A Quick Reference Guide to Online Bio-Ag Resources at Purdue

Originally prepared by Brook Freeman, Life Sciences Library. Now being updated by Monica Kirkwood, Operations Manager (494-7873; monicacu@purdue.edu)

From the Libraries homepage: http://www.lib.purdue.edu/. Click on "Articles & Databases", then select Databases by Subject. **Note: Access to many of these databases is limited to Purdue students, faculty, and staff.

Find a Journal Index according to its...
Subject matter (Agricultural, Biological, Medical, etc.)
Type of materials indexed (most current, general, multidisciplinary, includes full text,etc.)
Locate Biological & Agricultural Books...
Locate Biological / Agricultural Information on the Web...
Summary of Features in Various Databases...

If you need to locate articles on...	Use this Database....
Agricultural aspects	Agricola; CAB Abstracts; FSTA (Food Sci & Technol Abstr), Biological & Agricultural Index; GeoRef; Web of Science
Biological aspects	Biological Abstracts & Biological Abstracts RRM; Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts; Biological & Agricultural Index; Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management; Medline; Web of Science
Educational aspects	ERIC
Engineering aspects	Compendex; Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management; INSPEC; Applied Science & Technology Index [These include many environmental, soil, pollution, biotechnology topics]
Sociological, psychological aspects	PsycINFO; SocioFile; Social Sciences Index; Web of Science
Medical aspects	Medline; CINAHL; International Pharmaceutical Abstracts; HealthSource
General "magazine" articles as well as some scientific journals.	Academic Search; Masterfile; ProQuest; ArticleFirst
Most current information	Current Contents; Web of Science
Financial/business aspects	Look at the Management & Economic Library's homepage for guides to these resources

If you need this kind of article....	Use this database...
General "magazine" articles as well as some scientific journals.	Academic Search; Masterfile; ProQuest; ArticleFirst
Most current information	Current Contents; Web of Science
Multidisciplinary resources	Academic Search; Masterfile; ArticleFirst; Current Contents; ProQuest; Web of Science
Newspaper articles	Lexis-Nexis; Newspaper Source; Dow Jones Interactive; NewsBank NewsFile
Full-text for some articles	ProQuest; Academic Search; Masterfile; Lexis-Nexis

If you need to locate biological / agricultural books...	Use this resource...
Locally	Purdue University Libraries Catalog
Worldwide	WorldCat, Books in Print, Amazon, Barnes & Noble

If you need to locate biological / agricultural information on the web...	Use one of these resources...
Search Engines	Alltheweb Altavista Hotbot Northernlight IxQuick
Subject-categorized resources	Yahoo!

Summary of Features in Various Databases...

Search Engine Database(s)	Trun- ca- tion Symbol	Boolean Operators	To Search for a Phrase	Select articles and Email, Print, or Save to a Disk	Includes Abstracts	Has Links to the Purdue Online Catalog	Auto- Alerts * (SDIs)	Has Links to the Full Text
OVID Interface Agricola ERIC CINAHL Compendex Current Contents Medline PsychINFO SocioFile	$	and or not ()	firstword nextword	yes	yes	yes	yes*	no
WilsonWeb Interface Biological & Agricultural Index Applied Science & Technology Index	*	and or not ()	firstword nextword	yes	BioAg: no ASTI: yes	yes	no	no
Web of Science (= Science Citation Index) and Web of Science Proceedings	*	and or not ()	firstword nextword	yes	yes	no	no	some links to fulltext
ProQuest Research Library	?	and or and not ()	"firstword nextword"	yes	for newer articles, yes	no	no	many full text articles
FirstSearch Interface ArticleFirst WorldCat	+ (retrieve s plurals, only)	and not or () note: limit of two "or's" per search	firstword w1 nextword ("w1" means "within one word of")	yes	no	no	no	no
EBSCOHost Interface Academic Search MasterFILE Encyclopedia of Animals HealthSource	*	and or not ()	firstword nextword	yes	yes (very brief summaries)	no	no	many full text articles in Academic Search and Masterfile
Purdue Libraries Online Catalog via THOR, the Purdue Libraries Web Site.	? (in a keyword or assisted search)	AND OR NOT () (in a keyword search)	"firstword nextword" (in a keyword search)	yes	-	-	-	Has links to the e- journals to which Purdue sub- scribes
WebSPIRS Interface Biological Abstracts Books in Print CAB Abstracts GeoRef FSTA	*	and or not ()	firstword nextword	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
CSA Interface (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts) Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management Database ASFA (Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts)	*	and or not ()	firstword nextword	yes	yes	yes	no	no
Web Search Engines AltaVista, AllTheWeb, HotBot, Northern Light Yahoo IxQuick (MetaSearch)	*	When placed in front of a word: " +" means "and", " -" means "not"	"firstword nextword" Use quotes to denote a phrase.	-	-	-	-	-

* Auto-alerts (SDI) are searches that you create and that will be run automatically each time the database is updated (weekly, quarterly, etc.), generating an email to you with new matches. Usually folks create these in the Current Contents database, since Current Contents is updated weekly and is multidisciplinary in scope.