Course Research Guide for GEOL 194: Vertebrate Paleobiology & Evolution

• Research & Computing Help
  
  
• Reference Resources
  
  
• Finding Books: Catalogs
  
  
• Finding Articles & More : Indexes

• Web Research
  
  
• Evaluating Research Materials
  
  
• Borrowing Materials & Interlibrary Loan
  
  
• Citing Your Resources

Research Help

• What? Librarians will help with research questions related to choosing a research topic or question, finding background information, choosing and searching within Library catalogs and subscription resources, finding books and articles at Macalester, requesting materials from other libraries, finding statistics, evaluating research resources, etc.
  
  
• When? Monday-Thursday 8am-9pm, Friday 8am-4:30pm, Saturday 1pm-5pm, Sunday 1pm-9pm. Librarians can also help through email, consultation sessions, and chat. See More Help in this section for additional information about these types of help.
  
  
• Where? The Reference Desk is located just inside the main doors of the Library and to your right.
  
  
• More Help
  
  
  • Sign Up for a Reference Consultation Session with a Librarian using the Library's Ask Us service (Limited Hours).
    
    
  • Call the Reference Desk at x6618 [Off Campus (651) 696-6618].
    
    
  • Send an Email Reference Question using the Library's Ask Us service.
    
    
  • Chat with a Librarian using the Library's Ask Us service (Limited Hours).
    
    
  • Contact your Instruction Session Librarian.

Computing Help

• What? CIT (Computing and Information Technology) staff members and student employees will help you with questions related to computer hardware and software, the network, email, printing, passwords and online accounts, etc.
  
  
• When? Monday-Thursday 8am-10pm, Friday 8am-4pm, Sunday 4pm-10pm.
  
  
• Where? The Computing Help Desk office is located in the Humanities Building, Room 310.
  
  
• More Help
  
  
  • Find more information and help on the Computing Help Desk Web page.
    
    
  • Call the CIT (Computing & Information Technology) Computing Help Desk at x6525 [Off Campus (651) 696-6525] to speak directly to a consultant or leave a message.
    
    
  • Email the Computing Help Desk to report a problem or ask a question.
    
    
  • Use CIT Documentation, instructional handouts explaining systems and software, for help with computer, application, program, and network questions.

• What? Reference materials include resources like dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, almanacs, handbooks, statistical materials, etc.
  
  
• When? Use resources in the Reference Collection to find background information on your topic area when you start your research projects.
  
  
• Where? Reference Collection Library Map. Use the CLICnet Catalog to search for resources in the Reference Collection. Print books are shelved under Library of Congress Call Numbers, including both letters and numbers, based on their subject matter.
  
  
  
  • Electronic Reference Resources - Collection of subscription reference packages

Selected Reference Resources for this Course

General Reference Resources

AccessScience

Coverage: Date Varies | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Multidisciplinary (Social Sciences, Sciences)
Resource Type: Electronic Reference Resource (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor Information: McGraw-Hill
Description: Online collection of science reference materials including the online version of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, and McGraw-Hill Yearbooks of Science & Technology. Also covers news sources, biographies, Web sites, resource & study guides, illustrations, and images.

Encyclopedia of life sciences

Location: MAC Reference QH302.5 .E53 2002
Publishing director, Gina Fullerlove. London : Nature Publishing Group ; New York : Distributed by Grove Dictionaries, Inc., c2002

Oxford Reference Online

Coverage: Current | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Multidisciplinary (Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences)
Resource Type: Electronic Reference Resource (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: Oxford University Press
Description: Resource of reference materials including about 100 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. Provides database-wide searching, subject searching across sources, and individual title searching.

Xreferplus

Coverage: Current | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Multidisciplinary (Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences)
Resource Type: Electronic Reference Resource (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: Xrefer
Description: Resource of reference materials providing access to about 150 online reference books including encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and books of quotations from a variety of publishers. Covers both general reference and subject-specific reference titles for a variety of disciplines. Allows cross-referencing across different books and provides a unique, graphics-based Research Mapper for topic exploration.

Paleontology, Biology, & Evolution

Access Science - Paleontology

Location: Online Reference Resource (See Also: Access Science in General Reference Resources)
Publisher/Vendor Information: McGraw-Hill
Description: Covers subject areas within paleontology including general paleontology and paleobotany and fossils for amphibians, birds, fishes, humans, invertebrates, mammals, and reptiles.

Birds of North America

Location: MAC Reference QL 681 .B625
Washington, DC : American Ornithologists' Union, c1992-2002.

Encyclopedia of biodiversity

Location: MAC Reference QH541.15.B56 E53 2001
E ditor-in-chief, Simon Asher Levin. San Diego : Academic Press, 2001.

Encyclopedia of dinosaurs

Location: MAC Reference QE862.D5 C862 1997
Edited by Philip J. Currie, Kevin Padian. San Diego : Academic Press, c1997.

Encyclopedia of evolution

Location: MAC Reference QH360.2 .O83 2002
Mark Pagel, editor in chief. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.

Encyclopedia of paleontology

Location: MAC Reference QE703 .E523 1999
E ditor, Ronald Singer. Chicago : Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1999.

Frontiers of life

Location: MAC Reference QH302.5 .F76 2002
Advisory board editorial directors, David Baltimore ... [et al.] San Diego, Calif. : Academic ; Roma : Treccani, c2002.

Grzimek's animal life encyclopedia

Location: MAC Reference QL7 .G7813 2003
Detroit : Gale, 2003.

Life on earth : an encyclopedia of biodiversity, ecology, and evolution

Location: MAC Reference QH541.15.B56 L54 2002
Edited by Niles Eldredge. Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, c2002.

• What? A catalog is a record of items and materials owned, or subscribed to, by a particular library or group of libraries. Here at Macalester our online catalog is called CLICnet.
  
  
• When? Catalogs are the primary research tool to use when you need to find books. A catalog will allow you to search by the title or author of an item and also provide you with different ways to find research materials by topic.
  
  
• Where? Print books are shelved under Library of Congress Call Numbers, including both letters and numbers, based on their subject matter. See the Library's Locating Books at Macalester Web page for more information.
  
  
  
  • CLICnet - Books and other materials owned by Macalester's Library
    
    
  • MNCAT - Books and other materials owned by the University of Minnesota

  
  
  What if I want a book that is not available at Macalester?

  If the book is available at another school in the CLICnet Catalog: Use the red "Request" button that appears in the catalog near the top of the page in the record for the item.

  If the book is NOT available in the CLICnet Catalog: Submit an Interlibrary Loan request. Please see the Library's Interlibrary Loan - Borrowing Policy Web page for more information.

• What? Indexes are subscription databases, or a set of print volumes, that provide information about research materials by subject. Many indexes are multidisciplinary in nature, containing research information covering a variety of disciplines. The Library pays for Macalester community members to have access to these packages.
  
  
• When? Use indexes when you need to find information about articles in journals, magazines, newspapers, and reference sources for you research projects. Many of these resources also include information about other research materials such as books, book chapters, government publications, working papers, conference proceedings, Web sites, statistical resources, etc.
  
  
• Where? The fulltext of an article is sometimes available in a particular online index or we may subscribe to the print version of a journal you need. Use the Journal Finder Catalog to determine if the Library subscribes to a particular journal or other periodical either online or in print in the Library.
  
  
  
  • Indexes & Electronic Collections by Title - Subscription databases and other electronic collections available at Macalester.

  
  
  What if I want an article that is not available in an online or print journal at Macalester?

  If the article is not available in print or online journal at Macalester: Submit an Interlibrary Loan request. Please see the Library's Interlibrary Loan - Borrowing Policy Web page for more information.

Selected Indexes & Electronic Collections for this Course

Academic Search Premier

Coverage: 1975 - | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Multidisciplinary (Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences)
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor Information: EBSCOhost, EBSCO Publishing
Description: Provides full text for nearly 4,600 scholarly publications, including full text for more than 3,500 peer-reviewed journals. Coverage spans virtually every area of academic study and offers information dating as far back as 1975.

BasicBIOSIS

Coverage: Current 3 Years | Search Help

Discipline/Topic Areas: Biology
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor Information: BIOSIS, OCLC FirstSearch
Description: Index to scholarly journals in the fields of biology and life sciences.

BioOne

Coverage: 1998 - | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Biology, Environmental Science
Resource Type: Ejournal Collection (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor Information: BioOne
Description: Collection of full-text subscription ejournals covering the fields of biology, ecology, and environmental science. Searching is available as well as browsing by journal title. Use the BioOne Abstract and Index database for the most complete search options for BioOne collection content.

BioOne Abstracts and Indexes

Coverage: 1998 - | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Biology, Environmental Science
Resource Type: Ejournal Collection (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor Information: BioOne, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA)
Description: Indexes the BioOne collection of ejournals covering the fields of biology, ecology, and environmental science. Links are provided to the full-text articles available in the BioOne ejournal collection.

GEOBASE (GEOBASE)

Coverage: 1980 - | Search Help

Discipline/Topic Areas: Environmental Science, Geography, Geology
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: OCLC FirstSearch
Description: International index to the literature of geology, geography and ecology. Coverage includes journals, books, monographs, conference proceedings, and reports.

GeoRef

Coverage: 1785 - | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Geology
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA)
Description: Indexes journals, book, maps, reports, theses in the fields of geology and earth sciences.

JSTOR

Coverage: Date Varies | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Multidisciplinary (Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences)
Resource Type: Ejournal Collection (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: JSTOR
Description: Large collection of core scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Fulltext back to their date of first publication to within the current 2-5 years.

Project MUSE

Coverage: Date Varies | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Multidisciplinary (Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences)
Resource Type: Ejournal Collection (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: Johns Hopkins University Press, Project MUSE
Description: Searchable collection of fulltext journals in the humanities, social sciences and sciences.

Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI Expanded)

Coverage: 1985 - | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Multidisciplinary (Sciences)
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: Thomson ISI, Web of Knowledge
Description: Multidisciplinary database with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of the sciences. It indexes more than 5,700 major journals across 164 scientific disciplines. A feature of this index is the inclusion of all cited references.

• What? The Internet is used to access information stored in files or documents on another computer. When you use the Internet, you retrieve documents, view images, programs, animation, and video, listen to sound files, speak and hear voice, via the World Wide Web. (From the UC Berkeley Library Web site)
  
  
• When? Use the Web to start your research. Like Reference Collection resources, Websites can help with finding background information for your research project.
  
  
• Where? Use a Web browser like Mozilla, Internet Explorer, Safari, Netscape, Avant, or Opera to access information via the Internet. No single search engine can claim to even come close to searching the entire Web. For best results, use multiple search engines.
  
  
  
  • Google - A great search engine to start with when surfing and searching on the Web.
    
    
  • Search Engine Watch - Access additional search engines. Also find information and reviews about these search engines.

Selected Web Resources for this Course

Pterosauria

University of California Museum of Paleontology

UCMP Vertebrate Holdings and Catalog Information

University of California Museum of Paleontology

USGS - U.S. Geological Survey

U.S. Department of the Interior

Evaluating research materials involves analyzing a resource to determine its usefulness and appropriateness with respect to your research project. Evaluation is important during all phases of a research project. You must select the best and most appropriate resources for your research.

Criteria to Consider When Evaluating Research Materials:

• What? Interlibary Loan, or ILL, is a DeWitt Wallace Library service that allows current Macalester students, staff, and faculty to request materials not available at Macalester.
  
  
• When? If Macalester does not own, or subscribe to, the research material you need, you can ask the Library to try and borrow the item from another Library in the area.
  
  
• Where? The Library uses a system called ILLiad that allows you to place requests for materials and track the status of these requested materials.
  
  
  
  • ILLiad Login - Use to access an existing account in the ILLiad system.
    
    
  • Interlibrary Loan - Borrowing Policy - For more information about Interlibrary Loan and ILLiad.

• What? Giving credit to the ideas of other scholars when you use their work or research in developing your own project.
  
  
• When? You must cite a resource whenever you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or otherwise refer to the work of another.
  
  
• Where? Citing a source usually includes parenthetical documentation or use of a footnote within the text of your project as well as creating a works cited reference list at the end of your project using a specific citation style. See the Library's Citing Resources Guide Web page for more information.
  
  
  
  • RefWorks - Service that allows you to download, organize, annotate, and search citations you find during your research as well as create in-text citations and works cited bibliographies for your papers.
    
    

Common Citation Style Manuals

Chicago Manual of Style
Chicago : The Press, 1982-
MAC Ref Z253 .U69 2003

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
Joseph Gibaldi. New York : Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
MAC Ref LB2369 .G53 2003

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
Washington, DC : American Psychological Association, c2001.
MAC Ref BF76.7 .P83 2001