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Sociobiology: Tips for locating information about mammals

The library houses several reference books that give good overviews of mammals including basic facts, information on social behavior, diet, communication, etc.

To locate online versions of these resources, start at the Libraries of the USF System web page http://www.lib.usf.edu (if you are using these resources from off campus, be sure to go to check the green button in the upper left corner of the page--if it says "not connected" click on it and enter your netID).

Click on the Libraries of the USF System catalog and search the following titles:

1.           Encyclopedia of Mammals (link to the online version)

2.           Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia (link to the online version)

Using the library catalog you may also locate books about your mammal.  Search the subject of (your mammal) using the Basic Search box.  You may narrow your search to a book in our library by using the "narrow results by" link on the left side of the screen and clicking on St. Petersburg. 

To locate science research journal articles on your mammal:

1.   Go to the "databases by title/subject" link on the main Libraries of the USF System page.

2.   In the find title box, type "zoological record" and click on the link that comes up. This

should take you to the main screen for the ISI Web of Knowledge databases.

3.   On that main screen, look for a search box under the word "CrossSearch" This search

features allows you to search all of the Web of Knowledge databases (Zoological

Record, Biosis, etc) at one time. Since most of the databases will be applicable to your

topic and there may not be a tremendous amount of information out there anyway, this is

an efficient way to cover several databases at once.

4.    Type (your mammal’s name) in the CrossSearch search box.  This will give you a listing of scientific journals on your mammal.  Try searching both the common name and the scientific name.  If you want to limit your search to a particular species or subspecies, you can enter the full genus and species name in the search box.  Or, if you want to add an additional topic (like competition, diet, etc), click on the "search box" icon at the top of your list of citations and add another term to the topic search box--but be sure to type the word "AND" between the two topics:

                                          Hippopotamus amphibius AND diet

5.   If you see a citation that looks interesting, click on the “Find it @ USF” button to see if we have a link to the full text article.  If not, you can request a copy on interlibrary loan if you have time to wait for the article to arrive. 

An additional possibility for journal articles is the JSTOR database. To access those journals,

1.    Go back to the main Libraries of the USF System web page and click on “databases by title/subject”

2.    In the search box, type JSTOR

3.    At the main JSTOR screen, click on Search, then advanced search

4.    enter your search terms in the search boxes then, towards the bottom of the screen, select the disciplines of interest.  I suggest:

biological science, ecology, general science, and zoology.

5.    JSTOR is completely full text so, if you find something of interest here, you should have    direct access to it.

Finally, the database  ProQuest Dissertations & These Full Text may have a couple of listings that describe research on your mammal with links to the full dissertation.

If you have additional questions, please contact Tina Neville (neville@nelson.usf.edu, 727-873-4081)