Tools & Techniques
E-Libraries
Libraries no longer have doors. On the Web, you can access millions of publications and documents. Here we list several key e-libraries — there are undoubtedly many more. These bibliographic databases lead you to mainstream publications as well as to government documents, unpublished reports, and other hard-to-find material. Note that databases marked with a * are free of charge.
* AGRICOLA (AGRICultural OnLine Access)
Created by the National Agricultural Library and its cooperators, the AGRICOLA database covers books and articles dating back to the 15th century. It focuses on publications and resources from agriculture, animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, and environmental sciences. AGRICOLA only provides citations; however, you will find extensive links to full-text documents. Records are continually updated. AGRICOLA is available on the Web, CD-ROM, and by Telnet.
BIOSIS
www.biosis.org/products_services/index.html
BIOSIS Previews is a combination of a vast collection of references of life science journal literature as well as references to meetings, reviews and books. Over twelve million records spanning 30 years cover biology, botany, veterinary science, and zoology. You likely will want to encourage your library to subscribe to BIOSIS Previews or to find a library where you can use it — prices from $27,800 for 2001. It is available on the Web (updated weekly), CD-ROM (updated quarterly), and in print (updated twice per month).
* Conserve Online
This new site produced by The Nature Conservancy is a collection of all kinds of practical information for the conservation practitioner — including journal articles, unpublished reports, case studies, presentations, maps, and software. The documents can be downloaded or viewed online. You can rank resources and write reviews as well as submit sources to add to the library.
* FirstGov
This public-private partnership is a portal to government information and services. The powerful search engine searches 30 million pages of U.S. Government documents extremely quickly. Search results link you to the appropriate web site or document.
Fish and Fisheries Worldwide
www.nisc.com/factsheets/ffw.htm
Produced by the National Information Services Corporation (NISC), this collection of over 300,000 citations and abstracts (dating from 1972) covers topics in ichthyology, aquaculture, limnology, oceanography, and fisheries management. It includes databases from the U.S. National Biological Service, Fish and Wildlife Reference Service, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. National Fisheries Research Center. Fish and Fisheries Worldwide is available on the Web and CD-ROM. Updates are available quarterly. Prices from $895/yr.
* GPO Access
www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/locators/cgp/index.html
The Government Printing Office site has the longest running and most extensive catalogue of all U.S. Government publications and web sites. There are 200,000 titles available with links to online full-text documents and web sources where available.
* GrayLIT Network
Developed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) at the DOE1 (in collaboration with DOD2 Defense Technical Information Centre, NASA3, and EPA4), GrayLIT Network is a portal for technical reports and information generated through federally-funded research and development projects. This site is useful for finding unpublished papers, proceedings, and other publications not funneled through mainstream publication channels. Search results include detailed citations with abstracts and scanned or downloadable full-text documents.
* National Environmental Publications Internet Site (NEPIS)
www.epa.gov/ncepihom/nepishom/index.html
This EPA4 database has over 7000 full-text EPA documents and information for ordering hard copies.
* Natural Resources Bibliography (NRBIB)
NRBIB is a searchable bibliography of information pertaining to the National Park Service (NPS). Publications range from internal NPS reports to New York Times articles. Search results lead you to citations, abstracts, and information on getting articles.
* USDA5 Forest Service
This Forest Service library of publications and datasets is available to anyone. Although you cannot search by keyword, the database is categorized by type of publication or data set. There are data sets pertaining to, for example, fire management, climate change, and regional flora — as well as maps and Forest Service software for download.
* U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Reference Service
fa.r9.fws.gov/r9fwrs/index.html
This publicly-available database includes reports and publications by state agencies from a variety of outlets including mainstream journals. It has a keyword search along with information on how to obtain documents from the Fish and Wildlife Service libraries.
Wildlife Worldwide
www.nisc.com/factsheets/ww.htm
Produced by the National Information Services Corporation (NISC), this collection of over 500,000 citations and abstracts (dating from 1935) covers publications on individual species, habitat types, economics, management, and more. It includes conference and symposium proceedings, web sites, government reports, theses and other gray literature. Wildlife Worldwide is a conglomeration of other databases from for example, the Swiss Wildlife Information Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Reference Service, U.S. Geological Survey Wetlands and Waterfowl Database and the World Conservation Union. Wildlife Worldwide is available on the Web and on CD-ROM. It is updated monthly (quarterly for CD-ROM version), and prices start at $995/yr.
ALL SEARCH ENGINES ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL
A single search engine indexes only a fraction of the Web. In fact, the Web is growing so fast (some say up to 7 million new pages a day), search engines can hardly keep up. Because no two search engines work the same way, if you don’t find what you are looking for with one engine, try another.
Google.com, AltaVista.com, Excite.com, NorthernLight.com
These engines are known as “Web crawlers,” because they send out a “spider” that travels the Web reading and indexing pages. They are the most common search engines and work well finding a concept that you can articulate well. NorthernLight has “Power Search” with advanced keyword options that are good for searching journal articles and subject matter. Google is particularly powerful (e.g., it can even find pdf files). Also, it is unusually clean, uncluttered by ads and Web gimmicks.
Metacrawler.com, DogPile.com
These metasearch engines are the search engines of search engines—they apply your search to multiple search engines. Use these engines when you want to cover as much of the Web as possible and don’t mind a plethora of results.
Yahoo.com, Lycos.com
Unlike the above engines, these directories actually are indexed by humans who organize web sites according to subject. The engine then searches the directory of site abstracts rather than the whole Web. Use these directories for quickly searching for a site by title, topic, or keyword.
Keep up-to-date at:
an evaluative web site that tracks, compares, and describes search engines.Further Information:
1 Department of Energy, 2 Department of Defense, 3 National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 4 Environmental Protection Agency, 5 United States Department of Agriculture
This article was compiled with the help of Nancy Hori and Debby Peck (National Park Service), Maureen Nolan (University of Washington), and Gretta Siegel (Portland State University).
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