Whittemore Library: Biology Resource Guide: Find Bio Info in the Library

Find Basic Info & Facts

In the form of:

Dictionary definitions of specialized words used in the field
Short but authoritative Encyclopedia and Handbook Essays
Books containing research experiment protocols

What they're useful for:

Basic, authoritative facts about a topic
Brainstorming or refining a paper topic

This type of source in Biology / Life Science is known as a

Tertiary Source

Ram Search
After running your topic search, limit your results (button link on the upper left) to the Research Starters source type.
Minuteman Book Catalog Search
Minuteman Catalog Search has no 'Reference' limiter, so include the type of reference work you want as part of your search query (e.g.: encyclopedia, handbook, etc.), then limit to those at FSU to see our print 'Reference' books.
Credo Reference
After running your topic search, you will see results from various reference e-books. You can also browse the e-books there by general subject area.
Our List of Encyclopedic Databases
Choose one of the databases, then run your topic search.
Gale eBooks
Choose one of the reference e-books, open it, check the table of contents (front of book) OR the index (list of subjects in the back) for your general topic.
Old Skool: Browsing the Book Shelves
We use the Library of Congress Classification / Call Number system. Look at the signs on the ends of the shelves to figure out if the call number area you're looking for is likely to be on either side of that shelf. Books start on the LM and finish up down on the G level; these will be on G.
-- Biology (General)............QH 301 - QH 358
-- Evolution..........................QH 359 - QH 425
-- Genetics...........................QH 426 - QH 470
-- Botany (General)..............QK 1 - QK 474.5
-- Zoology (General).............QL 1 - QL 355
-- Invertebrates.....................QL 360 - QL 599
-- Vertebrates........................QL 605 - QL 739
-- Fishes................................QL 614 - QL 639
-- Reptiles..............................QL 640 - QL 669
-- Amphibians........................QL 640 - QL 669
-- Birds...................................QL 671 - QL 699
-- Mammals............................QL 700 - QL 739
-- Microbiology (General).......QR 1 - QR 74

Find Detailed, Deep-Dive Info (Research Results)

In the form of:

Articles from Peer-Reviewed Journals
'Gray Literature' - Scholarly works not published in peer-reviewed journals (Dissertations, Reports, Working Papers, Conference Proceedings)
Scholarly Books (aka 'Monographs')

What they're useful for:

Reports of primary research being done in a discipline
Other researchers' reactions towards published research reports
Opinion pieces discussing current developments in that field
Secondary articles which profile the development and progress of specific lines of inquiry

This type of source in Biology / Life Science is known as usually a

Primary Source

But some research articles (such as Review articles) are actually a

Secondary Source

RamSearch
Run your topic search.
To find research articles, limit your results to the Academic Journals source type. NOTE: If you want to be guaranteed to have only peer-reviewed journal results, select the Peer reviewed limiter at the top of the results page instead.
To find scholarly monographs, limit your search results to either a) Books (which will show results, mostly print books, from the Minuteman Book Catalog owned by FSU, or b) ebooks, which will show you results from our Ebsco eBooks database.
Our Databases
The majority of our databases contain scholarly articles from academic journals, and allow you to limit your search to see only those results, and sometimes to see only peer-reviewed journal articles.

Our Life-Science-Focused Databases best for Articles:
--ScienceDirect
--Gale Interactive: Science
--Gale OneFile: Science
--MEDLINE
--PubMed
--Science Database (Proquest)
--Science in Context
Our Databases Best for Scholarly Monographs in Biology:
-- Ebsco eBooks
Periodial (Journal) Search
Run your topic search. NOTE: If you want to be guaranteed to have only peer-reviewed journal results, select the Peer reviewed in the Limit your results area on the left of the results page.
The Minteman Network Catalog
After running your topic search, limit your search results to:
-- Books, to see all the related print scholarly books in all the libraries
-- Books at just the Whttemore Library, to see that related print scholarly books that we own

Find Research Protocols

The Public Library of Science's curated collection of open lab protocols - encouraging 'open science' via free access and transparency.
The Journal of Visualized Experiments is a scientific video journal. Issues 1 through 140 are available in PubMed Central (open access publications). After that joVE switched to a (very expensive) monetized publishing model.
We have access to Nature Protocols from 2006 until 2021.
Methods and Protocols is "an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal aiming to establish and describe new experimental techniques in the fields of Life Sciences, Chemistry, and Biomedical Sciences, published bimonthly online".
Biology Methods and Protocols is another open access journal! Isn't open access (free to read) great?
Include the word protocol or protocols as one of your search words to pull up results mentioning protocols.