Dept of MCB, Harvard U: Resources

The Biological Laboratories Library is no longer a separate entity. Its collection is being merged into that of the Ernst Mayr Library (MCZ), with some items going to Cabot or the Chemistry Library. However, many books remain in the Biolabs Library, and MCZ Library staff members are happy to retrieve them upon request. Contact the Ernst Mayr Library: 617-495-2475 or Dorothy Barr, MCB Librarian, 617-495-1348 or .

The Ernst Mayr Library is open 9 am-8 pm Monday through Thursday; Friday 9 am-5 pm; and Saturday (except holiday weekends) 10 am-1 pm.

Check out the latest MCB Library Newsletter on the News page!

Library Information: About the Library; News; Book Renewals; Interlibrary Loan Request; Related Harvard libraries; Other Library Catalogs; Harvard University

Content: HOLLIS- Harvard's Library Catalog; Access to Full Text Journals Online; Databases/Indices; National Library of Medicine Databases; Other Online Reference Sources; Biology Sources

You can reach the full text journals directly from this alphabetical list.

If you have difficulty accessing any of the resources on any of the library web pages please contact the Librarian.

Entrez - The NCBI databases - a one stop search across the NCBI databases, including PubMed with Full-Text Access, Gene, Protein, Nucleotide and many more, from the National Library of Medicine.

Databases/Indexes to articles: Academic Universe - LexisNexis Academic provides access to thousands of news, business, legal, and medical publications.; Agricola - National Agriculture Library Online Access. A bibliographical database of citations.; Alliance for Cellular Signalling - a free online journal and web site for cellular signalling information. A collaboration of the University of California San Diego and Nature.; Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts - AFSA. Aquatic resources, including:; ASFA 1: Biological Sciences and Living Resources (1978-).; ASFA 2: Ocean Technology, Policy and Non-Living Resources (1978-).; ASFA 3: Aquatic Pollution and Environmental (1990-).; ASFA Aquaculture Abstracts (1984-).; ASFA Marine Biotechnology Abstracts (1989-).; Biocarta Pathways database. Dynamic graphic models of a large number of various types of pathways.; BioCyc Knowledge Library The BioCyc databases are electronic reference sources for biologists who work with various microorganisms. In addition, the MetaCyc metabolic pathway database contains data from more than 600 species. Scientists can use BioCyc databases to visualize the layout of genes within a chromosome, of an individual biochemical reaction, or of a complete biochemical pathway.; BioMed Central - Home Page MORE INFO about BioMed Central.; BioQuery - A free online tool for searching and automatically updating Entrez searches of the NCBI databases.; BIOSIS Previews, 1969- - online edition of Biological Abstracts.; Birds of North American Online - a comprehensive database made available by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.; The Broad Institute provides a number of resources for the Scientific Community. An abundance of genomic sequences and other data and the software tools used to analyze them. Openly accessible.; CAB Abstracts 1973- (OVID) - compiled by CAB International and available via Ovid, the CAB Abstracts database indexes research and development literature in agriculture, forestry, human and animal nutrition, animal health, natural resource management and conservation, and related aspects of human health.; ChemBank - a freely available collection of data about small molecules and resources for studying their properties, especially their effects on biology. ChemBank is being actively developed by the informatics group at the Institute for Chemistry and Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School.; Chemical Abstracts (Scifinder Scholar) - Chemical Abstracts online with PubMed and chemical structure searching.; CRISP Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects - a searchable database of federally funded biomedical research projects. (Click on the "Go To CRISP Query Form" button on the left side of the page to search the database.); Conference Papers Index - hosted by Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, provides citations to papers and poster sessions presented at major scientific meetings around the world. Subject emphasis since 1995 has been in the life sciences, environmental sciences, and the aquatic sciences, while older material also covers physics, engineering, and materials science.; Connotea - a free bookmarking tool from Nature Publishing Group that gives you access to your bookmarks from any internet connected computer and lets you share your opinion of sites with others.; Current Protocols in Bioinformatics. - Once you have accessed a Current Protocols title you will be able to obtain access to the other titles for which we have subscriptions from the same page.; Current Protocols in Cell Biology.; Current Protocols in Cytometry.; Current Protocols in Human Genetics.; Current Protocols in Immunology.; Current Protocols in Molecular Biology.; Current Protocols in Neuroscience.; Current Protocols in Nucleic Acid Chemistry.; Current Protocols in Pharmacology.; Current Protocols in Protein Science.; Current Protocols in Toxicology.; Directory of Open Access Journals. Open access on-line journals from a variety of disciplines. Searchable or browsable by subject area.; Dissertations and Theses FullText - from the University of Michigan via ProQuest. Search for dissertations; many from 1990 on are available online. Dissertations may also be requested via Interlibrary Loan.; EMBASE Drugs and Pharmacology - A subset of the EMBASE database, EMBASE: Drugs & Pharmacology contains information pertinent to the specialty of drugs and pharmacology. The database contains more than 1,560,000 abstracts and citations, providing comprehensive coverage of drug and pharmacology literature.; Environmental Issues and Policy Index - Coverage from 1950- Environmental Issues and Policy Index, provided online by EBSCOhost, provides citation and abstracting information for articles from more than 1,000 international journals. Subjects covered include relevant areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, environmental law, geography, marine and freshwater resources, public policy, social impacts, and urban planning. This database was formerly known as the Environmenal Periodicals Bibliography.; Environmental Protection Agency's Science Inventory - EPA's Science Inventory is a searchable, Agency-wide catalog of science activities, such as research, technical assistance, and assessments.; Faculty of 1000 - a rating and synopsis of recent publications by a select group of faculty - from BioMed Central. For Harvard users only.; Flora and Fauna of the Great Lakes Region - A free digital resource provided by the University of Michigan Library, the Fish and Mammal Divisions of the Museum of Zoology at the University of Michigan and the Fungus Collections of the University of Michigan Herbarium.; Free Medical Journals Online - A list of free online bio-medical journals with some information about their citation index rankings.; Garden, Landscape and Horticultural Index, a database pertaining to plants and gardens. Topics covered include horticulture, botany, garden and landscape design & history, ecology, plant and garden conservation, garden management, and horticultural therapy.; GENSAT - Gene Expression Nervous System Atlas for the mouse CNS.; GeoRef - From 1785. - Major areas of coverage include environmental geology, marine geology, oceanography and paleontology as well as many other areas of geology.; Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) - The mission of the GBIF is to make the world's primary data on biodiversity freely and universally available via the Internet. GBIF encourages, coordinates and supports the development of worldwide capacity to access the vast amount of biodiversity data held in natural history museum collections, libraries and databanks.; Google Scholar has an Advanced Search capability that allows you to limit your searches by Author, Date or Publication. The Library has added the proxy identifier so that the Google Scholar Advanced Search will find full text from Harvard. See Google's Search Tips for more information. Keep in mind, however, that although it is useful for finding specific articles, Google Scholar's searching capabilities are limited.; Herpetological Conservation and Biology - Herpetological Conservation and Biology is a peer-reviewed journal publishing original research, reviews, perspectives and correspondence on the life history ecology, management and conservation of amphibians and reptiles. Its focus demonstrates the importance of natural history to conservation efforts.; Homophila - a database that correlates human disease genes from OMIM (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man) with the Drosophila genome. The database allows searches by human disease, gene name, OMIM number, title, subtitle and/or allelic variant descriptions. Functional links include BLAST 2 Sequences between protein sequences found and links to OMIM database descriptions of the genes or proteins.; Human Genome Project Information - Research Page.; ISI Highly Cited - uses Institute for Scientific Information data to identify the most cited individuals, departments, and laboratories in a given discipline, according to 1981-1999 data. It is not current.; ispecies.org - A species search engine. Searches across multiple databases to retrieve freely available information on the species in question, including the TaxID from NCBI and photographs if available.; IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species provides taxonomic, conservation status and distribution information on taxa at risk of extinction.; Journal Citation Reports - Journal Impact Factors - The Journal Citation Reports is an essential, comprehensive, and unique resource for journal evaluation, using citation data drawn from over 8,400 scholarly and technical journals worldwide in the sciences and social sciences.; KEGG - Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes . A highly interconnected set of databases that integrate genomic, chemical and metabolic information.; Linscott's Directory of Immunoligical and Biological Reagents is now freely available on on the web.; Mammalian Species - published by the American Society of Mammology. The first 739 PDF files are available here for free. To see the newest files go to the BioOne site for Mammalian Species found in the alphabetical journals list at the top of the page.; MedBioWorld - a large medical and biotechnology reference site, providing access to journals, associations, and similar resources in the biological sciences. Other research tools include directories, databases, targeted search engines and calculators.; MSDS Search - The MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) is a document designed to provide workers with safety information on chemicals that they are exposed to in the workplace. The MSDS is intended to tell what the hazards of the product are, how to use the product safely, what to expect if the recommendations are not followed, what to do if accidents occur, how to recognize symptoms of overexposure, and what to do if such incidents occur. Freely accessible. Return to Top

National Center for Health Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC is itself a rich source of information relatd to health, safety and the environment.; National Technical Information Service - The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) is a government agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. Its mission is to archive and provide access to scientific and technical reports produced by or for U.S. federal agencies. The archive includes research in the social sciences as well as the natural sciences. NTIS also archives and disseminates comparable reports from foreign sources. Its collection is currently estimated at 3 million titles. The link above akes you to an EBSCO interface that is easy to search, but you can also access it directly at http://www.ntis.gov/.; Oceanic Abstracts - from 1981- published by Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, Oceanic Abstracts covers worldwide technical literature pertaining to the marine and brackish-water environment. The database focuses on marine biology and physical oceanography, fisheries, aquaculture, non-living resources, meteorology and geology, plus environmental, technological, and legislative topics.; OHS Cornerstone MSDS Database- The OHS Cornerstone MSDS Database, published by MDL Information Systems Inc., contains over 19,000 MSDSs (material safety data sheets), primarily pure substances plus over 3,000 common chemical mixtures.; OpenWetWare- A science wiki built for the purpose of sharing laboratory protocols in an open access format. Check out the contents and consider signing your lab as a member. Return to Top; Primate Lit - a bibliographic database of the scientific literature on nonhuman primates for the research and educational communities. It is offered by the Wisonsin Primate Research Center and the University of Wisconsin Libraries. It includes books, technical reports, and other types of publications as well as journal articles.; Prokaryotes - this online text is the electronic implementation of The Prokaryotes, Third Edition, Volume 2: Ecophysiology and Biochemistry (2006), the classic reference work on the biology of bacteria. Revisions, updates, and additions occur on a continual basis, with full text available in HTML format.; Proteome BioKnowledge Library. Access to all of Proteome's databases - Human PSD, GPCR-PD, YPD, PombePD, WormPD, MycoPathPD. Registration is free but required for use.; Proteome Navigator - a database called ProLinks that explores functional linkages between proteins based on coevolution. Read about it in Genome Biology.; PubGene. A data-mining search engine that allows an analysis of MedLine to yield the occurrence of gene pairs in the literature. This is useful for gene analysis after microarray studies to determine which gene pairs may have already been analyzed and to find the relevant literature for the genes of interest from your expression studies.(See Nature Genetics 28(1):21-28, 2001); Public Library of Science. A push to make electronic access to scientific literature freely available to everyone. Consider publishing in their journals PLOS Biology, PLOS Genetics, etc.; RNAi Gateway - a collection of content and resources from journals and sites published by BioMed Central; one of several such "Gateways."; Science Citation Index Expanded (Web of Science) - indexes articles back to 1900. Includes Citation Analysis, Author Finder, links to Journal Citation Reports and other tools.; Science Direct - direct search and access to full text journals published by Elsevier Science. Click "Browse" to review the complete list of journals, or "Search" to begin searching. Please note that Harvard does not have access to the articles of all the journals contained within this resource. You will be asked for a personal login if you request an article from a journal that is not accessible through Harvard.; Science.gov - a directory-type gateway to selected science information provided by U.S. Government agencies, including research and development results.; Science's STKE - Science magazine's Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment - A compilation of information about signal transduction that includes full-text articles, pathway demonstrations, experimental protocols and more.; Sequence Manipulation Suite 2 - lots of nice, easy to use tools for manipulation of DNA or Protein sequences.; StatRef - an electronic medical library of 27 medical and drug reference books. Stedman's Medical Dictionary, the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), USP-DI (United States Pharmacopeia Dispensing Information) and full text of textbooks of medical specialities are included.; TreeSearch - search of over 10,000 freely accessible, full-text articles published by Research and Development scientists in the USDA Forest Service.; USDA Systematic Botany and Mycology Database. A useful site with lots of information and links to other resources.; Water Resources Abstracts - from 1967 to the present - summaries of the world's technical and scientific literature on water-related topics covering the characteristics, conservation, control, pollution, treatment, use, and management of water resources.; WebSpirs - Medline through the Silver Platter database.; Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded) - The Web of Science (citation indexes), published by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), is a multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of the sciences, social sciences and arts. It indexes major journals in these disciplines. Because the information stored about each article includes the article's cited reference list (often called its bibliography), you can also search the databases for articles that cite a known author or work.; World of Learning - A listing of over 30,000 academic institutions and over 550 learned societies from around the world. Searchable by country, institution, subject area or name (e.g. name of faculty member).; Zoological Record Plus - (ZR Plus), published by BIOSIS and searched online via Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, provides extensive coverage of the world's zoological and animal science literature, covering all research from biochemistry to veterinary medicine. The database presents a searchable collection of references from over 5,000 international serial publications, plus books, meetings, reviews and other non serial literature from over 100 countries.; Combined Chemical Dictionary - A database of information on chemical substances in more than 608,000 records and part of the CHEMnetBASE suite of chemical databases. It includes descriptive and numerical data on chemical, physical, and biological properties of compounds; systematic and common names of compounds; literature references; structure diagrams and their associated connection tables; a dictionary of drugs; and a dictionary of analytical reagents.

Conversion of Units. Automatic conversion of many different kinds of units. Also links to currency conversion sites.

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics.

Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

The Encyclopedia of the Life Sciences - Core subjects covered are biochemistry, cell biology, developmental biology, evolution, genetics and molecular biology, immunology, microbiology and virology, neurosciences, plant science, and structural biology.

The Genome Glossary contains precise and topical definitions of terms related to various genome projects.

Integrated Taxonomic Information System is a joint effort by U.S., Canadian and Mexican agencies to develop an online, scientifically credible list of biological names for North American biota.

International Plant Names Index for plant taxonomy. The Gray Card Index is now incorporated into this taxonomic database. More Info.

Internet Collegiate Reference Collection - A collection of free reference sources found on the internet. A wide variety of resources is found here.

Martindale's Calculators On-line Center - Currently the Calculators On-Line Center contains over 18,135 Calculators that cover a variety of subject areas.

Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary - Provided by the National Library of Medicine.

Oxford English Dictionary - 3rd edition. Entries contain detailed etymological analysis and are illustrated by quotations from a wide range of English language sources from around the world, making the OED a unique historical record. You may search the full text, definitions, etymologies, and quotations.

Periodic Table of the Elements - Useful links to information about the elements.

Visionary - a dictionary for terminology used in the study of human and animal vision. It includes terms from the areas of biological and machine vision, visual psychophysics, visual neuroscience and other related fields.; Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged.; Wikipedia - a free, open-source encyclopedia built, maintained, written and corrected by everyone. An experiment in knowledge sharing.
Publishing & Publications: Books in Print with Reviews (for Harvard people only).; Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory - bibliographic citations, buying and ordering information for periodicals and serials.; Publishers - publishers' web pages.; Powell's Books - out of print, new, and used books . Return to Top
Biologists, Directories, etc.: Associations Unlimited - database of associations, professional societies and nonprofit organizations worldwide.Biography and Genealogy Master Index - index to biographical sketches in reference books.; Federally funded researchers.

Members of FASEB societies.

Scholarly Societies Project--University of Waterloo .

Careers: Science's Next Wave (AAAS, Science) - A weekly online publication that covers scientific training, career development, and the science job market.; College Source Online - Published by the Career Guidance Foundation, CollegeSource provides the full text of over 30,000 U.S. and international college catalogs, from 2-year colleges to graduate and professional schools. Search keyword full text, alphabetically by title, or geographically within a specified radius of any city in the United States. Search foreign catalogs by country.; BioJobs - MCB's list of biology job sites.; Return to Top
Biology Resources: Infomine (Univ. Calif.) - Scholarly Internet Resource Collections in Biological, Agricultural and Medical Sciences.; BioLinks - Biology links from the MCB Department.; Biomolecules - Sequence databases and other databases on biological molecules from the MCB Department.

Botany (WWW Virtual Library) - Botany links from the University of Oklahoma.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories Library has put together an interesting and amusing Oral History Collection. Interviewees include Tom Maniatis, Matt Meselson, Ernst Mayr, Paul Doty and Alfred Tessieres from Harvard along with many other distinguished scientists.

Genetics (WWW Virtual Library) - Genetics links from the US Department of Energy, Office of Science.

Image Library of Biological Macromolecules - from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Jena Library, Germany.

Integrated Human Genome Map - from NCBI.

Methods and protocols - Cell and molecular biology methods and protocols.

Microbiology Network - Resource center and discussion groups for microbiologists.

Zygote - Maintained by Scott Gilbert, author of the textbook Developmental Biology. The major function of this website is to provide materials to supplement and enrich courses in developmental biology. While its chapter headings are those of a textbook, the learner is able to choose his or her own path through the different "exhibits". It is more like a museum than a book.

Neuroscience: Neurosciences on the Internet contains a searchable and browsable index of neuroscience resources available on the World Wide Web and other parts of the Internet (including e-mail lists, ftp sites, and some gopher and telnet resources). Neurobiology, neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry, psychology, cognitive science sites and information on human neurological diseases are covered.; Neuroscience (WWW Virtual Library) - supported by the Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Cornell University Medical College.; BIOSCI - Bionet usenet groups and associated mailing lists.; CSU Bioweb (California State University) -Links to teaching and research resources in many areas of biology. Return to Top
Harvard University: HOLLIS Catalog - Harvard University Library Catalog.; HOLLIS Resources - Harvard University Library's information navigator.; Harvard University home page.; HarvIE - Harvard Intranet for Employees.; Bauer Center for Genomics Research.; Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.; Focus - News from Harvard Medical, Dental and Public Health Schools.; Research Matters - Public access to research stories from Harvard.
Related Harvard Libraries: Botany Libraries.; Cabot Science Library.; Chemistry and Chemical Biology Library.; Countway Library of Medicine.; Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology.; Other Harvard University libraries.
Other Library Catalogs: Barton - Online Catalog of the MIT Libraries.; Orbis - Online Catalog of the Yale Libraries.; Library of Congress - Online Catalog of the U.S. Library of Congress.; Tulips - Online Catalog of Tufts University Libraries.

World Cat - OCLC's database of bibliographic and location information for books and serials. (To disconnect: **always** press the Exit button, then press the Yes button to confirm. If you just use your browser's Back button to leave this resource, the session will not disconnect for 10 minutes, thus locking out other users.

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Dorothy Barr, MCB Librarian, Ernst Mayr Library.
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138
Voice: 617-495-1348. Main Desk: 316-495-2475; Fax: 617-496-6838;

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