Finding Information on Agriculture in the JSCC Library
I. Books A. Reference Books If you aren’t familiar with your topic, it’s best to start with a reference book for an overview of the topic. This will help you define terms, provide names of researchers and verify important dates. Your textbook is often a good source of overview articles. Dictionary of Agriculture (Ref. S 411 .L55 1995) Encyclopedia of American Agricultural History (Ref. S 441 .S36) Field Crop Diseases Handbook (Ref. SB 731 .N94 1989) Handbook of Soil Science (Ref. S 591 H23 2000) Ortho Problem Solver (Ref. SB 603.5 078 1999) B. Circulating Books Use the JSCC online library catalog to find books. The catalog is available from the JSCC Library home page at . Search by subject, author, title or keyword. Remember to ‘Limit the search by holdings location’ to ‘Jackson State Community College’. Books in the JSCC Library are arranged according to the Library of Congress Classification System. Each book is assigned a unique call number. Books written about the same subject have similar call numbers, grouping them together on the shelves and making it easy for you to browse. For books on your topic, check the shelves for call numbers beginning with... HD 1400-1799: Agricultural Economics; Land use S : Agriculture (Plant Science=SB; Animal Science= SF) C. Electronic Books You might also want to try NetLibrary, a fully searchable collection of books online. Available from the Online Library Catalog or Databases links on the library home page. You will be asked for your username and password when using the electronic books from home. (the username and password required are the same that you use to access the computer network on campus) II. Periodicals Magazine and journal articles are an excellent source for recent information and research. The JSCC Library subscribes to the following periodicals relating to Agriculture. To find articles in these journals, use the databases indicated (explained below). Agricultural Education Progressive Farmer Successful Farming III. Databases These databases are available on computers in the Data Center. From the library home page , click Databases, then select the database you wish to search. 1980-present 1993-present 1986-present Education Full Text none InfoTrac OneFile
Academic & General Interest: MasterFile Premier - Contains full-text articles in over 1700 magazines and journals. Indexing and abstracts for over 2700 titles. Subjects covered include general interest, business, health, social sciences, education, humanities, news and current events. Useful for almost any topic. InfoTrac OneFile - A one-stop source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics: business, computers, current events, economics, education, environmental issues, health care, hobbies, humanities, law, literature and art, politics, science, social science, sports, technology, and many general interest topics. Business General Business File ASAP - Business periodicals, newspapers, newswires, company profiles and investment reports, news and event coverage on companies, industries, products and executives, business theory, economics and favored practices. More than 200,000 company profiles, 50,000 full-text Investext® reports, various other news sources. News & Current Events: LexisNexis - Full text newspaper articles, with business, legal, and reference information. It includes: current/past issues of many U.S. and international newspapers, as well as information from many trade and popular journals and magazines. IV. Internet Use search engines and subject directories to find other Internet information on your topic. From the library home page, click on Subject Directories ( One excellent subject directory is the Librarian’s index to the Internet (www.lii.org) which leads you to very good sources on a variety of topics. You might also consult Search engines, such as Google also. Here are some suggested Internet sites: U.S. Department of Agriculture : http://www.usda.gov University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service (http://www.utextension.utk.edu/) Farm Bureau : http://www.fb.com CME group (http://www.cme.com (Click on Education. On the next screen, choose from the various educational resources about commodity trading..) Agriculture Marketing Service (USDA) http://www.ams.usda.gov/)
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Agriculture.doc – sc 8/07