Phone: 814-865-3706
Life Sciences Library
Helen Smith
Title: Agricultural Sciences Librarian
Phone: 814-865-3706
Life Sciences Library
Get an overview of the issues related to your product via:
GVRL (Gale Virtual Reference Library) - A collection of over 400 reference resources
Oxford Reference Online - facts, figures, and definitions
International Organization Publications
World Bank provides financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world Their publications are available to Penn State via World Bank e-Library
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) promoting policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. Their publications are available to Penn State via OECD iLibrary full-text book and serial publications from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Includes Country Statistical Profiles and economic data.
FAO: the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations
United Nations Use AccessUN an index to the UN documents to see what they have published. Actual reports are available in microfiche in the Social Sciences Library [2nd floor Paterno Library].
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 get to the Penn State "GetIt" menu. Just click on the bright yellow "full text" icon to go to the full text.
Articles
CAB Abstracts - cover all areas of agriculture including agricultural economics.
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!
Business Source Premier - Covers virtually all disciplines in business and economics.
Access World News (NewsBank) - Local, regional, national and world newspapers.
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.
Books
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.
Suggested CAT Search Terms: Search for specific products (i.e. coffee or fertilizer), broad categories (i.e. agricultural trade or community development), or countries (i.e. Iran or Ethiopia).
Call Numbers: At University Park, most materials will be located on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor of Paterno Library. General call numbers and subject areas are:
HD-HG – Economics, Business (UP location: 3rd floor Paterno)
R-S – Health, Agriculture (UP location: 4th floor Paterno)
Search Tips
Combine Terms:
Search for:
Put it together:
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.
