EBSCO Animals

Welcome to the EBSCO Animals Database Information Screen! Browse the topics listed below to find what you are looking for:

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About the Database

About the DatabaseAbout the Database

EBSCO's Encyclopedia of Animals offers in-depth information on a variety of topics relating to animals. The database consists of indexing, abstracts, and full text records describing the nature and habitat of familiar animals. Within some of the full text, image links are available for the Windows client. Images are accessed by double-clicking any image graphic.

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Searching Tips

Searching TipsSearching Tips

There are a number of helpful tips and hints you can use to improve your search results. For example, you can use Boolean operators to link search terms together; and/or limit the search to a specific animal.

Boolean Operators

Sometimes a search can be overly general (results equal too many hits) or overly specific (results equal too few hits). To fine tune your search, you can use AND, OR, and NOT operators to link your search words together. These operators will help you narrow or broaden your search to better express the terms you are looking for and to retrieve the exact information you need quickly.

USING THE "AND" OPERATOR: If you have a search term that is too general, you can append several terms together using "AND". By stringing key terms together, you can further define your search and reduce the number of results. Note: Unless you define a specific search field, the result list will contain references where all your search terms are located in either the citation, full display or full text.

  • For example, type lion AND tiger to find results that refer to both lions and tigers.

USING THE "OR" OPERATOR: In order to broaden a search, you can link terms together by using the "OR" operator. By using "OR" to link your terms together you can find documents on many topics. Linked by this operator, your words are searched simultaneously and independently of each other.

  • As an example, search lion AND tiger OR cat to find results that reference the terms "lion" and "tiger", or the term "cat".

USING THE "NOT" OPERATOR: In order to narrow a search, you can link words together by using the "NOT" operator. This operator will help you to filter out specific topics you do not wish included as part of your search.

  • Type: lion OR tiger NOT cat to find results that contain the terms "lion" or "tiger" but not the term "cat".
  • To further define your results, type: lion AND tiger AND cat to constrict the search to include all terms linked by the "AND" operator.

Grouping Terms Together Using Parentheses

Parentheses also may be used to control a search query. Without parentheses, a search is executed from left to right. Words that you enclose in parentheses are searched first. Why is this important? Parentheses allow you to control and define the way the search will be executed. The left phrase in parentheses is searched first; then based upon those results the second phrase in parentheses is searched.

Generalized Search: dog or cat and lion or tiger
Focused Search:(dog or cat) and (lion or tiger)

In the first example, the search will retrieve everything on dog or cat and lion AS WELL AS everything on tigers whether or not the articles refer to dogs or cats.

In the second example, we have used parentheses to control our query to only find articles about dogs or cats that reference lions or tigers.

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Searchable Fields

Searchable FieldsSearchable Fields

The default fields for unqualified searches consist of the following: all authors, all subjects, all keywords, all title info (including source title) and all abstracts.

The following list will help you locate detailed information referenced in this database as a field.

Searchable tag   Description                                  Example
 
AM              Searches for the animal which is the         AM Tiger
                 focus of the article
 
SU              Searches the subject heading of the          SU Felidae
                 article
  

AB              Searches the abstract summaries for          AB Predator
                 keywords
  

AN              Locates the article with this uniquely       AN 9500100253
                 assigned number
 
KI              Retrieves only those articles that are       KI Animalia
                 classified with a Kingdom of this type
   
PH              Retrieves only those articles that are       PH Chordata
                 classified with a Phylum of this type
  
CL              Retrieves only those articles that are       CL Mammalia
                 classified with a Class of this type
  
OD              Retrieves only those articles that are       OD Carnivora
                 classified with an Order of this type
  
FA              Retrieves only those articles that are       FA Felidae
                 classified with a Family of this type
  
GS              Retrieves only those articles that are       GS Panthera
                 classified with a Genus & Species of            tigris
                 this type

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Definition of Fields

Definition of FieldsDefinition of Fields

The following table explains the contents of each field in an EBSCO Animals record's detailed display.

Field name            Description
 
Animal                The animal featured in the article
 
Kingdom               One of the three main taxonomic divisions into
                       which natural organisms and objects are classified
    
Phylum                A broad category of the animal or plant kingdom
                       into which organisms are divided
  
Class                 A major category in biological taxonomy ranking
                       above the order and below the phylum or division
  
Order                 A category of taxonomic classification ranking
                       above the family and below the class
  

Family                A group of related plants or animals forming a
                       category ranking above a genus and below an order
       
Genus & Species       A category of biological classification ranking
                       between the family and the species, comprising 
                       structurally or phylogenetically related species 
                       or an isolated species exhibiting unusual 
                       differentiation
  

Geographical locale   The area or natural environment the animal inhabits
  
Abstract              A brief summary taken from the article
                       
Subject               The article's subject heading
  

AN                    Accession number
 
ISSN                  International Standard Serial Number

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Copyright and Restrictions of Use

Copyright and Restrictions of UseCopyright and Restrictions of Use

The EBSCO Animals database is made up of indexing, abstracts, and full text. The copyright of the Encyclopedia of Animals is the property of EBSCO Publishing and text may not be copied without the express written permission of EBSCO Publishing except for the print or download capabilities of the retrieval software used to access it. This text is intended solely for the use of the individual user. Copyright 1996 by EBSCO Publishing. All rights reserved.

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Where to Send Your Comments

Where to Send Your CommentsWhere to Send Your Comments

If you have some comments about either the database or the software, we would appreciate hearing from you! Please mail your comments to:

EBSCO Publishing
P O Box 682
Ipswich, MA 01938
Tel: 800-653-2726
Tel: 978-356-6500
Fax: 978-356-6565

 

Please submit any questions you have to: http://case.support.epnet.com.



 

 

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