Turfgrass

• Turfgrass Information Service (TGIF) is a database of published materials reporting on aspects of turfgrass and its maintenance. This includes conference proceedings, trade publications, scientific journals, field day programs, and newsletters.
• CAB ABSTRACTS is a comprehensive file of agricultural and biological references from over 8500 journals with information on veterinary medicine, animal nutrition, animal breeding and poultry.
• AGRICOLA is an agriculture database produced by the U.S. National Agricultural Library. It contains a wide variety of animal feeding, breeding, and veterinary information
• Dissertations & Theses includes dissertations from most U.S. institutions.
• Web of Science (cited references) search for new articles which cite an older article by using the "cited ref" search mode.

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 more detailed searching information go to the Quick Guide to the CAT.

Suggested CAT Search Terms: Try searching for specific species or cultivars of grass (i.e. bermuda grass or bent grass), diseases (i.e. powdery mildew or rust fungi), or concepts (i.e. golf course maintenance or weed control).

Call Numbers: At University Park, call numbers starting with Q, R, and S are located on the 4th floor of Paterno Library. GV call numbers are located on the 3rd floor of Paterno Library. General call numbers and subject areas are:

• GV413 – Athletic Fields
• GV975 – Golf Course Maintenance
• QK – Botany
• QK495.G74 – Grass
• S – Agriculture
• SB433 – Turfgrass
• SB608 – Turfgrass pests
• SB611 – Weeds

Books Elsewhere: 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.

• Agropedia including the Encyclopedia of Crop and Plant Science, Encyclopedia of Soil Science and the Encyclopedia of Pest Management.
• Beard's turfgrass encyclopedia for golf courses, grounds, lawns, sports fields. By James Beard. Michigan State University Press.
• Compendium of turfgrass diseases. By Richard W. Smiley. Published by the American Phytopathological Society.
• Turfgrass management. By Alfred J. Turgeon.
• The turf problem solver : case studies and solutions for environmental, cultural, and pest problems. By Alfred J. Turgeon.

• Where to find Materials Safety Data Sheets.
• National Pesticide Use Database. The National Center for Food & Agricultural Policy's National Pesticide Use Database contains 20,886 individual records that quantify the use of 235 active ingredients on 87 cops in the 48 contiguous states. The original database covered 1992 and has been updated for 1997.
• National Pesticide Use Database: 2002. The National Pesticide Use Database (2002), compiled by the Crop Protection Research Institute of the Crop Life Foundation, contains quantitative data on the use of fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and other pesticides in U.S. crop production. The data are organized by state, crop, and active ingredient and include crop acres planted, percent of acres treated, acres treated, average annual application rate, and total pounds of pesticide applied. The sources of all data are referenced and publicly available.
• PAN Pesticides Database. The PAN Pesticides Database is your one-stop location for current toxicity and regulatory information for pesticides. The PAN Pesticide Database brings together a diverse array of information on pesticides from many different sources, providing human toxicity (chronic and acute), ecotoxicity and regulatory information for about 6,400 pesticide active ingredients and their transformation products, as well as adjuvants and solvents used in pesticide products. This database of active ingredients has been integrated with the U.S. EPA product databases, which provide information on formulated products (the form of the pesticide that growers and consumers purchase for use) containing the active ingredients. The information is most complete for pesticides registered for use in the United States.
• Pesticide Education Program at Penn State.
• US EPA Office of Pesticide Programs Database. Includes links to Pesticide fact sheets; Controlling Pests: Around the Home and In the Lawn and Garden; and information on Pesticide Regulation.
• The Standard Pesticide User's Guide by Bert L. Bohmont. 7th Edition.
• Turf & Ornamental Chemicals Reference: T&OCR.

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 this Quick Guide to Citation Styles for details and format.

Plagiarism, whether you copy a paragraph from a book or cut and paste someone else's words from an e-mail message, is a violation of Penn State's academic integrity policy. See this Statement on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty.

You can look for turfgrass information on the Internet by using one of the ‘guides’ listed below, or by using an Internet Search Engine like Google Scholar. Usually the search engines are most appropriate when you have a narrow, specific information need. For example if you were looking for information on the type of grass appropriate for a grass airplane landing strip. If you are just looking for information on a general topic such as golf course maintenance, a subject guide is most appropriate.

• AgNIC Turfgrass page provides access to a number of World Wide Web sites pertaining to turfgrass
• Solution Source is a Web-based information system from Penn State Cooperative Extension. There is a section on horticulture, gardening, and landscaping that contains relevant turfgrass information.
• Plant Management Network is a unique cooperative resource for the applied plant sciences. The Plant Management Network offers an extensive searchable database comprised of thousands of web-based resource pages from the network's partner universities, companies, and associations. In addition, the network has four peer-reviewed citable journals, Applied Turfgrass Science, Crop Management, Forage and Grazinglands, and Plant Health Progress.