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Reference materials serve a variety of purposes and can sometimes be used effectively in searching the scientific literature. Reference materials can be used to:
Following are reference materials of interest to the fisheries scientist and manager. They are organized by category of reference material rather than subject. Resources marked with a are key resources or databases.
Species accounts include natural history and life history information on individual species. Topics frequently covered include description, taxonomy, distribution, life history, habitat, status, and management considerations.
For species accounts and life history information for California fish species see California Environment Information Sources-Wildlife-Fish.
These resources provide definitions of discipline-specific terminology and/or general introductions to topics and concepts in fisheries. Many encyclopedias include references to important "primary" literature on a specific topic .
Directories are commonly alphabetical or subject listings of people, organizations, places, or animals. See also the Internet Directories/Portals/Gateways section.
Scientific reviews or "state-of-the-art" papers critically survey a narrow topic in a discipline. Review papers identify and evaluate research which has appeared in the "primary" literature and include extensive bibliographies. Scientific reviews typically appear in annual publications entitled "Annual review of ..." or "Advances in ...", as well as in research journals, especially those which have "review" as part of the title. As part of a search strategy review papers are an excellent "research tool" to use since they pull together information on the existing state-of-knowledge on a specific topic.
There are several ways to locate scientific reviews:
Annual reviews of interest in fisheries include the following. Check the Journal and Newspaper Finder for format and holdings.
Bibliographies are compiled lists which gather together known research on a specific topic. They are generally more useful for retrospective rather than current searching. There are many specialized bibliographies in fisheries. Fish and Fisheries Worldwide index lists over 3,000 fisheries bibliographies. Listed below are selected bibliographies which cover general subjects, species, or emphasize California and Pacific coast fisheries.
Listed below are multivolume treatises that summarize the state of scholarly knowledge in various areas of fisheries, comprehensive knowledgebases and extensive compilations of fisheries literature.
Collections of administrative records and scientific research compiled by the NMFS for use in its review in endangered species status reviews and recovery planning. A print index is available to the materials included in each collection. The University of Washington Fisheries and Oceanography Library also maintains Indexes to Administrative Records for Pacific Salmon. The HSU Library has the following collections:
Two older guides to taxonomic works are the "Pisces" section IN Guide to Taxonomic Literature of Vertebrates (Blackwelder) 1972 (ref QL 607 B53) and Annotated List of Keys and Identification Aids for California Marine Fishes (Fitch) 1966 (ref QL 623.4 F58).
Handbooks and manuals typically fall into two basic categories--1) works that contain data and descriptive information compiled from the "primary" literature and organized into tables or expository articles that can be used to answer many basic and factual questions; and 2) works that contain procedures for experimental analysis in the field or laboratory. Fisheries Techniques (Murphy & Willis) 1996 (SH 332 F575 1996) is the major resource to techniques used in fisheries.
General
For general legal resources in the HSU Library see Legal Research: Secondary Legal Sources & Finding Tools and Environmental/Natural Resources Law. The following are more specialized resources that focus on fisheries:
Federal Laws and Regulations
Federal statutory, case and administrative legal resources available in the HSU Library are listed in the guide Legal Research: Federal & California Primary Legal Sources . The following are more specialized resources that focus on fisheries:
California Laws and Regulations
California statutory, case and administrative legal resources available in the HSU Library are listed in the guide Legal Research: Federal & California Primary Legal Sources . The following are more specialized resources that focus on fisheries:
The following sources are useful guides to locating geospatial resources:
Some geospatial resources of special interest to fisheries include:
One can use a combination of general and specialized Internet search engines to find images on the web. SeeImages for a list of specialized search engines. However, search engines fail to index the content of the "invisible web", especially information contained within databases. The following sources are either specialized databases or sites devoted to images or sounds in fisheries.
Environmental reviews contain analysis of environmental issues and frequently contain statistical data. For more encompassing reviews see the Environmental Reviews listed in the HSU Library Environmental Science research guide. Reviews, assessments, and plans specific to fisheries include:
The following sources are useful guides to locating statistics:
Some print data compilations available in the HSU Library and on the Internet include: