Biol 4140 Library Assignment (pdf, doc)
Submit to: Ellen Olsen-Lynch via e-mail (ellenolsenlynch@trentu.ca) or Rm. BL203 by Wednesday, September 28th, 2011.

Proquest Biology Databases - search several databases at once (Trent subscription)
For a description of this collection of databases click here.

Web of Science (Trent subscription) - description
The Web of Science is a multidisciplinary index to scholarly journal literature of the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. It can be used both as a regular index to find articles on a topic, and as a citation index to search backward and forward through time. Once you find an article of interest, you can see what other resources are cited in that article (Cited References), and also find articles which have cited it (Citing Articles). Another way to find out who has cited an article, is a "Cited References" search. For more information, see our webpage on Cited Reference Searching - Web of Science.

Google Scholar (WWW - description)

OWL - Ornithological Worldwide Literature (freely available on WWW – mostly citations)
"OWL is a compilation of citations and abstracts from the worldwide scientific literature that pertain to the science of ornithology.  A major attraction is its coverage of the 'grey' literature, which are not abstracted by commercial databases such as Zoological Record or the Science Citation Index."

RIS - Raptor Information Service (freely available on WWW - mostly citations)
RIS is a searchable database of literature focusing on raptor management, human impacts on raptors, the mitigation of adverse impacts, and basic raptor biology (with an emphasis on population dynamics and predation). The collection, a merger of two collections formerly managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) (US), includes reprints of published papers as well as a significant amount of "gray literature" in the form of popular articles, theses, dissertations, unpublished government reports, and progress reports. This database is in the process of being subsumed by the Global Raptor Informatin Network (GRIN).

SORA - Searchable Ornithological Research Archive (freely available on WWW – full text)
The SORA project is an open access electronic journal archive. The content of this site includes the following titles: The Auk (1884-1999), The Condor (1899-2000), The Journal of Field Ornithology (1930-1999), The North American Bird Bander (1976-2000), Pacific Coast Avifauna (1900-1974), Studies in Avian Biology (1978-1999), and The Wilson Bulletin (1889-1999).

For more indexes see the Biology Subject Guide or the A to Z list of Online Indexes & Databases.

Birds of North America (Cornell University) (Trent Subscription)

Canada

Bird Studies Canada
Bird Studies Canada is recognized nation-wide as a leading and respected not-for-profit conservation organization dedicated to advancing the understanding, appreciation and conservation of wild birds and their habitats, in Canada and elsewhere, through studies that engage the skills, enthusiasm and support of its members, volunteers, staff and the interested public

Bird Fact Sheets - Hinterland's Who's Who- Canadian Wildlife Service
This web site includes a comprehensive list of Environment Canada resources for population trends, banding, breeding, migration, at risk species, etc.

Bird Trends – Environment Canada
The Canadian Bird Trends Web site is a retrieval system that provides information on Canadian bird species, including population trends and taxonomy, with links to range maps and life history information, and national conservation designations. Also includes the North American Breeding Brid Survey.

CITES Identification Guide - Birds - Environment Canada
Guide to the identification of Birds Species Controlled under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Migratory Birds Conservation - Environment Canada

Species At Risk Act registry (SARA) - Environment Canada

United States

All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

American Ornithologists Union

Birds – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

International

Avibase
Avibase is a database information system about all birds of the world, containing over 3.5 million records about 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies of birds, including distribution information, taxonomy, synonyms in several languages and more.

BIRDNET
"BIRDNET is an online repository of information about the science of ornithology, and about issues of interest to ornithologists. The site is intended to provide information to professional ornithologists, and to members of the general public interested in learning more about both the scientific study of birds and the application of information from that study to conservation and other problems affecting or associated with birds."

Bird Life International
"BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources."

British Ornithologists' Union (BOU)
The BOU website provides access to IBIS (1859-2008), checklists, information about conferences/semintars etc.

Keyword searching - With a keyword search you look for a word, no matter where that word appears. If you like, you can specify that the word be in a particular field (e.g. the title, author, or subject), but it can be in any position (beginning, middle, or end).

• Think of other words which express the same concepts as those you're looking for.  Keep in mind that the system searches for the exact letters you type, and not the general ideas they express. The system doesn't think. So you have to plan for single and plural, more specific and more general terms, nouns, adjectives, and verbs, etc.
  
  For example, for the topic 'Songs of Savannah Sparrows in Soutwestern Ontario', keywords to consider may include:

• To search for a phrase many databases require quotations marks around the words. Otherwise, the database assumes an AND between the words and will search for them seperately. Keep in mind every database is different so you should check the HELP section to see how that database searches phrases.
  
  Eg. "Savannah Sparrow"
  
  
• Truncation and wildcards are used to find variations of words.
  
  Truncation will find any ending for the root of a word. The truncation symbol in most journal databases is the asterisk *.
  
  E.g. vocal* will find vocal or vocals or vocalize or vocalization or vocalizations
  
  Wildcards are used within a word, to represent any letter.
  
  E.g. colo*r will find colour or color

Combining Keywords

• When you use AND, you are specifying that both terms must be found in every item found
  
  E.g. song* and "savannah sparrow" and ontario
  
  
• When you use OR, you are specifying that items have either of the terms, but not necessarily both. Use an OR between synonymous or similar terms for a concept.
  
  E.g. song* or vocalization* or call*
  
  
• Some databases provide search forms (usually in an Advanced search screen) so that you don't need to type in AND or OR. For those that don't, you need to place parentheses around those terms that have OR between them.
  
  E.g. (song* or vocalization* or call*) and ("savannah sparrow" or "passerculus sandwichensis") and canad*
  

Narrowing your results

• Check the database for ways to limit your results to:
  • Language – e.g. English
  • Publication Type e.g. Empirical study, case study
  • Scholarly articles/Peer Reviewed articles
  • Date range
• Check the record where your search terms matched. The best matches for topics are in fields like Subject or Title. Search specific fields if there is an Advanced or Expert search option.
• Use Subject Headings or Descriptors if available to increase the relevancy of your results
• Add another concept to your search using the Boolean operator “AND”
  

Getting the Full-Text

Sometimes the database you are searching also provides full text journals. In this case you may see below or next to the citation a 'Full-Text' link to the article.

If you do not see a Full-Text link, this does not always mean we don't have the article. It may be available from another source. In this case, to determine if Trent has the full-text of an article, click on . This icon can be seen near each citation in a database.

Note: If you see the notation below a citation, “ Trent Library does not have this journal”, please ignore as it is not always accurate. GetIt! Trent will be able to better tell you if we have the journal.

If an article is not available, you can request an InterLibrary Loan (ILL) through RACER. Keep in mind articles via ILL are not available overnight, so this service is only useful if you have enough time to receive the article before your project is due. We recommend that you allow 7-10 days. For more information and to register for an account please go to the RACER web site.