Horticulture Liaison  

Your Librarian

Amanda Werhane

Amanda Werhane
CALS Plant & Insect Science Librarian
http://plants-insects.blogspot.com
E-mail: awerhane@library.wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 890-2684
IM: AmandaAtSteen
Drop by: Room 119

   
I'm also happy to meet with you by appointment for extended help.

Go to Department of Horticulture website

Research Databases

See also the more extensive list of databases in the
Horticulture Research Guide.

Agricola
(1970+, updated quarterly)
  • 4 million+ citations for USDA, Extension, & experiment station journal articles, monographs, theses, patents, software, audio-visual materials, and technical reports.
  • Covers all aspects of agriculture, including animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, farming systems, agricultural economics, earth and environmental sciences. Emphasis on North America.
  • Recently, the number of periodicals covered has been reduced dramatically. For more current coverage, try CAB Abstracts.
    Searching Help | Setting up Alerts | Refworks Help | CAB vs. Agricola
Biological Abstracts
(1969+, updated quarterly)
  • World's largest life sciences database. Indexes 5,000+ international journals.
  • Covers anatomy, bacteriology, behavioral sciences, bioengineering, biotechnology, cell biology, clinical medicine, genetics, immunology, microbiology, nutrition, parasitology, pathology, pharmacology, physiology, radiation and systematic biology, toxicology, virology, and zoology. Experimental lab focus.
    Searching Help | Setting up Alerts | Refworks Help
CAB Abstracts
(1910+, updated quarterly)
  • The leading agricultural database. Indexes 6,000+ academic journals and 3,500 other documents, including other serials, books, technical reports, theses, symposium, patents, conference proceedings, and annual reports.
  • Good international coverage of agriculture, agricultural economics, animal breeding and disease, biotechnology, dairy science, entomology, forestry, horticulture, microbiology, nutrition, plant breeding and pathology, rural sociology, soil science, veterinary science, and weeds.
  • Specially designed controlled vocabulary for precise searching – CAB Thesaurus.
    Searching Help | Setting up Alerts | Refworks Help | CAB vs. Agricola
Google Scholar
(dates & update frequency unknown)

  • Good for interdisciplinary coverage. Unknown number of publications indexed.
  • Covers scholarly literature from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities.
  • Includes peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all areas of research.
  • Use Scholar Preferences to enable Find It and Refworks/Endnote. In the "Library Links" box, type Wisconsin. Select University of Wisconsin - Madison - Find It at UW Madison. From "Bibliography Manager" select Show links to import citations into and your preferred citation manager. Click on "Save Preferences" (bottom of page).
    Searching Help | Alerts Not Available | Refworks Help
Web of Science
(1970+, updated weekly)
  • This interdisciplinary scholarly database indexes 8,000+ peer-reviewed journals. Every item of significance is listed: articles, reviews, letters, notes, corrections, and editorials.
  • Offers the unique Cited Reference search, which allows you to find papers that have cited a specific author or article. Find recent developments, responses, and even retractions.
    Searching Help | Setting up Alerts | Refworks Help

 

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Research Guides

Subject research guides provide help for doing research in a specific discipline or on a specific topic. They include quick access to databases and websites that have been critically evaluated and selected for quality of information. Tips and feeds are often included as well.

 

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Literature Alerts

Feeling overwhelmed by information? Don't have the time to keep current with the published literature?

AUTOMATICALLY get journal article citations on your topic of interest, or tables of contents of your favorite journals - by email or RSS feed!

Ask Amanda to help you create an optimal search strategy, or to advise you on creating your own alerts.

Read more about alerts and RSS feeds...

 

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Managing References

RefWorks (log in here), EndNote and Zotero are great software programs that can help you organize and manage the literature you need in your research and/or teaching. Create your own citation/document database and instantly format your bibliographies as you write.

RefWorks is an online application provided free by the UW-Madison libraries. EndNote is a little more sophisticated, and must be purchased (ex: through the DoIT Tech Store) for installation on your computer. Zotero is a free Firefox browser plug-in.

You can contact Amanda to find out more about any of these, or to help troubleshoot problems you may have with your citation manager. I'm happy to set up an individual meeting or just chat with you via IM/email/phone. For online help, see the following:

 

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Support for Teaching

Reserves

Library Course Page

A course-specific website can be created to provide extra help for your students. You and your students can access it via MyUW; you can also link to it from another website if you wish. Depending on your needs, the page could include:

  • online reserves
  • print materials on reserve for the class in campus libraries
  • research tools such as journal article databases and websites
  • tips and techniques for making your students' library research more efficient and scholarly
  • Refworks -for help in formatting bibliographies
  • librarian contact information for personal assistance when students need help in completing assignments

Whenever you request that items be placed on reserve via Steenbock (see above), a course page will be created by default. To request the addition of any other information on a course page, contact Amanda.

See sample course pages.

Course-Related Instruction

I can provide instruction in the use of library resources for your class. Instruction can range from a quick visit, to a workshop with hands-on components in Steenbock's computer classroom, to preparation of an online tutorial to address a specific need. A typical session in the library would cover some of the components below. I will work with you to find the most appropriate mix for the purpose of the class and the time available.

  • Overview of relevant library resources, both print and online
  • Literature and data search strategies
  • Finding books
  • Finding journal articles
  • Finding quality internet resources
  • Critical evaluation and selection of resources
  • Specialized resources when appropriate, such as RefWorks, statistics resources, presentation software, etc.

Please request instruction sessions at least two weeks in advance. The beginning of each semester is a very busy time for the library instruction program, so having alternative times in mind when you schedule is helpful. I will typically create a Library Course Page (see above) to use in conjunction with the class. To request course-related instruction, contact Amanda.

Read more about course-related workshops...

 

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Faculty Runners

Faculty members and academic staff with teaching or research responsibilities can designate a currently enrolled student or staff member to borrow material in their name from campus libraries.

  1. Fill in the requested information on the attached form
  2. Print it out on departmental letterhead
  3. Sign it
  4. Have the runner take the signed letter to the Memorial Library Card Application Desk, located in the lobby of Memorial Library. The runner will need to bring his/her UW photo ID.

Read more about faculty runners...

 

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Recommend a Purchase

We welcome recommendations for books or journals you feel would be valuable additions to our collection.

Please complete our purchase recommendation form.

 

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