Cowles Library: Biology: Zoology Databases & Other Resources

Databases & Important Resources

Annual Reviews This link opens in a new window Collection of critical reviews written by leading scientists in 40 disciplines within the Biomedical, Life, Physical, and Social Sciences including Economics.
Birds of the World This link opens in a new window Provides life histories and images for over 700 species of birds breeding in the USA (including Hawaii) and Canada with video and audio recordings for many.

Book Catalog Cowles library's online catalog of books and ebooks.
Journals Direct access to Cowles Library's journal collection. Search by title or browse by subject. Electronic journals are available through this link.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window More than a thousand academic journals and over 1 million images, letters, and other primary sources
Web of Science This link opens in a new window Web of Science, a database that provides quick and powerful access to the world's leading citation databases and sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities research content. (Includes: Grants Index [1953-present], BIOSIS Citation Index [1926-present], KCI-Korean Journal Database [1980-present], Medline [1950-present], Preprints Citation Index [1991-present], ProQuest Dissertations and Abstracts [1637-present], SciELO Citation Index [2002-present], Web of Science Core Collection: Science Citation Index Expanded [1900-present]).

InterLibrary Loan (ILL)

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
Free to all Drake faculty, staff, and students. If there are books, book chapters, or articles that we don't have access to at Cowles, we can almost always get access to these items via another library. Order your items through Interlibrary Loan.
WorldCat.org
Search libraries across the country. The "Check for Full Text @ Drake" link will take you to an InterLibrary Loan request form.

Other Resources

Animal Diversity Web "An online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan"
Audubon's Birds of North America at the University of Pittsburgh Digital access to a complete set of one of the most important natural history and ornithology book sets in history.
Biodiversity Heritage Library "Ten major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions have joined to form the Biodiversity Heritage Library Project. The group is developing a strategy and operational plan to digitize the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections. This literature will be available through a global 'biodiversity commons.'"
California Roadkill Observation System
Conus Biodiversity Website
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"The Conus Biodiversity Website, a National Science Foundation project established by Alan Kohn and Trevor Anderson (both, Univ. of Washington) and hosted by the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture of the University of Washington, is a one-stop shop for information related to the gastropod genus Conus. This taxonomic catalog contains entries for more than 3,000 species published between 1758 and 2007. The main page lists the importance of studying various Conus species due to their biodiversity, distribution, abundance, ecology, revisionary synthesis, practical applications, and evolutionary diversification. Here users can access the Catalogue, Species Accounts, Type Gallery, and Videos.

The Catalogue provides links to a searchable database, museum abbreviations, genus-group names, and literature cited. The database allows searching by a number of fields such as subgenus, species or citation author, year, and geographic region. Search results may include species accounts, images, paleo records, genetic sequence, and original description; however, this information is not available for all species. Both the Species Accounts and the Type Gallery sections have alphabetized lists, which provide information related to the distribution of present and fossil Conus species and high-resolution images. The Videos page provides links to 15 feeding-behavior videos in vermivorous, molluscivorous, and piscivorous species of Conus in captivity, and serves as a powerful teaching tool. This Web site is an unparalleled resource for any or all aspects of Conus species. The hyperlinks to many full-length articles related to the subject as well as information ranging from geographic region to genetics is tremendously useful to students as well as advanced practitioners of molluscan biology." from Choice, April 2009
DrMetcalf, Information on Auchenorrhyncha like Cicadas and Leafhoppers "Emitting the loudest love song in the insect world, the cicada is the voice of midsummer. Cicadas are members of the group known as Auchenorrhyncha (formerly Homoptera), which are found throughout the world, and include the subgroups leafhoppers, planthoppers, spittle bugs, and treehoppers. Zeno Payne Metcalf, a professor of entomology at North Carolina State University (NCSU) from 1912 to 1950, was fascinated by these plant-eating insects. Metcalf's lifelong passion resulted in a comprehensive literature collection on Auchenorrhyncha as well as the publication of a 42-volume index entitled General Catalogue of the Homoptera of the World (1927-1971). The incentive for creating DrMetcalf, the online searchable database, is both the recognition of the research value of the Metcalf collection held at NCSU's Special Collections Library and the economic importance of this insect group. DrMetcalf contains more than 12,000 bibliographic citations including rare books, monographs, journals, and papers. However, what sets it apart from other databases is the extensive range of coverage from 1744-1955. Another distinction is that DrMetcalf is the result of a collaboration among numerous organizations--the NCSU Libraries, the NCSU Entomology Department, the University of Illinois, the Illinois Natural History Survey, and the USDA's Systematic Entomology Laboratory. The database is easy to navigate with options for a quick search or a more sophisticated, user-defined field search using Boolean operators. Although a work in progress, DrMetcalf has well-developed help pages for creating search strategies and interpreting the results. Additionally, there are links to relevant sites, as well as overviews of each insect subgroup with photographs and descriptions, and sections titled Distribution, Morphology, and Ecology and Behavior. The digitization of Zeno Metcalf's personal library through DrMetcalf provides a freely searchable resource that is particularly important for specialists in entomology, zoology, agriculture, and the life sciences." from Choice Sept. 2010
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) An ambitious online encyclopedia whose goal is to have a web page for each species of organism in the world.
Freshwater and Marine Image Bank "The Freshwater and Marine Image Bank is a digital collection from the University of Washington Libraries. The images are scanned and maintained specifically by the staff of the Fisheries-Oceanography Library. The site currently contains 21,000 photos related to worldwide ocean and limnological environments from the 18th- through early-20th centuries. The site is fairly easy to navigate, with logical links. However, there can be some confusion since entering one digital collection site gives a user access to all other collections; visitors need to make sure that they remain in the Freshwater and Marine Image Bank when clicking on links. There are expected collections of images such as Fish Species, Shellfish, and Water Birds. One of the surprising sets of photos is under Stereoscopic Views, which contains some spectacular images of Niagara Falls, the Chicago River, and the Panama Canal, to name a few. Metadata for each photo includes the image date, subject, publication information, copyright, and ordering information. A search option allows users to perform subject or title searches. One nice feature is the Other Sources section, which provides links to related image sites. It is not apparent how often updates are performed, but users can register to receive updates through the feed reader of their choice. The site appears to work well using both Internet Explorer and Firefox. This site offers a useful way to view images from publications that may be too fragile to handle. It is valuable for any student, teacher, or researcher who needs access to historical images related to freshwater and marine subjects." Choice February 2010.
Longevity Records Life Spans of Mammals, Birds, Amphibians, Reptiles, and Fish.
Macaulay Library: Animal Sound and Video Catalog "Billed as the "world's largest online archive of animal sounds & videos," the Macaulay Library of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology now offers at least 100,000 free recordings online. Recordings continue to be digitized at an unknown rate. A Get Started page provides clear instructions. Only Adobe Flash 9 or higher is required. However, the archive provides access to more advanced functions, including the ability to see spectrograms and waveforms associated with the recordings, which requires QuickTime 7 and the Library's own RavenViewer, a QuickTime component that actually performs the visualizations. These downloads are quick and painless, with complete, clear documentation for RavenViewer. Frequently there are multiple recordings, sometimes running in the hundreds, for any given animal. The quality of each of these is ranked on a 1-5 scale. The site also provides catalog number, name of the animal, location, recordist, and recording length/date. Users can sort search results by any of these fields. The advanced search function offers fields for common or scientific name, location (including a latitude/longitude finder), recordist, audio/video quality, and catalog number. Searches are automatically treated as truncated. Unfortunately, there is no taxonomic browse feature, though this option is apparently under development. Thus it is impossible to know the distribution of recordings across the Animalia. Since the Macaulay Library is in Cornell's Lab of Ornithology, it should be no surprise that birds are favored. Aside from the lack of browsing, the site is easy to use and reasonably quick." (from Choice, January 2009)
OdonataCentral "This site is designed to make available what we know about the distribution, biogeography, biodiversity, and identification of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) world-wide."
Singing Insects of North America "Singing Insects of North America (SINA) is a work in progress, as its creators Thomas Walker (Univ. of Florida) and Thomas Moore (emer., Univ. of Michigan) readily acknowledge. The site has the potential to be a good resource for entomology professionals and students when it is completed in approximately two years. For now, the home page is not graphically interesting or well organized, with broken links and a nonworking search function. SINA includes a union list of references (with many links to PDF files), which is an excellent resource for students and professionals. Unfortunately, the home page states that all references are listed, but it does not include the references found on the Cicada page. Crickets, Katydids, and Cicadas sections are prominent at the top of the page. Walker produced the Cricket and Katydid sections, which are organized identically. Each section includes a List of Species subsection and a checklist hyperlink that breaks each family down to species names. Some species links are populated with text, images, and sound recordings; some are not. Moore created the Cicada page, which is arranged differently from the other two insect pages. The List of Species section does lead to the family and then species lists; however, few are linked to further information. Unlike the other two insect pages, the Cicada page includes a button next to the species if a recorded song is available. It would be helpful to users if these three sections were uniform in design. The final two sections, About Songs and Help, include simple bulleted lists with some hyperlinked items. The main page also displays information on how to use the site and an invitation to site visitors to contribute photographs and/or sound recordings." Choice June, 2010.
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research (SWCHR)
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service - Species "This authoritative, user-friendly site provides technical information about plant and animal species, updates on legislation and policy regarding species management, and details about species conservation status. Site sections include Endangered Species, Birds, Invasive Species, Pollinators, The Image Library, and Wildlife Fact Sheets. The home page states that "restoring endangered and threatened species to a secure status in the wild is a key objective of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)," and the Endangered Species Program http://www.fws.gov/endangered/ (CH, Apr'05, 42-4630) forms the hub of the Web site. A search box on the home page allows searching by common or scientific name. Search results provide the species scientific and common names, species group (e.g., birds), listing status (e.g., threatened, endangered, proposed, candidate, or delisted), and current distribution (states). Search results link to the Threatened and Endangered Species System, which is updated daily with species profiles for foreign/domestic terrestrial and freshwater plants and animals. Profiles include nomenclature, taxonomy, overview, an image, links to Federal Register and other regulatory documents, recovery plans, critical habitat, conservation plans, petitions, life history, and other information resources. The Birds section links to the FWS Division of Migratory Birds pages, which provides access to documents about hunting, conservation, monitoring, laws/treaties/regulations for thousands of bird species and includes informative pamphlets about backyard birds useful to consumers. The Invasive Species link points to the FWS Environmental Contaminants Program's page on invasive species. The Pollinators section links to FWS programs that assess, protect, or restore pollinators and their habitats. The Image Library offers a large collection of copyright-free images that will appeal to children and can be useful in writing reports. The Wildlife Fact Sheets point to very current species profiles." from Choice, April 2009
Western Soundscape Archive "This site features audio recordings of animals and environments throughout 11 contiguous western states and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Started in 2007, the archive is housed at the University of Utah's J. Willard Marriott Library and features recordings contributed by volunteers, state and federal agencies, and conservation groups. Three types of recordings typically are featured: individual species, ambient soundscapes, and interviews. For individual species, representative sounds are included for approximately 90 percent of the West's bird species, 95 percent of the region's frog and toad species, and more than 100 different types of mammals and reptiles. These short recordings are useful for species identification and call analysis. Ambient soundscapes are usually longer recordings (one hour plus) that feature "all of an area's sonic components together in concert." The site indicates that "interviews with scientists and other experts are included to give added context to the sounds, and will occasionally be heard on radio broadcasts and podcasts." Users may browse the collection or search with keywords. The simple browse is only moderately useful since it brings up the total sounds available alphabetically by first word in the descriptive titles. However, a pull-down menu on the home page allows users to select subsets of major animal categories by common or Latin names; interviews; and ambient recordings. Upon selection, sample lists of recordings for each category are available in a second pull-down menu. Each individual species, soundscape, or interview includes relevant metadata such as date recorded, description, audio and photo rights, associated notes, audio creator, and more. Most of the audio consists of MP3 files compressed from an original WAV format. Sound recordings are generally very good to excellent in quality. This is a tremendously rich resource for those interested in the region." Choice February 2010.
Xerces Society The Xerces Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving invertebrates and their habitat. Its Web site, revamped in 2008, serves as both the society's home page and an educational resource. Society-related areas are chiefly in the About, Programs, News, Our Work, and Support sections located near the top of the main page below a colorful banner featuring gorgeous pictures of invertebrates. Each section has detailed subsections providing important information about the society, including its staff, board of directors, news, advocacy and policy activities, research, and details on becoming a member. The site's educational areas are where the depth of content becomes apparent. The Invertebrates section profiles about 180 endangered or at-risk species, with an almost entirely North American emphasis. Each species account links to a Red List profile where applicable and provides, among other items, conservation status, identifying marks, references, photo (if available), and additional authoritative links. Unfortunately, last updated dates for the profiles are not always easy to ascertain. The Programs and Publications sections offer additional society- and education-related content. Besides describing the society's work, the programs listed in the Programs section may also have links to relevant authoritative Web pages or reports. The Publications section provides PDF files of the society's many writings, including guidelines, identification guides, petitions, comments responding to federal or state agency proposals, and reports; only the society's books and member magazine are not free to site visitors. Overall, the site is useful for undergraduates who have some training in invertebrates and are interested in conservation. Though focused mostly on pollinators and at-risk or endangered invertebrates in North America, the content is authoritative. The Xerces Society, almost 40 years old, has a worldwide reputation. Its site clearly reflects its mission and provides reliable educational information. From Choice, Jan. 2011.

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