The Library has many resources to support research in the biological sciences.  Below is an overview of services and resources available to you. All databases and catalogs can be accessed through the Library’s homepage.

If you need any advice on your research, feel free to Nicole Campbell, your subject librarian. You can also contact the Reference Desk for assistance.

There are a variety of databases for the biological sciences available, covering a range of disciplines.  These are available through the Library’s website in an alphabetical list or by subject.  Try out multiple databases, as you will likely find some work better for your research than others.  Note: you will be asked to authenticate with your network ID to use these databases off campus.

Some useful databases:

Web of Science and Faculty of 1000 provide researchers with indications of how important specific journal articles are in the field. 

Web of Science counts the number of times an article has been cited.  Faculty of 1000 allows scholars to evaluate articles.  Selected articles may receive ratings of Recommended, Must Read or Exceptional, and researchers can read the written evaluations of the articles.

You can construct your searches to be either broad, narrow or somewhere in between.  Using Boolean operators (and, or, not), you can search more efficiently.

Also, each database has unique searching features.  It is worth familiarizing yourself with these in order to search more effectively.  As an example:  Web of Science includes a Boolean operator called “same” which will only look for your search terms in the same sentence.

Griffin, the WSU library catalog, indexes items owned by WSU Libraries. Summit is a joint catalog of college and university libraries in the Pacific Northwest.

In addition to finding books and other materials, Griffin is also useful for determining if the Library has access to particular journals, either in print or online.  To do this, do a title search for a specific journal, such as PLoS Biology or Oikos. 

If you need something and cannot find it fulltext, or via Griffin or Summit, we have an Interlibrary Loan department that will request items for you.  You can use ILLiad, our online interlibrary loan system to request books, journal articles, dvds, etc. 

Delivery times:  You will normally receive journal articles in 24-48 hours.  Books can take 4-5 days or longer depending on where they are coming from.  There is no delivery or processing during the weekends so that can lengthen delivery times.

You will receive an email when the item is available.  Also, remember there is no cost to you to order materials.

To access the library’s databases from off campus, you will be asked to authenticate after you choose a database. You will be prompted to enter your network ID and password. (This is the same user-name and password used in zzusis.)

If you are having difficulty authenticating, try a different database. If the system still does not allow you in, give us a call.