Phone: 814-865-3706
Life Sciences Library
Get an overview with encyclopedias. Remember you are going to want to see for yourself the books and articles cited in the encyclopedia.
For pro and con information or controversial topics, try:
LionSearch is a search engine that will provides fast, simple access to relevant material at the Penn State University Libraries. LionSearch provides an integrated search of the books, e-books, research articles, newspaper articles, and other publications.
LionSearch delivers search results in a relevancy-ranked list so the most relevant results appear at the top of the list.
Tips:
Look at the Refine your Search section to select just scholarly articles, or different Content Types (book, journal article, ebook, newspaper article etc), Subject Terms, Locations, Years and Languages. You may have to click on more options to see a complete list.
To search for articles from the New York Times, select the advanced search. In the "With these terms:" box put your subject terms AND in the "From this publication:" box, put new york times.
Save the relevant sources into the LionSearch temporary folder by clicking on the small folder icon to right side of the item. When you are finished compiling your sources, click on the "saved items" link at the bottom of the screen and email or print (which allows you to copy into your clipboard) the references so you can easily add them to your project. Choose the APA format to have the citations correctly formatted for your project! CAVEAT: computer systems make mistakes when autoformatting. Double check your final paper against the appropriate Citation Style.
Don’t lose your work! Items are saved in LionSearch ONLY for your current session. You won’t be able to go back later and see a list of saved items.
For full text items, when you click on the title you'll either get to the full text, or get to the Penn State "GetIt" menu. If you see the menu, click where it says "article" to go to the full text.
Use The CAT for finding books owned by Penn State.
CAT Search Tips: The CAT is the list of what is owned by Penn State Libraries.
Go to the Browse function if you are looking for a specific title or author (type last name first).
Go to the Keyword function and combine terms to search on a topic then use the subject headings from relevant books for additional search terms.
Write down the call number and location for any book you want.
For electronic books, click the words "online content" to access the full text.
Quick Guide to Searching the CAT (HTML version) or Quick Guide to Searching in the CAT(easy-print PDF version).
Learn how to refine your search with Savvy Searching in the CAT (html) or easy-print PDF version: Savvy Searching in the CAT.
Libraries Borrowing Policies
Once you have the books, check them out at the nearest lending desk or self check-out station. Loan periods are usually four weeks but books can be recalled for another user, so respond promptly to library notices. For more information see the University Libraries Lending Code.
Academic Search Complete
Comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals - in other words, lots of great stuff!
Access World News (NewsBank)
Local, regional, national and world newspapers
Use a Research Guide if you want more scholarly articles.
Confused about scholarly, popular and trade articles? Check out the differences.
Make sure you combine terms correctly for the best results.
Article Search Tips
Finding the best articles on your topic requires a number of steps.
Get the full text
Once you find the citation, try the 
button to see if Penn State has the electronic or print version of the article you need. If the electronic version is available, it will appear as the first link on the Get it! menu. If the article is not available electronically, click on The CAT link to automatically search our catalog and see if Penn State has a print copy. If no other copy is available, you use the InterLibrary Loan link to request it from another library.
Evaluating Resources for Content
To evaluate print sources and web sites, you should ask a series of questions concerning the source’s currency, authority, validity, intended audience and bias. See this How to Evaluate Information site for details.
Citing Your Sources
Plagiarism, whether you copy a paragraph from a book or cut and paste someone else's words from an e-mail, is a violation of Penn State's academic integrity policy. See this Definition of Plagiarism and Academic Integrity in Penn State's Plagiarism Tutorials.
When using information from another source you must give credit to the original author or you are plagiarizing. You give credit by citing the source. Make sure your citation contains everything you would need to backtrack and find the information again. It is best to pick one citation style and be consistent. Check our Citation and Writing Guides page for more details.
In the sciences, the CSE style is the most common format used for citations or references.
Selecting a Research Topic
Pick a topic you enjoy! You want something that is broad enough that you can find information and yet narrow enough that you are not overwhelmed with sources.
