For Example: gene? = gene, genes, genetics,
Reference Materials for the Sciences can be found
in the section: Q.
This can be a good place find background materials, science specific encyclopedias or dictionaries,
statistical sources, Internet guides, and field guides. Some sources to start
with:
**Reference Sources: Secondary Source (Can lead you to
Primary Sources)
Access Science
- Internet access Published by McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology.
Excellent authoritative science articles authored by experts in their
fields. Includes dictionary and full length articles. Example search - Eutrophication
; Chart - Food
Chain
An introduction to the aquatic insects of North America
REF QL473 .I57 1996
Biology of freshwater crayfish
REF QL444.M33 B575 2002
Scientific and common names of 7,000 vascular plants in the United
States
REF QK96 .B68 1995
Encyclopedia of Environmental Biology
REF QH 540.4 .E52 1995
The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Fish
REF QL 616
Grizimeks Animal Encyclopedia
REF
QL 3 .g7813
Atlas of North American Freshwater Fisheries
REF
QL 625 .A84
The Sibley guide to birds
REF QL681 .S497 2000
Atlas of Breeding Birds of Vermont
REF QL684.V5 A86 1985
Dragonflies of North America
REF QL520.2.A1 N43 2000
WorldCat - Over 50
million records of books, Web resources, and other material owned by
libraries worldwide
Subject and Keyword Searching
Searching for Books and Materials
in the Library Catalog using Subject and Keyword Searching: [Use the LCSH:
Library of Congress Subject Headings to find subject headings]
***KEYWORD SEARCHING (For searching Books, UMI
Periodicals, Basic Biosis, Medline, Search Engines)
Choose FIND, then KEYWORD/All Fields in the SMC Online Catalog
Keyword allows you to use "natural language" searching Boolean Operators (and, or, not) to broaden or narrow your
search Truncation: allows for variant spelling of word stems
(?, *, !) Phrase searching: Some databases look only for words
adjacent to each other. Some databases require that you put the phrase
in quotations ("free radical?")
Materials: Maps, Videos, etc.
EX: map? AND ocean?
EX: video? AND fish?
I. General Multidisciplinary Databases @ http://www2.smcvt.edu/library/articles/alphabetical.htm
All of the databases and indexes below may be reached from this
page. Also, information about accessing databases off-campus is
available here.
Expanded
Academic ASAP
Includes abstracts or references for articles from more than 3,000
scholarly, trade and general-interest publications, a Full-text
coverage for 1900 titles.
ProQuest Biology Journals
Provides access to a wide range of
biology topics. The database includes over 285 titles, with more
than 250 available in full-text.Journal
Title List
BasicBIOSIS Indexing and abstracts
for 375 core life science journals
JSTOR
Arts & Sciences I,
II, and III
Full-text archive of scholarly journals,
including the following:
[To only search Biology Journals - Choose ADVANCE SEARCH, and select
Internet Sources may be found via search engines, subject directories, or
U.S. Government sites. Remember to evaluate Internet information for bias or being
backed by special interests. Actually, information from any source should be
evaluated by currency, authority, authorship, methodology, or bias. Be cautious of any
source that can not provide that information.
Sea Grant Nonindigenous Species Site (SGNIS) http://www.sgnis.org
The Sea Grant Nonindigenous Species Site (SGNIS)
is a project of the National Sea Grant College Program, produced by the
Great Lakes Sea Grant Network. It is a national information center that
contains a comprehensive collection of research publications and education
materials produced by Sea Grant programs and other research institutions
across the country on zebra mussels and other aquatic nuisance species.
All materials available through this home page have either appeared in
professional science journals or have been through a rigorous scientific
review to ensure the quality of the information provided.
AccuNet/AP
Multimedia Archive - An electronic library containing the
Associated Press current year's photo report and a selection of
images from their negative and print library dating from the 1840s.
The Multimedia Archive contains over 700,000 photos, most of which
are contemporary images made since late 1995.
Write out a search statement in sentence form in the box below. It should
address the research topic that you will be preparing for your poster session.
Circle the two or three main concepts in your search statement and break them
down into synonymous, narrower, or broader terms:
Concept 1
AND
Concept 2
AND Concept 3
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
3
For the above search statement find a total of 10-15 sources that could be used for your
research:
2) - 2 book sources or (videos, maps, software) from SMC Library
Collection or Interlibrary Loan (from Worldcat)
3) - 4 Journal, Magazine, or Newspaper articles (use
Academic Search Premier, Expanded Academic ASAP, ProQuest
Research Library, Basic Biosis, A. Determine if the article is full text or if SMC Library has the Journal, Magazine, or Newspaper article
and determine where they are located in the library. Use
Interlibrary Loan to get items not held by SMC
Required: Save the Citation of your research results by printing or
emailing to yourself.
4) - 2 Internet sources on your topic Required: Print out the first page of the Internet Source
Summarize each site -- write a brief description of what is at the site
Briefly evaluate each site - by authority, objectivity, timeliness, focus
(Review Evaluating Information @ http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html
