Find Articles: Indexes and Databases
To find an article you need to use an index/database. Use the following to help you locate resources on your topic.
- 1st Choice Databases
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- Biological Abstracts
Indexes the biological and medical peer-reviewed journal literature.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 2nd Choice Databases
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- 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.
- 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.
- Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts
The ASFA series is the premier reference in the field of aquatic resources. Input to ASFA is provided by a growing international network of information centers monitoring over 5,000 serial publications, books, reports, conference proceedings, translations and limited
distribution literature. ASFA is a component of the Aquatic Sciences and
Fisheries Information System, formed by four United Nations agency sponsors of ASFA and two international partners.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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.
- Directory of open access journals: DOAJ
Links to the botany journals in the DOAJ.
Find Books
Link to the New Books - Botany blog
Books are excellent resources, providing depth and extensive coverage on a huge array of topics. To find books at MSU you use our online catalog.
The online catalog lists all of the materials owned by MSU, both print and electronic, including books, journals, cd's, government documents, videos, and dissertations. Search by author, title, or keyword.
Books are shelved by Library of Congress call number. Here is a breakdown of Library of Congress call numbers for many botany-related subjects:
QK
1 Periodicals, societies, congresses, serial publications
7-9 Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
14.5 Botanical literature, including Herbals
26-31 Biographies
71-73 Botanical gardens
75-77 Herbariums
79-79.5 Museums. Exhibitions
91-97 Museums. Exhibitions
91 Works of Linnaeus (Botany only)
102-105 Aquatic flora
108-474.5 Topographic divisions
474.8-495.Z Spermatophyta. Phanerogams
500-599 Cryptogams
640-680 Plant anatomy
683-707 Individual plant parts
710-899 Plant physiology
900-989 Plant ecology
ALSO...
QE 993 Palynology (the study of live and fossil spores, pollen grains, and similar plant structures)
S Agriculture
SB Horticulture
SD General Forestry
Websites of Interest
- AgNIC Plant Science
Provides information on all aspects of plant life from anatomy, to taxonomy, to ecology and uses. Includes links to images and keys.
- American Botanical Literature, Index to
The Index contains entries dealing with various aspects of extant and fossil American plants and fungi, including systematics and floristics, morphology, and ecology, as well as economic botany and general botany (publications dealing with botanists, herbaria, etc.). "America" is defined in the broadest possible sense, encompassing land and marine plants and fungi from Greenland to Antarctica. American territory outside this area, e.g., Hawaii, is not included.
The searchable database includes all those entries published in the Index since 1996, and thus includes botanical literature appearing since late 1995. We have made minimal progress in retrospective cataloging, and will continue to add older literature as time and manpower are available. If a bibliographic entry is not in the Index, it probably means either (1) the subject matter was considered inappropriate (e.g., physiology, genetics), or (2) the publication has not arrived at the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of The New York Botanical Garden.
- 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.
- International Plant Names Index
The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) is a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of all seed plants. Its goal is to eliminate the need for repeated reference to primary sources for basic bibliographic information about plant names.
- Kew Bibliographic Databases
The Kew Bibliographic Databases is a combined searching tool giving you access to three bibliographic databases: KR - The Kew Record of Taxonomic Literature, PMBD - the Plant Micromorphological Bibliographic Database and EBBD - the Economic Botany Bibliographic Database.
There is no charge for using the KBD and you may carry out a simple search, retrieving a limited number of references, without registering. Registered users can access a much larger number of records at a time, search just the data sets they are interested in, download selected records, save searches for repeated use and perform more complex searches.
Kew Record of Taxonomic Literature is a bibliography of over 200,000 publications published since 1971 and relating to the taxonomy of flowering plants, gymnosperms, and ferns. It contains references to all publications relating to the taxonomy of flowering plants, gymnosperms and ferns. It also includes references on phytogeography, nomenclature, chromosome surveys, chemotaxonomy, floras and botanical institutions, along with articles of taxonomic interest in the fields of anatomy and morphology, palynology, embryology and reproductive biology, and relevant bibliographies and biographies.
The Plant Micromorphology Bibliographic Database (PMBD) is a unique bibliographic database maintained by the Kew Micromorphology Group. The database supports all of the group's research, including the two book series Anatomy of the Dicotyledons and Anatomy of the Monocotyledons. It contains over 90,000 references to publications and is probably the most comprehensive computerised index to higher plant micromorphology in existence. It covers most work published on plant anatomy and pollen/spore morphology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and is regularly updated with new literature. All aspects of angiosperm and gymnosperm plant structure are covered, together with vegetative anatomy of pteridophytes. Common subject areas include ontogeny, ultrastructure, techniques, palaeobotany, embryology and seed anatomy.
The Economic Botany Bibliography Database (EBBD) contains 33,000 references to publications relating to the uses by humans of flowering plants, gymnosperms and ferns. Entries date from the late nineteenth century to 2003, when data entry stopped. Subjects covered include the ethnobotany of plant use in traditional societies, medical and industrial uses of plants, and their domestication and history. Coverage focuses on wild plants and minor crop plants. About half of the citations on EBBD derive from recent data entry and are accurate, and consistently keyworded. Other citations derive from an older dataset and contain obvious spelling errors and inaccuracies.
- PLANTS Database (USDA)
The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories.
- Plant Information Online
Use Plant Information Online to discover sources in 930 North American nurseries for 100948 plants, find 348856 citations to 132726 plants in science and garden literature, link to selected websites for images and regional information about 9924 plants, and access information on 2293 North American seed and nursery firms. Plant Information Online is a free service of the University of Minnesota Libraries.
- Other Botanical Databases
This is a list of Botanical databases addressing floras, grasses, tropicals, etc. that are publicly available.
- Toxic Plants
Websites that identify plants toxic to humans and animals. If in immediate need, contact the Poison Control Center:
PEOPLE: (800) 222-1222 - the Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit
ANIMALS: (888) 426-4435 - ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center Hotline
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Notable Print Resources - Reference Works
Reference books provide a brief overview of a subject and are a good place to start your research. They are shelved in the Reference Collection at the Main Library, first floor, East wing. They cannot be checked out (because too many people need them on a regular basis).
- Flora of North America
The FNA is intended to serve both as a means of identifying plants within the region and as a systematic conspectus of the North American flora. Taxa and geographical areas in need of further study also are identified in the flora. Taxa thought to have become extinct during the period of permanent European settlement, i.e., the past 500 years, are included in the flora. Flora of North America North of Mexico will be published in 30 volumes. Volume 1 contains background information that is useful for understanding patterns in the flora. Volume 2 contains treatments of ferns and gymnosperms. Families in volumes 3 – 26, the angiosperms, are arranged according to the classification system of A. Cronquist (1981). Bryophytes will be covered in volumes 27 – 29. Volume 30 will contain the cumulative bibliography and index.
At the MSU Main Library: MSU Reference, 1 EAST, QK110 .F55 1993
To easily identify the appropriate volume to examine, consult the Flora of North America Web Site.
Notable Resources - MSU and Michigan
- Subject searching the online catalog for Michigan flora
When conducting a SUBJECT SEARCH of the MSU Libraries online catalog of plants specific to Michigan, use the following subject headings:
- Algae - Michigan
- Botany - Michigan
- Climbing plants - Michigan
- Ferns - Michigan
- Flowers - Michigan
- Freshwater plants - Michigan
- Mosses - Michigan
- Plants - Michigan
- Shrubs - Michigan
- Trees - Michigan
- Wild flowers - Michigan
- Historic Publications of the MSU Extension Service
The following are archive 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]. Click on the title to take you to a brief description of the bulletin and a link to the full text document.
- Beal Botanical Garden and Campus Plant Collections Annual reports, 1926-1971, (bulk 1961-1971)
The annual reports of the Beal Botanic Garden and Campus Plant Collections contain general information such as plans to expand the Beal Botanic Garden in the late 1920s, Dutch Elm Disease, new plantings, and the seed exchange and labelling programs. The 1968 report contains a map and brochure of the Botanic Gardens. The 1971 report contains a rare plant list.
UNIV ARCH & HIST COLL - UA 4.2.1
- Key to the Grasses of Michigan
From the USDA National Plant Data Center. Compiled from several sources by Dr. David Bogler, Missouri Botanical Garden in collaboration with the USDA NRCS NPDC
- Clarence E. Lewis Landscape Arboretum
Dedicated on July 10, 1984 as a "Learning Experience in the Making", the Clarence E. Lewis Landscape Arboretum is designed as an instructional arboretum for students interested in landscape development. The site has its beginnings as the old campus nursery and as a result many remaining specimen trees lend a mature appearance to much of the arboretum. The arboretum continues to grow, providing learning opportunities for students, industry professionals, gardeners, and community members.
- Herbarium at MSU
The Herbarium was founded in 1863 with a donation of the private collection of Dennis Cooley, MD, to Michigan Agricultural College. The herbarium is a repository of preserved and labeled plant specimens, arranged to allow easy access and archival storage. The specimens are typically in the form of herbarium sheets: pressed and dried plants that have been glued or sewn to a sheet of heavy paper together with a data label. Herbarium specimens are very useful tools for botanists, particularly taxonomists, who seek to describe plant species, their form, and their habitats.
- Liberty Hyde Bailey papers, 1855-1958
The Liberty Hyde Bailey, Jr., papers comprise 1.2 cubic feet and consist of correspondence, newspaper and magazine clippings, writings by Bailey, photographs, and an 1888 record of ornamental plants at Michigan Agricultral College.
Note - Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954) was born in South Haven, Michigan, and graduated from Michigan Agricultural College in 1882. He studied botany at Harvard University, and returned to M.A.C. in 1885 to chair the new Horticulture Department. In 1901, he edited COUNTRY LIFE IN AMERICA, an early broad-page magazine, and became known as the "father" of rural sociology and agricultural journalism. He chaired the presidential Commission on Country Life, which was in part responsible for the passage of the Smith Lever Act in 1914, establishing the Cooperative Extension Service and 4-H Youth Programs. Bailey authored numerous books and papers, primarily on agriculture. A Michigan State University dormitory in the Brody Complex was named in his honor.
UNIV ARCH & HIST COLL - UA 10.3.1
- Botanical Club records, 1897-1903
Summary - The records of the Botanical Club consist of one bound volume containing the group's constitution and the minutes from 1897 to 1903.
Note - The Botanical Club at Michigan State University was established to give students a forum to share their interest in botany. Meetings consisted of a lecture, followed by a discussion or demonstration.
UNIV ARCH & HIST COLL - UA 12.3.45
Additional Research Guides
Here is a list of other Research Guides on plant and related topics:
Ask the Librarian
Suzanne Teghtmeyer
Agriculture, Forestry and Botany Librarian
teghtmey@msu.edu
Phone: 517-432-6123 x 325
Library Web page: http://www.lib.msu.edu/teghtmey/
Page Coordinator: Suzanne Teghtmeyer teghtmey@mail.lib.msu.edu
This URL: http://guides.lib.msu.edu/page.phtml?page_id=1450
Last updated: 10-07-2008
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