Animal Behavior

a guide to library resources:

1) To get ideas for an animal species, browse in the QL's on the second floor or in Reference. Or use any of the titles listed under 2, below.

2) To learn the scientific name and basic information for your species, look in one or more of the following books. Use the bibliographical references you find in them. These are only examples; keep your eyes open when you browse the shelves.

• Integrated Taxonomic Information System - for living organisms of North America, and the world.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility - a very large database of organism names, from around the world. A cooperative project of many organizations.
• NatureServe Explorer - "an online encyclopedia of life." Search by plant/animal name or ecological community/system. Covers U.S. and Canada, with a related site for Latin America. Good bibliographies.
• Concise Encyclopedia Biology. Ref QH 302.5.A2313 1996
• The Concise Oxford dictionary of zoology. Ref QL 9.C66 1992
• Grzimek's animal life encyclopedia. Ref QL 7.G7813 2003
• Grzimek's encyclopedia of mammals. Ref QL 701.G7913 1990
• Walker's mammals of the world. Ref QL 703.W222 1999
• Wild mammals of North America. Ref QL 715.W56 2003
• Handbook of North American birds. Ref QL 681.P35
• The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Ref QL 681.T43
• Forest and rangeland birds of the U.S. natural history and habitat use. Ref QL 682.F88 1991
• The Inland fishes of New York State. Ref QL 628.N4S65 1985
• American insects: a handbook of the insects of America north of Mexico. Ref QL 474.A76 2000

3) Finding books and reports:

Via BearCat - the online catalog: Search by an author's name, or title, for specific, known books. When searching by subject try the common name of the animal and the scientific name, and also broader subject categories which may lead to books having sections on your animal. try also both singular and plural forms of the name, for ex. "canada goose" and "canada geese". Try both "Title Keyword" and "Subject Keyword" search modes. Search both specific and broad subject headings, such as: TROUT and also FISHES. You can also "Browse" by subject, which can sometimes work very well. There are some very useful U.S. governments documents listed in the catalog, too - many on microfiche and others online. Recent government publications can be found using special search tools, see below.

Searching beyond Potsdam: Both the SUNY Union Catalog and WorldCat let you search the holdings of many other libraries. Both of these catalogs also have a link to our interlibrary loan service. Warning: not all materials listed in WorldCat or the SUNY Union Catalog are borrowable through Interlibrary Loan.

4) Other search tools for finding reports on your animal:

• GPO Catalog and USA.gov (on the library web site, under "Find more / U.S. Government") - are ways to access the many reports of federal and state governments, including agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, FWS Publications Online, and U.S. Forest Service. Google "Uncle Sam" is another good way to search for online government reports.
• Use other library catalogs (including St.Lawrence Univ. and the SUNY Union Catalog) through the library's web site, under "Find Books".
• North American Mammals - "a searchable database of all living mammals of North America." - brief information on each, and links to Amer. Soc.of Mammalogists Species Accounts.
• There are many other animal-related internet sites. Some of the best are listed on the "Databases" section of the Biology subject page of the library web site.

5) For locating journal articles use:

• bibliographies and references in the reference books listed above,
• bibliographies and references in books and articles, and
• any of the following indexes and abstracts.

• ***PsycInfo. The most comprehensive index to psychology journals. It includes "ArticleLinker" links to full-text of articles if they are available online or in paper.
  
  
• ***Wildlife & Ecology Studies Worldwide. An index to literature on wild mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Includes links to full-text when available. Coverage: 1935 - date. Only one log-in at a time is allowed. Please "log-off" (don't just close the window) when you are done searching.
  
  
• *** Animal Behavior Abstracts. (Ref QL 750.A5). This print index is a first choice in most cases. The subject index leads to abstracts in the same volume. Begin with the most recent volume and work back. Use the list called "Periodicals Scanned and Abstracted" (on the shelf by the index volumes) to get the full title of journals from the abbreviations appearing in Animal Behavior Abstracts.
  
  
• ***BioOne: search and retreive full-text of articles in a group of biology journals. An excellent resource for behavioral biology.
  
  
• Elsevier ScienceDirect - An index to scientific journals, with recent years of most of those published by Elsevier being available in full-text online.
  
  
• Academic Search Premier: accessible through the library's web site - an internet-based index to recent articles in a wide range of periodicals. Some of the articles are also available online. Simple keyword searching or more advanced word combinations are both possible
  
  
• Scirus is another index covering a broad spectrum of scientific journals. It searches journals, including those from Elsevier Science Publishing, and also scientific web sites, if you choose.
  
  
• Wilson OmniFile Select: another index to a select group of periodicals, all of which are available in full-text online.
  
  
• JSTOR: a searchable online collection of the back-runs of some major journals. It's best to limit your search by checking the box for "Ecology & Evolutionary Biology" journals.
  
  
• SORA - Searchable Ornithological Research Archive - an open access electronic journal archive
  
  
• IngentaConnect: This online index covers over 29,000 periodicals. Search by author name, or search for keywords in the titles of articles. There are no abstracts, and no articles available online. Its value is the wide range of periodicals it covers.
  
  

6) Locating the articles themselves: Use the link labeled Periodical Title Search (on the library home page) to determine whether a particular journal is available in paper, microfilm or online.

• Click the link for Periodical title search if you have only the title of the journal.
  • For paper and microfilm availability there will be a link to BearCat.
  • For journals available online, a link to the online collection that includes the journal is provided.
  • In all cases, and the exact years of the journal that are available are listed.
• To check for the availability of a particular article when you have complete bibliographic information, use Citation Linker - from the "Find Articles" pull-down tab.

Some articles will be available online, which you can then print or email to yourself. Other journals are not available this way. "Article Linker" buttons are found in most of the search tools listed above, which will help determine how an article is available. If you are checking the availability of an article from a reference list, always use CitationLinker (from the "Find Articles" tab) to determine if it is available online or in print before requesting an article on interlibrary loan.

7) InterLibrary Loan: If a book is not listed in BearCat or a journal is not listed when you check online as described above, you may choose to submit an interlibrary loan request. Interlibrary Loan is done through ILLiad. Register with ILLiad so you will be ready to use this system to submit requests. You must remember to allow sufficient time for the request to be sent and the material to be received (minimum of 7 days).

8) Ask at the Reference Desk for help at any time. (phone: 267-2485 ; chat: potsdamlibrary)

9) Generally useful:

• Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior. (Ref QL750.3 .E53 2004)
• Grzimek's Encyclopedia of Ethology. (Ref QL 751.G8945)
• Oxford Companion to Animal Behavior. (Ref QL 751.O9 1982)
• Animal Behavior Desk Reference. (Ref QL 750.3.B37 1992) A dictionary of terms used in animal behavior research and writing.
• Encyclopedia of land invertebrate behaviour. (Ref QL 364.2.P74 1993)
• Advances in the Study of Behavior. annual (QL 750.A38)
• Advances in Ecological Research. annual (QH 540.A23)
• Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. (QH 540.A53)

An online version of this guide is at: http://potsdam.libguides.com/Animal_Behavior