The basic principle underlying the organization of any library is to describe the documents it contains so that they may be located.  All libraries create sets of records which describe the documents in their collections.  Catalogs are sets of records to documents that share a location.  Indexes are sets of records to documents that share some other attribute (generally subject matter).  Below are the most comprehensive and significant broad disciplinary article indexing databases for international (but English-language-centric) scholarship.

Adam Siegel

Research Support Services
Subject Specialist Librarian

apsiegel@ucdavis.edu

530-754-6828

In this Guide:

Most people use the library for the following:

1. To find a book they already know they want;

2. To learn more about a topic they’re interested in;

3. To research a question they’ve already formulated.

 

To find a book you already know you want, use the library catalog.

To learn more about a topic you’re interested in, use the appropriate subject guide, or contact your subject librarian.

To research a question you’ve already formulated, use the appropriate catalog or index. [hint: in the sciences, start with the appropriate subject index; in the humanities, start with the library catalog.]

 

Published by the National Agricultural Library, the Agricola database describes publications and resources encompassing all aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines including: animal science; veterinary science; entomology; plant science; forestry; aquaculture and fisheries; farming, farming systems and crops; agricultural economics; extension and education; food and human nutrition; and earth sciences and environmental sciences. The Bibliography of Agriculture is the print index to the agricultural literature going back to 1942 located on the Shields Library, Third Floor, at call number Z 5071 .U63

NOTE: default UCD Search Type set to Advanced Ovid Search.  IMPORTANT: The largest and most comprehensive agricultural literature database is CAB Abstracts.

Provides citations and abstracts to the international agricultural literature, including veterinary medicine, human and animal nutrition, forestry, rural development, as well as other related topics such as tourism and human ecology. Covers over 11,000 journals & conference proceedings and selected books in agriculture. Produced by CAB (Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux) International (CABI) with more than 10 million records.

HISTORICAL SCOPE: Archive abstracts added in August 2005 go back to 1910 with 1,860,000 additional records. CAB DATABASE PDFs: As of January 2009, hard-to-find literature may be available as CAB Database PDFs (so noted *below* the UC-eLinks button).  These CABI Full Text items give users automatic access to over 350,000 journal articles, conference papers and reports – 80% of which are not available electronically anywhere else. NOTE: the default UCD Search Type is set to Advanced Ovid Search.

Coverage: 1910-present
Tags: Agriculture, Animals, Ecology, Plants, Science
Related links: Database Guide[OvidSP]

SciFinder is the most comprehensive bibliographic database for scholarly research in the field of chemistry. It contains over 29 million citations and indexes over 10,000 journals, covering all aspects of chemistry, including chemical aspects of: biology and life sciences, engineering and materials science, food science, geology, medicine, physics, and polymer science. SciFinder also allows searching of chemical substances, chemical reactions, and includes some property data and spectra. It is the online version of Chemical Abstracts. Includes Cited Reference Searching: 1996 – present.

Coverage: 1907-present (with selected pre-1907 material)
Tags: Chemistry

A comprehensive, indexed bibliography with selected abstracts of the world’s economic literature compiled from the American Economic Association’s Journal of economic literature and the Index of economic articles in journals and collective volumes. Topics include economic theory and history, monetary theory and financial institutions; labor economics; international, regional, urban economics; and other related subjects.

Coverage: 1969-present
Tags: Business, Economics

The ERIC Database indexes and abstracts education and education related journals, studies and reports, with links to full-text studies and reports from 1993 forward.

Coverage: 1966-present
Tags: Education

FDsys from the Government Printing Office provides free online access to official U.S. Federal government documents and information. GPO is the recognized authoritative source for government information and has authenticated the documents on FDsys. Search for official versions of government documents and publications, browse by title, collection, congressional committee, date, and download publications.

PLEASE NOTE: upgraded in May 2012 to 8 simultaneous users access — please LOGOFF when finished. FSTA (Food Science and Technology Abstracts) is the world’s largest database of food science, food technology, and nutrition information. FSTA covers topics relating to every aspect of the food chain including all the major food commodities plus biotechnology, microbiology, food safety, additives, nutrition, packaging and pet foods. Covers over 1800 journals and patents, books, theses, conference proceedings, patents, standards, and legislation. Comprehensive coverage.

IMPORTANT: default UCD Search Type is set to Advanced Ovid Search.

Database guide to all features of the FSTA database
•For assistance searching FSTA, e-mail bioagquestions@lib.ucdavis.edu

Coverage: 1969-present
Tags: Food, Technology

Citations from scholarly journals, conference proceedings, books, reports, and dissertations in physics, electrical engineering and electronics, computers and control, and information technology.

The Modern Language Association International Bibliography (MLAIB) covers international scholarly materials on all languages, literatures, linguistics, and folklore from around the world. It includes citations to items from journals, series, books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies. MLAIB does not index book reviews.

Coverage: 1926-present
Tags: Language, Literature

NTRL (National Technical Reports Library) is from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). NTRL indexes government-sponsored research, development and technical reports and provides full-text access to reports that have been digitized. Searches over 3 million reports with links to over 800,000 full-text reports.

Coverage: 1964-present
Tags: Multidisciplinary, Technology

PsycINFO is a department of the American Psychological Association (APA). It provides citations to articles in professional journals, conference proceedings, books, reports, dissertations and even important internet sites in psychology and related disciplines, most with abstracts and some citations.

Coverage: 1840-present
Tags: Psychology

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More than 28 million citations and abstracts for articles published in approximately 8,400 journals in medicine, life sciences, health administration, veterinary medicine, nursing, molecular biology and genetics. PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine on the NCBI platform.

PubMed Tutorial & more
Alerts/Automatic Updating Service (Saving & Managing Searches)
NLM Searching PubMed with Mesh tri-fold handout [PDF]
NLM PubMed Basics tri-fold handout [PDF]

Coverage: 1946-present
Tags: Animals, Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Veterinary Medicine

Prime resource for accessing the latest research in sociology and related disciplines in the social, behavioral, and cultural studies. The database draws information from an international selection of over 2,600 journals and other serials publications, plus conference papers, books, and dissertations. Records added after 1974 contain in-depth and nonevaluative abstracts of journal articles.

Coverage: 1963-present
Tags: Sociology

TRID includes over 900,000 records covering transportation research from ITRD and TRIS. It includes TRB publications going back to 1923, including Highway Research Board, SHRP, and Marine Board publications. Also indexed are Environmental Impact Statements, theses, reports, and research in progress. TRID is the world’s largest and most comprehensive bibliographic resource on transportation research information, covering all modes and disciplines of transportation.

Coverage: 1920's-present
Tags: Transportation

Primary database for wildlife researchers. The world’s oldest continuing database of animal biology.  Comprehensive coverage of zoology; including behavior, conservation and environmental science, ecology, evolution, genetics, habitat, marine and freshwater biology, nutrition, parasitology and disease, reproduction, taxonomy and systematics, veterinary studies, zoogeography and fossil records. Especially strong in new species reports and field studies.

Coverage: 1864-present
Tags: Animals, Science

OCLC catalog of millions of records for books, journal titles and materials in other formats from approximately 12,000 libraries worldwide.

Coverage: 1000 A.D.-present
Tags: Libraries

Copac exposes rare and unique research material by bringing together the catalogues of c.90 major UK and Irish libraries (and growing). In a single search you can discover the holdings of the UK’s national libraries (including the British Library), many University libraries, and specialist research libraries. Researchers and educators use Copac to save time in their research, to quickly and easily discover and locate resources, to check document details, review materials in their field, and assess the rarity of materials etc. Information professionals trust Copac to give them access to a unique pool of high-quality bibliographic information.

Der KVK ist eine Meta-Suchmaschine zum Nachweis von mehreren hundert Millionen Büchern, Zeitschriften und anderen Medien in Bibliotheks- und Buchhandelskatalogen weltweit.

The Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog is a meta-search engine for locating hundreds of millions of books, periodicals, and other media in library and book trade catalogues throughout the world.

Web of Science combines traditional bibliographic searching of journal content across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences with broadly interdisciplinary “cited reference” search capabilities.

Quick Reference Guide: Web of Science Core Collection
Saving Your Search & Setting Alerts
Creating Citation Alerts for Current Awareness

Coverage: See above description (varies between 9 indexes)
Tags: Science

Journal Citation Reports is an annual publication by Thomson Reuters with each yearly data analysis being completed in the following year. The most recent edition is always published in the summer following the year analyzed. Journal Citation Reports indicates the most frequently cited journals in a field, the highest impact journals in a field, and the largest journals in a field. JCR Science Edition contains data from over 7,300 journals in science and technology. JCR Social Sciences Edition contains data from over 2,200 journals in the social sciences.

NOTE: For disciplines that have longer timespans for citation, consider sorting for ranking by using the 5-year Impact Factor sort.

Coverage: 1997-2015 release; 1996-2014 data
Tags: Multidisciplinary, Science

The standard source for information on virtually every active and ceased periodical, annual, irregular publication, and monographic series published throughout the world (plus thousands of newspapers). Indicates whether a publication is a refereed (peer-reviewed) title.

NOTE: search by journal title, NOT article title. Ulrich’s provides information on the entire publication (journal, magazine, newspaper, annual review) NOT on the articles within.

Indexes citations and provides linked page images of works represented in the microfilm series Early English Books I and II, based on The Short-Title Catalogue (Pollard and Redgrave, 1475-1640); the Short-Title Catalog II (Wing, 1641-1700), The Thomson Tracts (1640-1661), and The Early English Books Tracts Supplements.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) provides full-text searchable access to the digital images of 150,000 books and other materials published during the 18th Century. Based on the English Short Title Catalog bibliography, it includes English-language and foreign-language titles printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.

Coverage: 1701-1800
Tags: Europe, History, Language, Literature, North America

“The Making of the Modern World provides digital facsimile images of unique primary sources that track the development of the modern, western world through the lens of trade and wealth from 1450-1914.”

“Based on Joseph Sabin’s landmark bibliography, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900’s. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more. With over 6 million pages from 29,000 works, this collection is a cornerstone in the study of the western hemisphere.”

Companion resource to Periodicals Index Online (PIO), PAO is a fulltext archive of hundreds of historical digitized journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences; about 35-40 of the titles covered are philosophy journals.

Coverage: 1802-1995
Tags: Art, Humanities, Social Science

Searchable database of citations and digitized images of the pages of more than 1100 American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century.

Coverage: 1741-1940s
Tags: Art, Humanities, Multidisciplinary, Science, Social Science

JSTOR provides Full-Text access to back files of hundreds important scholarly journals in nearly 50 disciplines spanning the arts, humanities, social sciences and the sciences. Current issues are now included for selected titles. Holdings vary by journal. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization established with the assistance of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

This is a collection of books digitized by major US research libraries. Although there is significant overlap with Google books, this site has a much more effective and sophisticated search interface. Like Google books, some of the scanned titles are not actually viewable. The titles in this collection (both the full view and restricted ones) are cataloged in Melvyl.

The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. It includes large online collections of moving images, music and audio recordings.

Direct access to several million digital objects: film, photos, paintings, sound recordings, maps, manuscripts, books, newspapers, and archival papers. Selected from previously digitized resources available in Europe’s museums, libraries, archives, and audio-visual collections.  French and German cultural institutions are particularly well represented.

One of the world’s most advanced digital library collections, providing online access to millions of books, periodicals, images, videos, maps, sound files, manuscripts, and scores. Searchable in basic or advanced modes, and browsable by publication type. Originally an attempt to provide coverage of the Bibliotheque Nationale’s vast holdings in French literature from the Middle Ages to the present, it now has digital access partnerships with a number of other major library collections substantially increasing its offerings. Includes links to other relevant sites.

The OAC brings together historical materials from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives. It includes searchable finding aids for collections held in these institutions as well as a large selection of scanned images and documents from these collections.

“The vision of a national digital library has been circulating among librarians, scholars, educators, and private industry representatives since the early 1990s. Efforts led by a range of organizations, including the Library of Congress, HathiTrust, and the Internet Archive, have successfully built resources that provide books, images, historic records, and audiovisual materials to anyone with Internet access. Many universities, public libraries, and other public-spirited organizations have digitized materials, but these digital collections often exist in silos. The DPLA  brings these different viewpoints, experiences, and collections together in a single platform and portal, providing open and coherent access to our society’s digitized cultural heritage.”

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VPN

ARTStor is a library of digital images, associated information, and software tools designed to enhance teaching, learning and scholarship. It contains a searchable database of more than 500,000 digital images, covers many time periods and cultures, and documents the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design, as well as many other forms of visual culture.

For off-campus access, first register with ARTstor from a computer on campus. Then, you may login from off campus with your ARTstor ID by going directly to www.artstor.org. Or, you may use the Client VPN.

NOTE: Artstor’s site videos (QTVR) are not currently available.

UC Davis Library Catalog

Browse “Library Search”

UC Davis Mabie Law Library Catalog

Melvyl (UC System) Library Catalog

Worldcat [via FirstSearch]  Icon

Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog (European Libraries)

“Library Search”

Subject Guides
https://www.library.ucdavis.edu/guide/catalogs-indexing-databases/
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