Library Research in Microbiology

Prepared by Anne Turhollow for Biology 521L and Biology 596
Revised for Fall 2003

Overview

Background Information

Searching for Information

Locating What You Find

Web Resources
   About the Internet
   Directories
   Search Engines
   Interesting Sites

Evaluating What You Find

Presenting Your Results

Need Help?

Searching for Information on the Web

We've all seen the ads or heard the hype: It's all on the Internet and it's all free. WRONG! Lots of information is not on the Internet; almost all books and most journals are not available. And it's certainly not free. (Think about it - if the library pays a publisher $3000 a year for a journal subscription, is that same publisher going to put that information up on the Internet for free?) Yes, we are beginning a transition to electronic formats, but it's going to take awhile. And it will be even longer before older journal articles and books are converted. (If ever!)

However, there is some very good information out there on the Internet, you just have to find it. Some journals are available on the World-Wide Web; a subject list of the ones available to this library and its patrons is on the Library's website. And as you will see below a number of institutions have developed some well thought out and informative sites.

About the Internet

Some starting points if you are unfamilar with the Internet:

Bare Bones 101: A Basic Tutorial on Searching the Web is a good way to get a quick, simple introduction or a refresher in how to search for information on the Internet. Created by Ellen Chamberlain of the University of South Carolina Beaufort Library.
Finding Information on the Internet is a tutorial from the UC Berkeley Libraries. Includes sections on what the Internet is, how to search and a suggested order for using search tools.

Some Directories for Microbiology

Directories are large listings complied by humans. While some attempt to cover all areas, there are a few which focus on biology. Most directoriest to evaluate sites for content before adding them to their lists.

Infomine for Biological, Agricultural, and Medical Sciences: A large (22,000) selection of resources compiled primarily by the librarians at UC Riverside. Resources need to substantial, authoritative, or comprehensive in nature to be included.
The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Microbiology and Virology (Biosciences): Provides access to wide array of resources for microbiology and virology. Maintained by the Microbiology Network.
SciCentral: Includes research news and websites. A good place to keep up on scientific information in general. Provided by the company SciQuest.
Medweb@EmeryUniversity: A large collection of medical sites arranged by broad subject categories. There is a section for microbiology and virology.

There are two general directories worth looking at:

LII - Librarians' Index to the Index: A small (8,000) but choice set of sites with a nice focus on California. A project of the Library of California.
Scout Report and Archives: A larger collection of sites than LII with more of an academic focus. Maintained by the Scout Project based at the Computer Science Department at the University of Wisconsin.

Search Engines

Search engines use machine created databases that do not evaluate resources. You will need to use several of them as no one search engine can encompass the entire World Wide Web. A good starting point is the Recommended Search Tools page from the InFoPeople Project. They also provide a quick overview of search tips for these tools. My personal favorites at the moment is Google and Teoma. There is one search engine which focuses on science resources; it is called Scirus. Some of the content indexed by Scirus is licensed, so you may not have access to it.

Selected Web Sites

Microbiology: Basic Information Resources: A guide to some of the print and electronic resources found in the SDSU Library. Useful in that all the WWW sources listed have active links. It contains a much longer list of Web resources.
American Society for Microbiology: The largest organization for the study of microbiology with over 40,000 members. Provides information about the Society and the discipline.
Cyanosite: Includes a 25,000 item bibliography on Cyanobacteria and Prochloron. Mark A. Schneegurt (University of Notre Dame) maintains site with assistance from Jeff Elhai (University of Richmond in Virginia).
Bugs in the News!: A collection of interesting stories about recent microbiological events. Written by John C. Brown at the University of Kansas.