Plant Physiology (Biology 327)  - Dr. Stephen G. Saupe;  College of St. Benedict/ St. John's University;  Biology Department; Collegeville, MN  56321; (320) 363 - 2782; (320) 363 - 3202, fax;    ssaupe@csbsju.edu

Library Research:  A Quick Primer

This document provides a quick guide to searching for information on a new topic.  This document was originally prepared from a handout by Jim Parsons, CSB/SJU librarian.  Jim also thoroughly edited the current document.  Thanks Jim!.

1.  General Information - Non-primary references.
    First, you should do a search for any background information that has been published about your topic.  This information is usually found in textbooks, other books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and compilations of review articles.  These sources should provide an good overview of your topic and will likely have citations for other resources (i.e., journal articles).

Abstracts & Indexes - one of your first stops should be the Libraries' Subject Guide for Biology hosted by the CSB/SJU libraries which provides links to numerous excellent sources including many cited below.

Books  -  to find pertinent books and non-primary references:

• Browse through the QK section of both Alcuin & Clemens libraries; or
• visit the CSB/SJU Books/Media Page, then click on the links for the various catalogs including:
  • WebPALS,
  • MnCat - University of Minnesota library catalog

Annual Review of Plant Biology -  This series, which is published by Annual Reviews, Inc., is housed in the stacks at Alcuin and available on-line, and it should be THE first place to check for background information on plant physiological topics.  This series will soon be moved to storage from the Alcuin but will still be readily available via the web.

2.  Journals - Primary Literature
    To find specific articles published in journals, visit the CSB/SJU Library Databases page.  Some helpful resources that you can access from the Database pages include:

• Academic Search Premier - major journals in biology; a few full text online
• AccessScience - Encyclopedia from McGraw-Hill
• Agaricola - National Library of Agriculture
• BioOne - science journals
• Current Contents
• JSTOR - journal collection; major science journals, full text, 3-5 years old
• Medline & PubMed
• Nature magazine
• Science magazine
• Science Citation Index (see Web of Science)
• ScienceDirect - journal collection; 900 titles from Elsevier
• Web of Science

3.  Obtaining Copies.  Copies of articles can be obtained:  (a) in the Alcuin/Clemens libraries (check the "Journal Finder" for a list of journals that we hold in paper (or microfilm), (b) on-line journal collections; or (c) via interlibrary loan.  According to Jim Parsons, if you are using any of our databases (except Agricola), click on the �Find-It� button -  for links to our electronic and print holdings for the article.  If not available in any format, a link to our interlibrary loan service is provided, and the citation information is automatically loaded on the ILL form.