Library Research Guides: BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES: Find Background Information

Why Use Reference Materials?

for a quick overview of a topic

to develop vocabulary or keywords for searching

for suggestions for further sources

Credo Reference
Search 500+ reference works in all disciplines.
Oxford Reference Online
Fully-indexed, extensively linked, up to date, and cross-searchable dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Search across more than 100 encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference books.
Sage Knowledge Online
Search across more than 100 encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference works.

Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Biodiversity Heritage Library improves research methodology by collaboratively making biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community.
Encyclopedia of Life
Our knowledge of the many life-forms on Earth - of animals, plants, fungi, protists and bacteria - is scattered around the world in books, journals, databases, websites, specimen collections, and in the minds of people everywhere. Our mission is to increase awareness and understanding of living nature through an Encyclopedia of Life that gathers, generates, and shares knowledge in an open, freely accessible and trusted digital resource.
National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Bookshelf
The NCBI Bookshelf provides free online access to books and documents in life science and healthcare. Search, read, and discover.