Biology 

Subject Specialists!

Basic search tips

Biology Department

The quality of your search will depend on your choice of search terms. The more general the term (for example, "birds"), the less precise the results, and the more specific the term ("Northern Flicker", or "Colaptes auratus"), the more precise the results. Precision, though, will result in fewer items returned. Try the most specific first, and then if you need to, try more general ones. Remember to use truncation (sometimes called stemming) and variant spellings so that you won't miss titles that might be important. (See the box above for Search Tips.)

Getting Started

If you know the title or author of the book you want, use the Quick Search box. For a more complicated search, choose the Books (library catalog) option, and then choose the Advanced tab. Use the dropdown boxes to focus your search terms, and the Limits to restrict your search to a range of dates, type of media, or even library location.

Next steps

When you have found a book that seems useful, look at the Subject(s) entries; if you see one that looks good, click that to get other titles that have been given that subject heading.

You can get a book from the other Four Colleges by clicking on the Request Item button at the top of the book's record.

You can also search WorldCat, a database of library catalogs from all over the world. If you find a book that is held by a library anywhere in the US, you can borrow it through Interlibrary Loan.

"Research is formalized curiosity."