Biology 

Materials which are usually consulted for specific quick-fact information rather than read cover to cover.  Reference resources include things like: 

• Background or overview synopses (encyclopdedia)
• Definitions (dictionary)
• Synonyms (thesaurus)
• Statistics
• Biographical details
• Maps (atlas)

Links/Resources to the right are specific to this discipline.  General sources can be found at the libraries Reference Sources page.

Most reference resources are organized in a logical order that aids searching (alphabetically in an encyclopedia or dictionary, by date in a chronology, etc).  In paper, most also include an index in the back which points users to the appropriate pages.  Searching reference resources electronically is unusually equal with the paper techniques. Try the following:

1. Decide on your search terms
2. Try searching with them
3. If it doesn't work, try a synonym or related idea

Things to watch out for: 

• Is the computer searching the title/header of the entry or the full-text of the information?  You will likely get more results, but more of them will be irrelevant, if you are searching the full-text .
• Are you searching for a proper noun (name, place,…)?  Make sure that the spelling is correct and try variations if it originated in a foreign language. 
• Searching for something by date?  This is trickier than it sounds.  If possible, search for an event name or topic rather than a date, e.g. Civil Rights Movement or Hippies or Flower Children rather than 1960s.

Search a collection of biology reference e-books:

Or, search individual titles.