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University Library Home > Agriculture, Biology, and Health

Agricultural and Extension Education

 

Contact

Kathy Fescemyer
Title: Life Sciences Librarian


 

phone: 814-865-3708
Life Sciences Library
408 Paterno Library

Articles and Databases

 

Agricultural and Extension Education at Penn State is a multifaceted department that conducts research in a wide variety of subjects. Areas of research include children, youth and family, civic and community engagement; consumer and financial issues; volunteerism; leadership development; and service learning at local, state, national and international levels.

This guide provides links to databases, dictionaries, encyclopedias, web sites and other resources to find authoritative information in the area of agricultural and extension education.  Some of the resources will only be accessible to faculty, staff and students of Penn State.

To find research articles on agriculatural and extension education topics use the following databases to find citations, which are also known as references.

Databases To Use:

  • CAB ABSTRACTS contains agricultural and biological references from over 8500 journals from around the world. CAB consists of two sections, CAB Abstracts .
  • ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) from the U.S. Department of Education provides access to educational resources from infants to senior citizens. Coverage is from 1966 to the present and over a million resources are indexed.
  • Education Abstracts Full Text contains abstracting and indexing coverage for over 475 periodicals included in Education Index as well as the full text of over 150 periodicals.
  • AGRICOLA Articles provides citations for all aspects of agriculture including horticultural. This database is produced by the National Agricultural Library of the USDA.
  • Dissertation & Theses includes dissertations from most U.S. institutions.
  • Web of Science searches research journals in several ways. Create searches for new articles using citations of older articles by using "cited ref" search mode.
  • Sociological Abstracts indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,700 serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers.

Don't forget: Try These First if you want general popular interest magazines and newspapers or pro and con debate information.

Already have a citation? Use Citation Linker to see if Penn State has it online or in print!

Article Search Tips

Finding the best articles on your topic requires a number of steps.

  • Select an appropriate database.
  • Enter and combine terms appropriate to your topic
  • Look at the best references you retrieve and determine the subject terms used for those articles. Then revise your search using these new terms.
  • Save, write down or print off all pertinent information (called the 'citation') including the journal title, volume, date, and page numbers.
  • Explore other databases and subject terms (which vary between databases) for more information.

Get the full text

Once you find the citation, try the Penn State Get It Button 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.

Find 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.

Call Numbers: At University Park, the majority of resources for agricultural and extension education are located in the Life Sciences Library on the 4th floor of Paterno Library.

General call numbers and subject areas are:

  • L– Education
  • S– Agriculture

Books at Other Libraries: WorldCat

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. 

Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering

Encyclopedia of Plant and Crop Science

Encyclopedia of Pest Management

Encyclopedia of Soil Science

Encyclopedia of Water Science

Gale Virtual Reference Library provides encyclopedias in many subject areas. Use this source to find short articles, definitions and statistics on many subjects in education and sociology.

Internet Resources

The Internet has produced a tremendous bounty of sites that contain information for students in agricultural and extension education. This list provides links to just a few of the many and varied sites accessible to all. You may also start by using an Internet Search Engine like Google. Or if you are looking for scholarly journal articles use Google Scholar or CAB, ERIC, AGRICOLA or other indexes.

Penn State and USDA Resources

Other Internet Sites

  • Administration for Children and Families (ACF) provides information on family support, child support, child care, Head Start, and other programs related to children and families.
  • Administration on Aging (AoA) provides resources for seniors and caregivers
  • Agriculture in the Classroom is program coordinated by the United States Department of Agriculture that promotes agricultural literacy
  • Child Trends provides current information in the area of childhood research.
  • CRIS, Current Research Information System, provides short reports of ongoing and recently completed research and education projects in agriculture, food and nutrition, and forestry. Projects are conducted or sponsored by USDA research agencies, state agricultural experiment stations, land-grant universities, other cooperating state institutions, and participants in CSREES-administered grant programs (USDA).
  • Distance Education Clearinghouse provides current news on distance education, distance education technologies, readings, and links to institutions.
  • E-answers accesses publications from the Cooperative Extension Service and Agricultural Experiment Stations. Over 250,000 pages of full text information is indexed
  • Educational Materials from the USDA provides agricultural resources to students, parents, and teachers. That tools feature up-to-date information in the areas of health, nutrition, and science.
  • 4-H is program sponsored by cooperative extension, land grant universities and private giving for young people across America who are learning leadership, citizenship and life skills.
  • Journal of Agricultural and Extension Education Online provides full text articles from 1986 to 2005
  • Journal of Extension, also known as JOE, provides full text articles from volume 1 1963 to the present.
  • National Agricultural Statistics Service has current and historical statistics on agricultural commodities and other farm related information.
  • National Center for Educational Statistics is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the United States and other nations and includes statistics on post-secondary education and adult literacy education.
  • National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) provides a wide variety of information including health information for children and families.
  • Trends in Agriculture provides articles about important events in U.S. agriculture over the past century. (USDA)
  • The USDA Economics and Statistics System contains nearly 300 reports and datasets. These resources cover U.S. and international agriculture and related topics. (USDA)

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