• Web Sites
• Finding Books
• Subject Headings
• Reference Books
• Article Databases
• Citing Your Sources

Web Sites

Some helpful web sties include:

Aquarium of the Pacific

The web site of the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach has information about fishes (bony and cartilaginous), invertebrates, and marine mammals in the Ocean Learning Center. The database provides detailed information on dozens of animals on each page and supplies you with opportunities to dig deeper to gain more details or photos on each animal or topic. Click on the Ocean Learning Center image at the top of the page, then search for the animal you are studying.

 

Monterey Bay Aquarium

The Monterey Bay Aquarium's site has an Online Field Guide to animals. From the home page, click on the About the Animals link at the very top of the page. Click on the Inhabitants tab and search for an animal or use the hierarchical list to choose an animal.

National Geographic

This web site from the National Geographic Society contains information on animals, including fish, intertebrates, and mammals. Click on the animals link on the left side of the page.

FishBase

FishBase is a Global Information System on Fishes. You can search by common or scientific name and locate infomation about its taxonomy, environment, reproduction, etc. FishBase was developed at the WorldFish Center in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and many other partners, and with support from the European Commission.

2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

This web site from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) allows you to search for endangered species and view information on their taxonomy, history and justification of their endangered status, distribution, etc. It also includes references that allow you to search other web databases that include images and species information. After you use the Search function to locate an endangered species, check out the Publications & Links site to locate even more information sources. One of the sources the sources linked to from the IUCN Red List is ARKive.org which has images and additional information.

Finding Books

Use GCC's Online Catalog to locate books about your specific animal or type of animal. If you do not find a book on your specific species, try broadening your search. For example, if there aren't any books on sea urchins, then try searching for books about invertebrates as shown below.

Subject Headings

The following terms are some examples of subject headings that can be used to locate material about marine animals in the Online Catalog:

• fishes
• invertebrates
• marine mammals

You can also search for the specific animal, such as sea otter, that you are studying.

Reference Books

The GCC Library has various reference books that are useful for locating information on fishes, invertebrates, and marine mammals. Some reference books of interest include:

Fishes:

• Encyclopedia of Fishes
  (REF 597.03 E56, 1998)
• A Field Guide to Pacific Coast Fishes
  (REF 597.0979 E74f, 1983)
• Fishes of the World  
  (REF 597.0012 N427f, 1984)

Invertebrates:

• The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Seashore Creatures
  (REF 592.097 M514a, 1981)
• The Oxford Book of Invertebrates
  (REF 592 W549o, 1971)

Marine Mammals:

• Guide to Marine Mammals of the World
  (REF 599.5 N277, 2002)
• Marine Mammals of Eastern North Pacific and Arctic Waters
  (REF 599.09263 M338, 1978)

Article Databases for Locating Magazine and Journal Articles

• Science Resource Center - includes thousands of topic overviews, experiments, biographies, pictures and illustrations. In addition, the latest scientific developments are covered in articles from over 200 magazines and academic journals and links to quality web sites.

The Science Resource Center database includes Beacham's Guide to International Endangered Species which includes information on behavior, conservation and recovery, descriptions, distribution, habitat, and threats. This database also includes a Source Citation for your bibliography or references list.

Other databases to consider are:

• Encyclopedia Britannica Online - contains the standard information from the print Encyclopedia Britannica plus media, web sites, and more.
• ProQuest - covers various subject areas and includes full-text articles as well as scholarly articles.

Note on ProQuest - When reviewing your results in ProQuest, you may want to focus on the Scholarly Journals and Magazines. They will provide more in-depth and credible information.

Citing Your Sources

The GCC Library provides some brief, online guides on the MLA and APA citation styles. You can also use the library catalog to search for style manuals, which have more in-depth information. The two most frequently used style manuals for MLA and APA styles are:

• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
  (808.02 G437m, 2003)
• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
  (808.06615 P976, 2001)

Examples of citations for information on animals found in the web sites and databases above:

"Killer whale." Ocean Learning Center. Aquarium of the Pacific. 2 May 2007 <http://dynamic.aquariumofthepacific.org/ OLC/index.aspaddress>.

"Pacific hagfish." FishBase. 2 May 2007 <http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=2512>.

"Enhydra Lutris/Sea Otter." 20 April 2007. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Internatioanal Union of Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. 30 April 2007 <http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/7750/al>.

"Southern Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris nereis)." Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America. Ed. by Walton Beacham, Frank V. Castronova, and Suzanne Sessine. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Science Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Glendale College Library. 03 May 2007 <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SciRC?ste=1&docNum=CV2644400022>.