Agriculture

Agriculture (general)

Contact

Helen Smith
Title: Agricultural Sciences Librarian

phone: 814-865-3706
Life Sciences Library
408 Paterno Library

Cite Your Work

KnightCite
(quick citation generator)

Citation Styles
(APA, MLA etc.)

Manage your citations
(collect, organize, format)

Articles and Databases

Here are some core databases to get started in agricultural research. For more detailed resources, see the specific guides listed below.

CAB Abstracts - articles in all aspects of agriculture.
Biological Abstracts - articles in basic biology and agriculture.
AGRICOLA Articles - core articles in all aspects of agriculture, good coverage of USDA publications.
PubMed - articles in biomedicine, which includes animal biology.
Web of Science - core articles in all subject areas.

For the best agricultural information, choose a more specific guide from those listed here:

Try These First

Try these Online Reference Resources for brief factual information available through the internet.

The CAT for books at PSU

Academic Search Complete for popular or trade articles

Or see some other suggestions

Research Tips

Combining Terms Combining Search terms...Using AND/OR/NOT

These 'connector' terms [called "Boolean operators"] are used to combine search terms and concepts.

AND >>> narrows <<< a search so that ALL search TERMS are retrieved. This is the most common connecting term

example: dogs AND nutrition

OR <<< expands >>> a search to include ANY ONE of your search terms. Use this to link synonyms.

example: dogs OR canine

NOT --- eliminates unwanted search terms. Use this carefully because it often results in eliminating some good citations.

example: dogs NOT cats

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.

Books

Books at Penn State

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.

Encyclopedias

Agropedia a compilation of agriculture encyclopedias.
Access Science is the online equivalent of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology.
Gale Virtual Reference Library - a large number of encyclopedias available online.
Encyclopedia of Agricultural Science is a print publication edited by Chalres J. Arntzen and Ellen M. Ritter.
Oxford Reference - a large number of dictionaries available online.
Technical terms may be found in printed dictionaries of agricultural science.
Practical handbook of agricultural science is a print publication edited by A.A. Hanson. This publication is a quick reference, primarily in table format, to a variety of topics pertaining to soils and to the production and use of plants and animals.

Biographies and Directories

American Men and Women of Science (part of the Gale Virtual Reference Library) This resource contains biographical information on living American scientists.
The Biography and Genealogy Master Index is a comprehensive index to more than 10 million biographical sketches in over 1000 current and retrospective biographical dictionaries, covering both contemporary and historical figures throughout the world.
The National Faculty Directory. This resource contains information on faculty in the United States.

Organizations

Associations Unlimited contains detailed descriptions of some 142,000 organizations in all subject areas.
National Commodity and Agricultural Organization Sites available from the Ag Marketing Resource Center
CAST (Council for Agricultural Science and Technology) provides information about this organization of agricultural organizations. It also provides links to its member organizations.
The National Academies: Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering and Medicine. Information and publications from the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council.
Voice of Agriculture: the American Farm Bureau includes online issues of the weekly Farm Bureau News, press releases, information on the Bureau's views, facts on agriculture, connections to state farm bureaus and other agriculturally related organizations.
Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is a general farm and rural organization working to promote and represent the interests of its over 25,000 farm and rural families in Pennsylvania.
The National Agricultural Library provides access to their collections and some full text publications through their information centers.

Internet Guides

AgNIC, the Agriculture Network Information Center, contains sources of agricultural information arranged by subject. It also includes a listing of agricultural conferences, agricultural databases, and assorted directories.
Intute - Agriculture, food and forestry, a searchable listing of "the very best" web resources, brought to you by a consortium of universities in the UK.
Biological, Agricultural, Medical Sciences INFOMINE is a comprehensive, searchable collection of Internet resources in the life sciences.
The World Wide Web Virtual Library: Agriculture is a subject listing of agricultural resources on the WWW.
Yahoo! - Science:Agriculture is a hierarchical listing of agricultural WWW resources.
AgriSurf is a searchable agriculture industry site directory

Statistics

Some basic statistical sources are listed here. Contact a librarian for more detailed assistance if these sources are insufficient.

Agriculture Fact Book (USDA) general facts on agriculture.
Agricultural Statistics (USDA) contains statistics on agricultural production, supplies, consumption, facilities, costs, and returns.
The CRB commodity yearbook This book includes production, supply, exports, imports, price and futures information for agricultural and other commodities.
Census of Agriculture is now taken every five years, and provides statistics by state, county and zip code. Optional access for Older years (courtesy of Cornell University).
National Agricultural Statistics Service provides access to some basic statistics and also links to their full text publications (mounted at Cornell University).
Pennsylvania Agricultural Statistics Service also provides full text versions of their publications, including the annual statistical summary.
The Economic Research Service of the USDA conducts research on trends in the agriculture and food sector. Many of their publications are now available online.
FAOSTAT provides access to international data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Lexis-Nexis Statistical Universe is a powerful index to statistics and data contained in federal agency government publications. The University Library owns most of these collections in paper or microfiche format that do not contain full-text links. ASK for assistance locating information at any University Library Service Desk.
ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) archive of computerized social science data.

Government and Extension Publications

Government Information

Many government publications are available in print in the Life Sciences Library or in the Social Sciences Library. If you are having trouble locating a particular document, please ask at a reference desk. Included below are WWW pages of some important government agencies.

USDA
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
- FAO Documentation. This is a searchable database of publications from the Food and Agriculture Organization from 1988 to the present and is provided courtesy of the University of Saskatchewan. Look here for information and research on developing countries agricultural and food practices. FAO documents are available in the Penn State Life Sciences Library via the FAO Microforms collection.
ACEIS is Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's "one stop" electronic information service. It includes AgriWeb Canada, a Directory of Canadian agricultural and agri-food resources on the internet.
AGRIS and CARIS Homepage provides access to several databases focusing on international information for the agricultural sciences and technology. It was created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Extension Information

eXtension an interactive learning environment delivering objective, research-based and credible information you can use every day to improve your life. Brought to you by the Cooperative Extension System and the best land-grant university minds across America.

Search E-Answers for extension material from 17 states. Topics covered include agriculture, forestry, fishing, family/consumer issues, lawn and garden, child development, 4-H/youth, environment, public policy, economics, water quality and communities.

The Plant Factsheet Database from Ohio State indexes online information related to horticulture and crop science from 46 different colleges, universities, and institutions across the United States and Canada.