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The ISU Parks e-Library resources can be a powerful tool in searching for scientific information for coursework or your creative component. There are a few steps that students need to complete so that they can access these resources remotely.

Setting up e-Library Login

If you have yet to register for an ISU Library Catalog Pin#, visit the below e-Library Login Setup

To start the process, enter the last 11 digits of your red ISUCard and desired Library Catalog Pin# (4-digit number of your choice). You must have a valid ISU NetID (email address) to process your pin# request. If you do not have an email address in the Library's database, or need further assistance, contact the Parks Library Circulation Desk by email (CircDesk@lib.iastate.edu), phone (515-294-3961), or contact us for assistance.

There are two ways to access the e-Library resources. You can reach them from the ISU Library homepage by choosing Collections and then e-Resources by Subject. Agronomy Indexes and Abstracts, Electronic Journals, and Web Resources will be displayed. A link to this page can also be found in the Creative Component Resources page.

ISU Library Catalog Search example

Choose 'Biosis Previews', and a new search web page will appear that will connect to Biosis Previews. (Note: There are informational Microsoft PowerPoint presentations to assist with learning how to select your key words/phrases to search).

Some of the other Indexes & Abstracts to choose from are: Agricola, Biological and Agricultural Index, and CAB Abstracts. There are also some very specific abstracts: Weed Abstracts, Seed Abstracts, Soybean Abstracts, Wheat, Barley, Triticale Abstracts, Potato Abstracts, as well as others.

Using Search Pages

There are several tabs (Search, Advanced, Thesaurus, and Index) along the top of the search page (example - Biosis Previews page). The 'Advanced' tab is often liked by most users. Type in the Term ____________ what you want to look up in ('Term Anywhere' or select if you want the selected term in the title, abstract, journal name, etc.) Select a 2nd and 3rd 'Terms' to can assist you in narrowing down your topic search. If you know the authors name in the journal of interest then you can use the author's last name in the 'Terms' and select 'Authors Name'. Specific diseases can be searched. Once you have the information in the 'Terms' section then click on 'Search'.

There will be a number of citations displayed. Ten citations can be seen on a page at one time. One can select specific citations (click in left hand side box) of interest to be printed out. Move through the citation pages using the forward and back arrows to the right of how many citations were brought forward (highlighted in red). You can read through the titles, authors, source (Journal) and there are several items to click on FTXT, WEBLH, etc. to see if the e-Library has that e-journal available on-line. By clicking on the information, the complete article will come up or sometimes only the abstract. These can be printed (EDIT - 'Select All - Copy' and then paste to a MS WORD document file.) PDF versions of an article are sometimes available. You can also search for other articles the authors have published or related articles in the selected Journal all on line.

Using Search Engines

The e-Library resources are great tools for all ISU students. Google, Yahoo and MSN are a few of the search engines that can be used for on-line searches. However, a majority of Internet search engines will find general agricultural information that is available in extension bulletins and newsletters, but usually not information from professional research journals. The e-Library gives you access to a lot of these professional research Agronomy journals.