phone: 814-865-3706
Life Sciences Library
408 Paterno Library
Do we have that E-Journal?
Search for Penn State E-journals by title, keyword or ISSN.
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.
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.
Suggested CAT Search Terms: Try searching for general concepts (i.e.forensic anthropology or forensic ballistics) or specific aspects (i.e. dna fingerprinting or diatoms and drowning).
Call Numbers: At University Park, most materials in the life sciences are located on the 4th floor of Paterno Library. General call numbers and subject areas are:
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.
Books Elsewhere
If Penn State doesn't own the book you need, try WorldCat to identify it, and then use the InterLibrary Loan link to request it from another library.
Encyclopedias and Handbooks:
Look here for overviews of forensic concepts.
Internet Resources:
If you are just looking for information in a general topic area, a subject guide is more appropriate than Google.
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.
Manage your personal research library
When working on extensive research projects, you will need to collect, organize and format all those citations!
The following tools are appropriate to use at Penn State. They all allow you to store and search for your references, as well as create in-text citations and bibliographies.
See also this comparison chart of these products.
