Finding
your way
Library,
Information and Technology Services (LITS) provides
library and technology support to the campus. Use
our document Getting
Around in LITS to tell you where to
find people and places in our buildings. Many of
the materials you may want to use for your classes
are available online, but you will also need printed
resources to do your best work. You may also want
to Ask
a Librarian for assistance. The science
librarian is Sarah
Oelker, and her office is next to
the Reference Room on Level 4
of Williston Library.
Some
other spots in the library you may need:
- Science books are
on Level 6 of the Miles-Smith wing,
call numbers Q-TP
- Science journals are
on Levels 2 & 3 of Miles-Smith,
shelved alphabetically by journal title:
- A...
- Journal of Differential Equations -- Level
3
- Journal
of Ecology to Z...-- Level 2
- Photocopiers
-- Level 2, Miles-Smith, and Level 2 1/2, Williston
- Photocopiers
-- Level 2, Miles-Smith, and Level 2 1/2, Williston
Background
Information
You
can find these books in the Reference Room, on Level 4 of Williston
Library:
| QD 415
.A25 O94 2000 |
Oxford
Dictionary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology |
| QH 302.5
.E54 2002 |
Encyclopedia
of Life Sciences (20 vols - see Index in v.20) |
| QH 302.5
.H65 1995 |
Henderson's
Dictionary of Biological Terms |
| QH 304
M36 2006 |
Writing
Papers in the Biological Sciences |
| QH 324.2
D53 2004 |
Dictionary
of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology |
| QH 427
E55 2001 |
Encyclopedia
of Genetics |
| QH 427
R43 2003 |
Encyclopedic
Dictionary of Genetics, Genomics, and Proteomics |
Encyclopedia
of Life Sciences is also available online.
Books
To
find books on a particular topic, or by title or author, search
the Library
catalog.
You
can also browse the stacks for books on chemistry. Here are
some locations to try:
- QH (natural
history, general biology, ecology)
- QK (plants)
- QL (animals)
- QM (anatomy)
- QP (physiology)
- QR (microbiology)
- R (medicine)
Journal
Articles
You
need primary and secondary articles for your assignment; to
find them, try these databases:
- Web
of Science covers 5000 journals and will tell
you who else has cited an article (Beware: only 8
users at Mount Holyoke can be signed in at the same
time, so sign out when you are done!)
- JSTOR has
science articles from 1881 to the present, including lots
of early articles on organisms you may be studying
- PubMed has
articles on medicine and basic science related to medicine
- ScienceDirect is
a very large collection of science articles from science
publisher Reed Elsevier, covering 1995 to the present
day
Evaluating
Information
As
you gather information on your topic, be sure to think about what kind of information you are using.
- Did
you get it from the library's resources and databases, or from
an internet search engine?
- Who
is the audience of the article? Is it a report of a specific
experiment or observation, or is it a roundup of the recent
research on a topic?
Here
are some explanations to help you out:
Be
sure you know what sources are acceptable for your
assignment: for instance, if you've found the perfect
wikipedia article, can you use it for this assignment?
Why or why not? Ask your instructors if you are unsure.
Need
more help?
Contact Sarah
Oelker, Science Librarian, or try Ask
a Librarian. You can find additional resources
on the library's Biology
Research Guide.
