Michigan State University Libraries

Agriculture Research Guide

• 1st Choice Databases
  
  
• • CAB Abstracts
    
    CAB covers the subject of agriculture in the broadest sense. It includes: agronomy, biotechnology, crop protection, dairy science, economics, environmental degradation and remediation, forestry, genetics, herbicides, irrigation, leisure, recreation and tourism, microbiology, nutrition, parasitology, rural development, veterinary medicine and much more. Journals, monographs, conferences, books, annual reports and other sources from more than one country are scanned regularly for inclusion in the database.
  • AGRICOLA
    
    Covers every major agricultural subject, including agricultural engineering and marketing, animal breeding, entomology, environmental pollution, farm management, foods and feeds, pesticides, rural sociology, veterinary medicine, and water resources. Citations consist of journal articles, book chapters, monographs, conference proceedings, serials, technical reports, and other materials on a range of agricultural topics.
  • • Public access link to NAL's catalog, Agricola
      
      If you don't want to search Agricola using the OVID interface, this link is to the publicly-accessible Agricola search.
  • Biological Abstracts
    
    Indexes the biological and medical peer-reviewed journal literature.
  • BioOne
    
    An aggregation of high-impact bioscience research journals.
  • Biological & Agricultural Index
    
    Provides information from groundwater pollution to genetic engineering and covers the entire range of sciences related to biology and agriculture. Indexes 226 key periodicals in the life sciences and agriculture. Includes current book reviews.
  • ScienceDirect
    
    Provides access to full text of over 600 journals to which MSU Libraries have subscriptions, from 1995 to present. Also includes access to abstracts of articles in non-subscribed journals and pre-1995 issues.
  • Web of Science
    
    Includes the Institute for Scientific Information Citation Indexes - Arts and Humanities, Social Science, and Science. It indexes science, social sciences, and arts and humanities information from nearly 9,300 of the most prestigious, high impact research journals in the world.
  • Plant Management Network Plant Science Database
    
    
• 2nd Choice Databases
  
  
• • ASABE Technical Library
    
    Online access to all ASABE journals, standards, meeting and conference papers, textbooks, and monographs beginning with 2001. ASABE's journals are refereed publications: Applied Engineering in Agriculture (vol.13/1997); Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health (vol.1/1995) ; Transactions of the ASABE (vol.40/1997); Biological Engineering (vol.1/2008)
    ASABE Technical Library Contents - a cursory title list to many of the titles available in this database
  • Garden, Landscape and Horticulture Index
    
    The Garden, Landscape and Horticulture Index is a popular and scholarly index to over 300 journals on gardening, horticulture, landscape design, botany, ecology, plant conservation, garden management, and horticultural therapy.
  • Groundwater and Soil Contamination Database
    
    This database published by the American Geological Institute includes over 60,000 references to documents published since 1975. Over 1,000 new references will be added in each quarterly update. Coverage is worldwide, with emphasis on the United States. Journal articles, books, conference proceedings, theses and dissertations are included. Also covered are all relevant reports of the U.S. Geological Survey, and reports of the U.S. Departments of Energy, Defense, Health and Human Services, and the Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
  • Plant Management Network
    
    The Plant Management Network is a unique cooperative resource for the applied plant sciences. Designed to provide plant science practitioners fast electronic access to proven solutions, the Plant Management Network offers an extensive searchable database comprised of thousands of web-based resource pages from the network's partner universities, companies, and associations. In addition, the network's three peer-reviewed citable journals, Applied Turfgrass Science, Crop Management, Forage and Grazinglands, and Plant Health Progress, provide credible current information in areas important to practitioners, policy makers, and the public.
  • American Periodical Series (APS) Full-Text
    
    Full-text database of American periodicals published between the 1700's and 1899.
  • • A list and description of the Agriculture titles in this database.
      
      
    • A list and description of the Horticulture titles in this database.
      
      
  • PlantFacts
    
    Horticulture and crop science information from 46 different colleges, universities, and government institutions across the United States and Canada. This searchable site run by the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, The Ohio State University provides access to over 260,000 pages of Extension fact sheets and bulletins from every land-grant university in the U.S. and several government institutions across Canada. Try this resource even for non-plant research queries as their "plant" filter is porous.
  • AGRIS
    
    Covers all aspects of agriculture, including forestry, animal husbandry, the aquatic sciences and fisheries, and human nutrition. The database is produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) in cooperation with participating countries and international organizations.
  • FAOSTAT (MSU only)
    
    FAOSTAT is an on-line and multilingual database currently containing over 1 million time-series records covering international statistics in the following areas: Production, Trade, Food Balance Sheets, Food Aid Shipments, Fertilizer and Pesticides, Land Use and Irrigation, Forest Products, Fishery Products, Population, Agricultural Machinery. The service provides extended on-line query and download limits (10,000 records per query) and unlimited access to FTP bulk download files. A copy of this data is also available on CD-ROM in GD/SSHR of the Main Library.
  • FAO Corporate Document Repository
    
    The FAO Corporate Document Repository houses FAO documents and publications, as well as selected non-FAO publications, in electronic format. It enables users to easily access the accumulated knowledge and information produced by FAO directly on the Internet.
    To view the new publications added to the repository in the last month, see new documents.
    The advanced search provides the user with the means to carry out a specific search, by querying a particular field or combination of fields. There are three distinct advanced searches, one for meeting documents one for publications, such as books and journals, and one for articles.
    
  • Compendex
    
    Worldwide coverage of journals and conference publications in all areas of engineering.
  • Food Science and Technology Abstracts (FSTA)
    
    FSTA covers all areas of food science, food technology, and human nutrition, including basic food science, biotechnology, toxicology, packaging, and engineering. Some 1800 publications in over 40 languages are scanned regularly, including journals, reviews, standards, legislation, patents, books, theses, and conference proceedings.
  • MEDLINE (from PubMed)
    
    MEDLINE is the National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences. Retrospective to the 1950s, it contains bibliographic citations with author abstracts (since 1975) from over 5000 international biomedical journals published in the US and 80 other countries. Many of the citations since the 1995 have links to the fulltext of the article.
  • Directory of open access journals: DOAJ
    
    Links to the Agriculture and Food Sciences journals in the DOAJ.
  • Turfgrass Information File (TGIF)
    
    TGIF provides access to professional, technical, scientific, and popular materials, both print and electronic, relating to turfgrass science, culture, and the design and management of turfgrass-based facilities, such as golf courses, parks, sports fields, lawns, sod farms, roadsides, institutional grounds, and other managed landscapes, on a worldwide basis. Over 30% of TGIF records directly link to full-text content.
  • AgBioForum
    
    AgBioForum publishes articles which enhance the on-going dialogue on the economics and management of agricultural biotechnology. The purpose of AgBioForum is to provide unbiased, timely information and new ideas leading to socially responsible and economically efficient decisions in science, public policy and private strategies pertaining to agricultural biotechnology.
  • Access to Extension and Experiment Station Publications
    
    A compilation of search engines and databases to extension and other agriculture, forestry and horticulture information.

S

1-954 Agriculture (General)
560-572 Farm economics. Farm management
583-589.6 Agricultural chemistry and physics
590-599.9 Soils
604.8-621.5 Reclamation and irrigation of farm land. Includes organic farming
622-627 Soil conservation
631-667 Fertilizers and soil improvement
671-760.5 Farm machinery and engineering
900-954 Conservation of general natural resources
[For wildlife conservation, see QL; for marine resources conservation, see SH; for mineral resources conservation, see TN]
950-954 Land conservation



SB

1-1110 Plant culture
107-109 Economic botany
110-112 Methods for special areas, including dry-land and tropical agriculture, irrigation farming
113.2-118.45 Seeds
118.48-118.75 Nurseries. Nursery industry
119-124 Propagation
183-317 Field crops
317.5-450.87 Horticulture
320-353.5 Vegetables
354-402 Fruit culture. Nut culture. Orchards
403-450.87 Flowers. Ornamental plans
449-450.87 Flower arrangement
450.9-467 Gardens and gardening
469-476.4 landscape gardening. Landscape Architecture
481-485 Parks and public reserves
599-990.5 Diseases and pests, including treatment and control

• Full Text Online Documents in the Agricultural Sciences
  
  This guide compiles documents that are full text and are freely available over the Internet. This site does not include online books/documents that are subscription based and/or require passwords or payment.
• Agricultural Communications Documentation Center
  
  Searchable database of over 30,000 references including articles, books, theses and dissertations, and unpublished studies. Many of the references are not cited in the Agricola database. Created and maintained by the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• Agriculture Glossary - House committee on Agriculture
  
  A Glossary of Agricultural Terms, Programs and Laws - A product of the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress at the request of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture
• Agriculture Network Information Center (AgNIC)
  
  Source of agricultural information in electronic form over an international network of networks. Agricultural information includes basic, applied, and developmental research, extension, and teaching activities in the food, agricultural, renewable natural resources, forestry, and physical and social sciences.
• AGROVOC Thesaurus
  
  AGROVOC is a multilingual structured thesaurus of all subject fields in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food and related domains (e.g. environment). It consists of words or expressions (terms), in different languages and organized in relationships (e.g. “broader”, “narrower”, and “related”), used to identify or search resources. Its main role is to standardize the indexing process in order to make searching simpler and more efficient, and to provide the user with the most relevant resources. It was developed by FAO and the Commission of the European Communities, in the early 1980s. It is updated by FAO roughly every three months.
• Aquaculture Network Information Center (AquaNIC)
  
  AquaNIC houses or provides links to thousands of state, national, and international aquaculture publications, newsletters, visual media, calendars, job services, directories and specialty sections for species and production systems.
• Aromatic, Herbal and Medical Plants
  
  A guide to aromatic & medicinal plants, culinary herbs & spices.
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
  
  Ten major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions have joined to form the Biodiversity Heritage Library Project. They are digitizing the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections, and so far have over 1.124 million pages of key taxonomic literature available on the web. From a scholarly perspective, these collections are of exceptional value because the domain of systematic biology depends -- more than any other science -- upon historic literature. The “cited half-life” of natural history literature is longer than that of any other scientific domain.
• Botanicus
  
  Botanicus is a freely accessible, Web-based encyclopedia of historic botanical literature from the Missouri Botanical Garden Library. Botanicus is made possible through support from the W.M. Keck Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
• CAT Alerts
  
  The CAT Alerts offer pest and crop management advice for current conditions. The information is written by MSU faculty and Extension educators.
• Core Historical Literature of Agriculture
  
  The Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA) is a core electronic collection of agricultural texts published between the early nineteenth century and the middle to late twentieth century. Full-text materials cover agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, animal science, crops and their protection, food science,forestry, human nutrition, rural sociology, and soil science. Scholars have selected the titles in this collection for their historical importance. Their evaluations and 4,500 core titles are detailed in the seven volume series The Literature of the Agricultural Sciences, Wallace C. Olsen, series editor.
• CropINDEX
  
  CropINDEX is an extensive alphabetical list of all common and scientific crop names held on this site, but does not include Famine Foods entries which are indexed separately. Use CropINDEX if you already know the name of the crop or species, or just want to browse.
• CropSEARCH
  
  The CropSEARCH locates crops by name, topic, uses, geography, commodity, author citations, etc; and locates any terms entered. Use CropSEARCH for keyword subject searching.
• Current Research Information System
  
  CRIS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's documentation and reporting system for ongoing and recently completed research and education projects in agriculture, food and nutrition, and forestry. Projects are conducted or sponsored by USDA research agencies, state agricultural experiment stations, land-grant universities, other cooperating state institutions, and participants in CSREES-administered grant programs, including Small Business Innovation Research and National Research Initiative, and the programs administered by the CSREES Science and Education Resources Development unit. CRIS is an application of the CSREES Information Systems and Technology Management unit.
• Famine Foods Database
  
  The Famine Foods Database describes unconventional food sources used in times of desperation or famine. This botanical-humanistic subject has had little academic exposure, and provides insight to potential new food sources that ordinarily would not be considered.
• Farmland Information Center (An AgNIC Site)
  
  The FIC is a clearinghouse for information about farmland protection and stewardship. It is a partnership between the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and American Farmland Trust.
• FDA Glossary of Pesticide Chemicals, June 2005
  
  
• Glossary of Forage Terms
  
  From the Forage Information System, a comprehensive resource for forage-related topics, including Extension, research, and teaching information.
• Glossary of Technical Terms in Plant Pathology
  
  On-Line Glossary of Technical Terms in Plant Pathology with a pronunciation guide.
• Grain Milling & Processing (An AgNIC Site)
  
  The site is devoted to milling and processing of cereal grains and their use in baking, animal feed production, and industrial applications. Grain Milling and Processing is created by Kansas State University Libraries in collaboration with the K-State Department of Grain Science and Industry and is a component of AgNIC.
• Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management
  
  The Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management is a non-profit grant funded site that provides research-based information on how to responsibly handle wildlife damage problems. This site seeks to service the needs of four key constituency groups: homeowners, agricultural producers, professionals (both academic and industry providers) and policy makers, such as government agencies.
  Users are encouraged to browse, read, download, save, print, and link to articles or documents found on this site, but are admonished not to re-publish, re-post, mirror, or otherwise re-distribute materials without the permission of the original copyright holders.
• National Agricultural Law Center
  
  The National Agricultural Law Center is the only agricultural law research and information facility that is independent, national and international in scope, and directly connected to the national agricultural information network. The Center has expanded the scope of its coverage to include food law as it recognizes the expanding scope of agricultural law and its convergence with food law topics. The Center is staffed by a team of law and research professors, lawyers, other specialists, and graduate assistants from the University of Arkansas School of Law Graduate Program in Agricultural Law.
• Organic Agriculture in Michigan - 2006 Survey Report
  
  From the Preface: This report is part of a collaborative project by Michigan State University (MSU) and the Michigan Organic Food and Farm Alliance (MOFFA) to identify the opportunities for more Michigan fruit and vegetable growers to participate in the growing market for organic produce. It is the first status report on organic agriculture that presents data about Michigan’s organic agriculture community. The report is presented for use in the development of policy, research and extension priorities to support the growth and diversification of Michigan organic production and marketing. (In PDF Format, 36 pages)
• Sustainable Agriculture: Information Access Tools
  
  Compiled by the National Agricultural Library, this is a list of resources on the history and current applications of Sustainable Agriculture.
• Understanding Grass Growth: A Key to Practical Livestock Production
  
  An online book from the University of Nebraska.

• USDA Census of Agriculture - 2007
  
  
• USDA 2002 Census of Agriculture
  
  
• Census of Agriculture - Historical Reports
  
  The 1840 Census was the first to include statistics on agriculture. Since then, each subsequent census has continued to gauge the overall picture of U.S. agriculture. Many of these are available on-line through the U.S. Census Bureau website or here as PDFs. [Site covers 1840-1950, with links to the 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007 reports.]
• USDA Agricultural Economic Reports
  
  This is a Number/Title/Subject list of the USDA Agricultural Economic Reports. Many, but not all, link to the FULL TEXT of the document, in pdf format.
• USDA Agriculture Handbooks
  
  This is a Number/Title/Subject list of the USDA Agriculture Handbook series. Many, but not all, link to the FULL TEXT of the document, in pdf format.
• USDA Agriculture Information Bulletins
  
  This is a Number/Title/Subject list of the USDA Agriculture Information Bulletins series. Many, but not all, link to the FULL TEXT of the document, in pdf format.
• USDA Farmers' Bulletins
  
  This is a Number/Title/Subject list of the USDA Farmers' Bulletin series. Many, but not all, link to the FULL TEXT of the document, in pdf format.
  Shelf location in the MSU Main Library - MSU GOV DOCS US DOCS, 3 West: A 1.9:nos.
• USDA Foreign Agricultural Economic Reports
  
  This is a Number/Title/Subject list of the USDA Foreign Agricultural Economic Reports. It was compiled in August 2002 by the National Agricultural Library. This series was suspended in 1995.
• USDA Home and Garden Bulletin Archive
  
  Searchable archive to the USDA Home and Garden Bulletins, published between 1951-2003. The project is sponsored by the AgNIC consortium, the PDFs are courtesy of the National Agriculture Library, and the online collection is hosted by the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University.
  Shelf location in the MSU Main Library - MSU GOV DOCS US DOCS, 3 West: A 1.77:nos.
• USDA Marketing Research Reports
  
  This is a Number/Title/Subject list of the USDA Marketing Research Reports. It was compiled in May 2003 by the National Agricultural Library, Agricultural Research Service.
• USDA Miscellaneous Publications
  
  This is a Number/Title/Subject list of the USDA Miscellaneous Publications series. Many, but not all, link to the FULL TEXT of the document, in pdf format.
  Shelf location in the MSU Main Library - MSU GOV DOCS US DOCS, 3 West: A 1.38:nos.
• USDA Technical Bulletins
  
  This is a Number/Title/Subject list of the USDA Technical Bulletins series. Many, but not all, link to the FULL TEXT of the document, in pdf format.
  Shelf location in the MSU Main Library - MSU GOV DOCS US DOCS, 3 West: A 1.36:nos.

• Agricultural Equipment Catalogs in the MSU Libraries
  
  On this page are the firms represented by five pieces or more with the years of coverage and the number of pieces. We also hold many 1-4 piece collections not identified on this list. Please contact Special Collections for more information.
• Michigan Agricultural Products - Commodity Related Pages
  
  List the primary agricultural commodities of Michigan and links to summaries, organizations, and recipes.
• Michigan Centennial Farms
  
  The Centennial Farm Program is part of the Historical Society of Michigan, the state's official historical society and its oldest cultural organization, founded in 1828. The Centennial Farm Program is intended to recognize farms that have remained in the same family for one hundred years or more and highlight the family farm's contributions to Michigan's development.
• Historic Publications of the MSU Extension Service
  
  Archived copies of MSU Extension publications. Do not use for current recommendations; up-to-date information about many topics can be obtained from local Extension offices and the Educational Materials Distribution Center. Clicking on a title will take you to a brief description of the bulletin and a link to the full text document.
• Proceedings of the Public Domain Commission, 1909-1921
  
  Location: ARCHIVES OF MICHIGAN-Michigan Historical Center (2E)
  The Public Domain Commission was created by Public Act 280 of 1909. The Commission had power and jurisdiction over public lands, forest reserves, and all the interests of the state in connection with stream protection and control, forest fire protection and all matters within the jurisdiction of the Michigan Forestry Commission. Through the work of the Commission, state lands were withdrawn from market and set aside as forest reserves for Michigan. In 1920, the Michigan Department of Conservation, which was created by Public Act 17 of 1921, assumed the duties of the Commission. The Michigan Department of Conservation was renamed the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in 1968.

• CRC world dictionary of plant names: Common names, scientific names, eponyms, synonyms, and etymology / Umberto Quattrocchi
  
  MSU REFERENCE, 1 EAST: QK13 .Q38 2000
• Dictionary of agricultural and environmental science / Frederick R. Troeh, Roy L. Donahue
  
  MSU REFERENCE, 1 EAST: S411 .T76 2003
• Encyclopedia of agricultural, food, and biological engineering / edited by Dennis R. Heldman
  
  MSU REFERENCE, 1 EAST: TP368.2 .E57 2003
• Encyclopedia of agricultural science / edited by Charles J. Arntzen, Ellen M. Ritter
  
  MSU REFERENCE, 1 EAST: S411 .E713 1994
• Mansfeld's encyclopedia of agricultural and horticultural crops (except ornamentals) / Peter Hanelt [and] Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, (eds.)
  
  MSU REFERENCE, 1 EAST: SB107 .M38 2001
• Sittig's handbook of pesticides and agricultural chemicals / edited by Stanley A. Greene and Richard P. Pohanish
  
  MSU REFERENCE, 1 EAST: S633 .S6265 2005
• Specialty and minor crops handbook : crop sheets 001-037 / compiled by Claudia Myers
  
  MSU REFERENCE, 1 EAST: SB321 .S6 1991
• Thesaurus of agricultural organisms : pests, weeds and diseases / compiled and edited by Derwent Publications Ltd with the assistance of CIBA-GEIGY SA
  
  MSU REFERENCE, 1 EAST: SB603.5 .T54 1990
• Thomson's Spanish-English English-Spanish illustrated agricultural dictionary / by Robert P. Rice Jr.
  
  MSU REFERENCE, 1 EAST: S411 .R48 1993

• MSU Libraries Data Center Information - Agriculture
  
  A compiled list of agricultural data set sources available through the Internet.
• Library Numeric Data in Electronic Resources - Agriculture
  
  

• NetLibrary - First time user's guide
  
  This will help you set up your free account to use the NetLibrary resources.
  

• American Forage and Grassland Council (AFGC)
  
  
• American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers
  
  
• ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
  
  
• CAST - Council for Agricultural Science and Technology
  
  CAST is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization composed of 38 scientific societies and many individual, student, company, nonprofit, and associate society members. The primary work of CAST is the publication of task force reports, commentary papers and issue papers written by scientists from many disciplines. CAST addresses issues of animal sciences, food sciences and agricultural technology, plant and soil sciences, and plant protection sciences with inputs from economists, social scientists, toxicologists or plant pathologists and entomologists, weed scientists, nematologists, and legal experts.
• Crop Science Society of America
  
  
• ForageInfo.com
  
  
• Forage Information System
  
  A comprehensive resource for forage-related topics, including Extension, research, and teaching information.
• Irrigation Association
  
  
• Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
  
  

• Agriculture Experiment Station Documents - Search Strategies
• Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics Research Guide
• Botany Research Guide
• Forestry Research Guide
  
• Full Text Online Documents in the Agricultural Sciences
• Organic, Sustainable, and Alternative Farming Systems
• Horticulture and Gardening Research Guide
  
• Biofuels and Bioenergy Resources
  
• Soils and Agronomy Research Guide
• Turfgrass Information Center
  
• Grants for individuals in Agriculture/Forestry/Horticulture
  
• Research guides in Environmental Studies
  
• Research guides in Biological Sciences