Subject Resource Guide for Biological and Life Sciences

Selected and updated by reference librarians in support of the TC3 programs in Liberal Arts and Sciences - Math/Science. Selection criteria include quality, content, reliability and currency.

Books and Media

• Browsing the Collection
• Subject Headings
• Selected Reference Books
• Electronic Books

Articles and Databases

• TC3 Databases for Periodicals and Scholarly Journals
• Open Access Journals, Databases, Directories and Repositories

Books and Media

Browsing the Biological and Life Sciences Collection

The call numbers for biological and life sciences primarily include: QH, QK, QL, QM, QP and QR. If you can't find what you are looking for by browsing the shelves, please consult the TC3 Library Catalog, the SUNY Union Catalog or WorldCat to find books at other libraries. If you need help, ask a librarian in person or use the Ask-A-Librarian service.

The Library of Congress Classification Outline may be useful.

• Class Q - Science
  QH1-278.5 Natural history
  QH301-705.5 Biology
  QK Botany
  QL Zoology
  QM Human Anatomy
  QR Microbiology
• Class R - Medicine
  R-RZ Medicine
  RT Nursing
• Class S - Agriculture
  SB Plant culture
  SD Forestry
  SF Animal culture
  SH Aquaculture, Fisheries, Angling
  SK Hunting sports

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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)

You can search for materials in the Library's catalog by keyword or Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). The red, five-volume set, Library of Congress Subject Headings, is located in front of the reference desk, next to the TC3 Books and Media Catalog computers terminals. Specific subject headings in the biological and life sciences are far too numerous to list on this page. Here's just a few examples of LCSH in Botany:

• Botany, Medical
• Plant ecology
• Fertilization of plants
• Mycology
• Paleobotany

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Selected Books Available in the TC3 Library

You'll find most of these books in the labelled "REFERENCE" section of the stacks — whenever the Call Number begins with the letters, "REF." Use these books in the library.

General Biology, Ecology, Evolution and Natural History

• Biomes and Habitats [REF QH541 .B36 2002]
• The Cambridge Illustrated Dictionary of Natural History [REF QH13 .L56 1987]
• Concise Encyclopedia Biology [REF QH302.5 .A2313 1996]
• Encyclopedia of Environmental Issues [REF GE10 .E52 2000]
• Encyclopedia of Environmental Studies [REF TD9 .A84 2001]
• Encyclopedia of Evolution [REF QH360.2 .E54 2002] - Two volume set
• Encyclopedia of Human Evolution and Prehistory [REF GN281 .E53 2000]
• Encyclopedia of the Sea [REF GC9 .E38 2000]
• The Everglades Handbook: Understanding the Ecosystem [QH105.F6 L63 2005]
• Evolution by Philip Whitfield [REF QH366.2 .W55 2000]
• Five Kingdoms: an Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth [REF QH83 .M36 1998]
• Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology [REF QP512 .O94 1997]

Agriculture, Botany and Plant Sciences

• Encyclopedia of Plant and Crop Science [REF SB45 .E486 2004]
• The Penguin Dictionary of Plant Sciences [REF QK9 .P465 1999]

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• Encyclopedia of Bioethics [QH332 .E52 2004] (5 volume set)
• The Language of Biotechnology: a Dictionary of Terms [REF TP248.16 .W35 1995]

General Scientific Reference Books

• Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: their SI Equivalences and Origins [REF QC94 .C295 2003]

Zoology

• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Zoology [REF QL9 .C66 1992]
• The Encyclopedia of Mammals [REF QL703 .E53 2001 v.1]
• Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia [REF QL7 .G7813 2003]

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Electronic Books

NCBI Bookshelf - The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) hosts the NCBI Bookshelf, where you can view and search contents of biomedical textbooks. Current textbooks include the following titles (for a complete list please go to the NCBI Bookshelf website):

Articles and Databases

TC3 Databases for Periodicals and Full-Text Articles

Tompkins Cortland Community College Library subscribes to a number of Electronic Databases which provide access to abstracts or full-text articles from journals and newspapers. You can also consult our list of Periodical Titles in Full Text Electronic Format. There are options to search by publication title or browse journals in selected subjects. Recommended subjects include: Earth and Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, and Life Sciences and Agriculture. The TC3 Library subscribes to many print periodicals that are available for reading in the library.

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Selected Websites and Internet Resources

Selected Websites

Criteria for selection include: authority of publisher, significant breadth and/or depth of content, reliability and currency of information.

General Biology, Ecology, Evolution, and Natural History

• Action Bioscience.org - Awarded "Best Biology Site" 2003 by Scientific American, this website promotes "bioscience literacy" with challenges and teacher resources for understanding biodiversity, genomics, the environment, biotechnology.
• ARKive: Images of Life on Earth - The website represents a "global initiative" for "finding, sorting, cataloguing and copying the key audio-visual records of the world’s animals, plants and fungi, and building them into comprehensive and enduring multi-media digital profiles." The main focus is on endangered and protected species.
• The Biology Project - The University of Arizona's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics presents tutorials on topics in biochemistry, cell biology, chemicals and human health, developmental biology, human biology, genetics, immunology and molecular biology. Several tutorials are available in Italian and/or Spanish, as well as English.
• MBG Net - The Missouri Botanical Gardens presents information on Biomes of the World, Freshwater Ecosystems, and Marine Ecosystems.
• The Endangered Species Program - Website of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• National Biological Information Infrastructure - NBII provides information in a wide range of biological disciplines. There is a access to numerous tools, including a Biocomplexity Thesaurus.
• Tree of Life - The Tree of Life Web Project "provides information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their evolutionary history (phylogeny), and characteristics...ToL pages are linked one to another hierarchically, in the form of the evolutionary tree of life."

Agriculture, Botany, and Plant Sciences

Be sure to check the Related Subject Guide in Environmental Studies for more detailed Internet resources.

• Agripedia - "Agripedia is an Internet Accessible Interactive Multimedia Instructional Resource, developed by the University of Kentucky's College of Agriculture." The subject index is an efficient way to search for material on this site.
• Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases - Website offers information about activities and chemicals of certain plants and their ethnobotanical uses. Links to further resources are included.
• International Plant Names Database -"The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) is a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of all seed plants."
• National Agricultural Library (NAL) - This website is the U.S. National Agricultural Library's portal to its catalog (AGRICOLA), Special Collections, Publications and Databases, the NAL Agricultural Thesauraus and more.
• New Crop Resource Online Program - Purdue University's website features CropMAP, "a location-specific crop information system," as well as CropINDEX and CropSEARCH, for finding information based on scientific and/or common names.
• Plants Database - "The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories. It includes names, plant symbols, checklists, distributional data, species abstracts, characteristics, images, plant links, references, crop information, and automated tools.

Bioethics, Biotechnology and Genetics

• Bioinformatics.net - This website is a commercially supported catalog of "information about bioinformatics tools."
• Biointeractive - Website from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute provides research information on diseases, health issues, genomics, and biological clocks. The website features the Virtual Transgenic Fly Lab, which "will familiarize you with the science and techniques used to make transgenic flies."
• Human Genome Project - Website provides educational resources, general information, and research links. The "Model Orgnanisms" section addresses "efforts to understand the genomes of various organisms commonly used in biomedical research, such as mice, fruit flies and roundworms."
• Biometrics - The U.S. Department of Defense publishes this website, which presents a Biometrics tutorial, FAQ's and research bulletins.
• National Center for Biotechnology Information - A "national resource for molecular biology information, NCBI creates public databases, conducts research in computational biology, develops software tools for analyzing genome data, and disseminates biomedical information - all for the better understanding of molecular processes affecting human health and disease."

General Science Collections

• Access Excellence at the National Health Museum - Website for "health and bioscience teachers and learners" offers science news updates, images, and learning activities.
• Advanced Placement Digital Library - "Advanced Placement* (AP) teachers and students will find resources linked to the AP content outlines, published by the College Board, in biology, physics, and chemistry." Registration is mandatory but access to materials is then free.
• Biomedia Galleries - Images and information on a variety of biology topics, including: "Living Bacteria," the cell, pond life, animal phyla, the life of a termite, etc.
• National Science Digital Libary (NSDL) - Resource collections are reviewed for quality information in the sciences, math, education and technology.
• Science.gov - U.S. portal to selected science websites that you can explore by topic, including: agriculture and food, biology and nature, earth and ocean sciences, the environment, health and medicine, and more.
• The Smithsonian Institution - The Smithsonian Institution provides a portal to a multitude of research sources, museums and exhibits. The Science and Technology online exhibits provide colorful views of many topics in the subject areas of animals, ecology, botany, etc.

Health and Medicine

Be sure to check the Related Subject Guides in Nursing and Chemical Dependency for more detailed Health Resources.

• CINAHL Sources - "CINAHL sources provides information on selected World Wide Web sites of interest to nursing and allied health professionals, researchers, students and others." Links and descriptions of each site are provided.
• Health Sciences Library - SUNY Upstate Medical University.
• MedlinePlus - The National Library of Medicine's website for consumer health information.
• National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) - NIGMS is one of the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This website focuses on major initiatives in biomedical research, including topics such as: bioinformatics and computational biology, stem cell initiatives, cellular imaging, etc.
• Specialized Information Services - "The Specialized Information Services (SIS) Division of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) is responsible for information resources and services in toxicology, environmental health, chemistry, HIV/AIDS, and specialized topics in minority health.
• S*P*I*R*A*L: Selected Patient Information Resources in Asian Languages - Patient information is available in 8 languages: Cambodian/Khmer, Chinese, Korean, Lao, Thai, Vietnamese, English.
• ToxNet - Website provides access to "a cluster of databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, and related areas (from the National Library of Medicine's Specialized Information Services.)
• World Health Organization (WHO) - Established in 1948, WHO "is the United Nations specialized agency for health." You can look for information by country, topic and/or publication.

Zoology

• Animal Diversity Web - Animal Diversity Web (ADW) is an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan.
• Online Bird Guide - From the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology: "A dynamic online guide for bird species identifications and in-depth information, including sounds, video, and distribution maps."
• North American Mammals - From the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, this website provides several options for finding information on North American Mammals: (1) an online Field Guide for searching by map or location; (2) an Archive to search by species name, family tree and/or conservation status; (3) Special Collections for searching for "animals with skull or bone and teeth images."

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Related Subject Guides

The following subject guides support specific programs at Tompkins Cortland Community College and provide more detailed information and links, such as: News, Jobs, Organizations, Agencies, Research Centers and Statistics.

• Chemical Dependency Internet Resources
• Environmental Studies Internet Resources
• Nursing Resources

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Selected Citation Guides

• OWL Online Writing Lab: Research and Documenting Sources - Purdue University's Online Writing Lab presents helpful examples for MLA and APA formats and annotated bibliographies.
• Using CBE Style to Cite and Document Sources - "This chapter's guidelines for citing Internet sources stem from the principles presented in the sixth edition of Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, published by the Council of Biology Editors (now the Council of Science Editors) in 1994."
• Your Library Citation Guides: How to Cite Sources - A wide selection of citation materials selected by TC3 librarians.

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Selected Tutorials on How to Use the Databases

• Library Lessons: Databases - Basics of searching databases, including the library's catalog.
• CINAHL Tutorial - The University of Florida Health Sciences Library developed the following interactive modules for research in the CINAHL database: Preconcepts, Navigation, Examples, Tutorials and Tip Sheets.

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Last update: Monday, February 11, 2008