Biological Sciences Scholars

Resources for the Biological Science Honors Students

It's complicated...

The majority of your classmates cited the resources that were available through the library as the number one thing they wish that someone had told them about sooner. This ranged from the sheer amount of resources (about 10 million items) to the variety of types of items (books, eBooks, articles, educational media resources, streaming media, artwork, the list goes on...), the information available from the library is easily overwhelming!  That's where subject guides and strategy come in - efficient navigation of these resources is key! So don't panic - we have people that can help!

Find Articles by Keyword/Subject

Find Books and more!

Catalogs list books, journals (but not articles within journals), microforms, multimedia as well as online sources (databases and online journals) owned or licensed by a library.

We recommend starting here...

OSU Catalog - Search for books, e-books, and other materials owned by OSU Libraries, Columbus and regional campuses. Borrow Materials online. You can also search with a special mobile version of the OSU Catalog.

OhioLINK Catalog - Combined catalog of a consortium of 88 Ohio university and college libraries, the State Library of Ohio, and more. Have materials delivered to OSU.

WorldCat Local@OSU - Searches materials at OSU, OhioLINK (the Ohio libraries shared catalog), and libraries worldwide.

 

Other Good Options...

WorldCat.org - WorldCat.org is Web user oriented. Search the collections of participating libraries in your community and thousands more around the world. Please note: Remote (off-campus) access to Interlibrary Services (ILL) is not available via this interface.

WorldCat via FirstSearch - WorldCat via FirstSearch is researcher oriented and provided by OCLC. Features advanced search capabilities and additional evaluative content. This is a subscription database that is available only to OSU users. Remote (off-campus) access to Interlibrary Services (ILL) is available via this interface.

CML Catalog - The Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) is a good source for popular books, media, entertainment, travel and genealogy materials. Those with CML library cards can request materials online and have them delivered to the most convenient branch library. Find additional public libraries in Ohio, or in over 125 Countries.

Ohio Web Library - These databases are provided to all Ohio residents. You may be asked to enter your zip code and/or your local public library card number before entering.

Ohio Historical Society Catalog - Search the records of more than 230,000 items in the Ohio Historical Society's library, newspaper, manuscript, audiovisual, state archives, history, natural history, and archaeology collections.

Library of Congress Online Catalog - Search many different research collections in the U.S. national library, the Library of Congress.

Search Ohio - SearchOhio provides a search across a number of public library catalogs simultaneously. The portal allows for direct online requests for residents of Ohio.

Setting alerts and save searches in PubMed

While setting up alert services can open you to tracking and spam in typical library databases, PubMed is the exception! Because PubMed is a government-sponsored database, they don't use your personal information for marketing purposes. The video below explains how to save searches and set up alerts! 

Subject Guides

Subject guides are librarian-curated webpages that present the most useful information on a given subject area. Found at http://guides.osu.edu/, they are invaluable resources for determining what databases, websites, books, etc. are the most useful in that field. 

Textbooks via the Library

There are two ways to get textbooks via the library: through course reserves and in our collections. If your instructor requests it, we can put any item on course reserves at any of our libraries. Students can then come check out that item, typically for two hours at a time. Many students scan the textbooks, and that is perfectly legal for personal use. Sometimes we have a textbook in our print collections, or it is available from a partner library, but that doesn't scale well, so we try and buy multiple-user eBooks when possible. Your instructor would need to contact their librarian to find out if the book is available as a multiple-user eBook at least four weeks before the class will need it. If a textbook is available as a multi-user eBook (and isn't entirely prohibitive in price), I will happily purchase it!