College of DuPage Library

Reference Works

Use reference sources to discover background information on a topic. This will help you to refine your search in the catalog and databases (as well as your thesis!).

Looking for something about climate change or current event related? Try CQ Researcher or Issues and Controversies to get background information.

Reference Works about Plants (General)

• The Cambridge Illustrated Glossary of Botanical Terms
  Online and Print
• A Dictionary of Plant Sciences. 2nd ed.
  Online and Print
• Facts on File Dictionary of Botany.
  Reference QK 9 .F33 2003

Reference Works about Plant Identification

• JSTOR's Global Plants
  database includes many images, as well as plant info by classification, geography, type, and other categories.
• Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of Plants and Earth Sciences.
  Reference QK 7 .M37 1988
• Plant Identification Terminology: an Illustrated Glossary. 2nd ed.
  Reference QK 9 .H37 2001

Reference Works about Plant Names

• Dictionary of Plant Names
  Reference QK 9 .C685 1985
• Elsevier's Dictionary of Plant Names and Their Origins.
  Reference QK 13 .E565 2000
• The Pronouncing Dictionary of Plant Names
  Reference QK 9 .P76 2006

Reference Works about Our Region

• Native Trees of the Midwest: Identification, Wildlife values, and Landscaping Use
  Reference QK 128 .W45 2010
• Plant Species and Management Plan for College of DuPage's Marshes and Woodlands.
  Reference QK157 .K49 2000
• Plants of the Chicago Region.
  Reference and General QK 157 .S93 1994

Finding Books and Videos

Use the COD Library catalog to find books & videos.

1. Search using multiple search terms where possible.
2. Limit your results by material type (book, video), date, or language.
3. Not finding what you need in our collection? Try requesting a book

Videos

The Library owns many Botany films in DVD, VHS and streaming formats. In addition to searching the catalog by subject or title, you can check the list of titles at:

Botany / Zoology / Microbiology AV or Find videos related to General Biology

Models

Check out our botany models.

Using Databases

The Library subscribes to databases that provide access to thousands of popular and scholarly journals. Request copies of articles that are not available in the databases through Interlibrary Loan for free.

Best Bets: Databases

• Academic Search Complete
  This database covers botany in a wide range of sources, including popular and scholarly articles. Find current events and academic research.
• Academic OneFile
  Academic OneFile also covers popular and scholarly topics in botany.
• Science Direct
  Full-text of hundreds of scientific journals from the publisher Elsevier. Be sure to select "Subscribed Journals" from the Source drop-down menu.

Don't see what you're looking for here? Try the full list of science databases.

Struggling to read the articles once you've found them? You can use Credo or Gale reference collections to look up certain words. Also take a look at this guide to reading a research article.

Interlibrary Loan

See the words Find This underneath an article citation rather than a PDF or HTML link? Click on Find This to launch a new tab that will tell you if the article is in another database. If you see "Full Text is Available" on the next screen, click on "View Full Text" to launch one more tab that with the article.

If you see the words "Online Resource Not Found", then click the "Request this Item" link in the upper right of the screen to ask that the library get you a copy. You should get a PDF copy of the article emailed to you in about a week.

See Request this Item Link

Don't see the Find It! on the article link, or getting citations from an article? First check our journal locator to see what journals we have access to.

Can't find the journal you're looking for? Use one of our forms to request an article or a book.

Websites

As with any resource, be sure to evaluate websites that you find on your own. Check out the list of recommended websites below.

General

• Botanical Society of American Online Image Collection
  Fine images of many types of cells, explanations of cell structure, and animations of cell division phases.
• Encyclopedia of Life
  Collaborative encyclopedia providing basic information and links across the web to species from across the kingdoms of life.
• Ethnobotanical Resource Directory
  Information and links to websites about food and medicinal plants discovered in the wild.
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System
  Authoritative taxonomic information for plants, animals, fungi and microbes of North America and the world. Includes accepted and non-accepted names, taxonomic hierarchy for kingdom to species, and links to Google images and other web resources.
• Lynn Fancher's Biology Bookmarks
  Extensive links to biology gateway sites, as well as internet sites for specific areas of biology.
• PLANTS National Database
  The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and territories Includes names, distribution, characteristics, images, plant links, crop information, and fact sheets.

Regional

• University of Wisconsin-Madison Plant Systematics Collection
  Images and plants from over 250 families and 1000 genera.
• Virtual Herbarium of the Chicago Region
  Data and images of vascular plants and fungi of the Chicago region developed by the Morton Arboretum, Field Museum of Natural History and Chicago Botanic Garden.
• City of Chicago Native plants list, developed in 2011, includes links to further information, such as plants beneficial to insects and birds, edible plants, and rain garden-friendly plants.

Endangered Plants

• ARKive
  From the wildlife charity Wildscreen, videos and information on 15,000 endangered species. Searchable by name or by broad animal or plant group.
• IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
  The World Conservation Union's list of animals and plants in danger of extinction.
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species Program
  Lists of threatened and endangered species in the U.S., with information on laws and federal policies.

Cite Sources

Find directions about how to cite your sources on the library citation guide.

Finally, you are welcome to use NoodleBib if you'd like to use a program to create and organize your citations. You must "Create a New Folder" when you use NoodleBIB for the first time. Click on "I am citing a(n):," choose the type of item you are citing, and then fill in the online form. Your bibliography will be formatted for you.

Further questions about MLA or APA style? Check out Purdue OWL, which has APA and MLA citation style guides.

Worried About Patchwriting and/or Plagiarism?

Check out the Paraphrasing or Patchwriting guide.