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Research Guides

Botany

LibrarySearch

To improve your search experience and gain access to advanced features, always begin by clicking the Sign In button pictured below. 

 

 

Sign In button located in top right corner of LibrarySearch interface

 

Once you have signed in to LibrarySearch you can: 

  • Update your profile to be sure you will receive important library notifications
  • Check due dates, place holds, review item requests, and pay fines
  • Renew your borrowed items 
  • View your search history
  • Access saved search results and citations
  • Create alerts to keep up to date on new publications

Please note: LibrarySearch times out after 30 minutes of inactivity, automatically signing you out and resetting itself to the default search page.

 

To search for an exact book or article, search with quotations around your title phrase. See an article title search demonstration. 

 

LibrarySearch interface highlighting the title entered with quotations

If searching with quotations around your title phrase is not successful, try using Advanced Search with the following settings:

  • Select "Title" from the first drop-down menu
  • Choose "is (exact)" from the next drop-down menu
  • Enter your title phrase without quotations
  • Select your preferred item format

Advanced search interface with arrows indicating first drop-down menu set to title, second drop-down menu set to the phrase "is exact", the title entered without quotations, and item format set to All items

 

Finding Primary Sources

Primary sources are:

  • first-hand accounts of events
  • materials created by participants or witnesses of the event/s under study
  • original records created at the time that events occurred
  • raw data
Examples include:
  • periodical articles reporting original research
  • letters
  • government documents
  • public records
  • newspaper clipping

Secondary sources are:

  • works that discuss a subject, but which are written after the time that the event/s occurred (by someone other than an eyewitness)
Examples include:
  • a review
  • critical analysis

To find primary sources @ U of T or online visit the "How to Find Primary Sources" Page for more information

Course Reserves

The vast majority of the course reserves for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology courses will be held at the Earth Sciences (Noranda) Library or at Gerstein Science Information Centre. If you are unsure if the required readings are held at the Earth Sciences Library, or if you are looking for course reserves for other courses this is where you can locate books that have been placed on short term loan.