BI164 McKee: Researching birds

Government agencies such as the EPA and the Department of Fish and Wildlife conduct substantial scientific research, much of which is freely available online.  You can limit a web search to government sources by adding site:gov to a web search.  For example,

Here are some recommended government agencies useful for researching environmental issues, including birds.

Before searching, be sure to set PCC as your library in your browser by:

1. Visiting the link to set "Library Links" settings for Google Scholar, 
2. using the search box to search for "Portland Community College",
3. checking the check box that appears underneath the search to select “Portland Community College – Find it @ PCC”, 
4. and then selecting the Save button.

This will ensure that when you search Google Scholar in your browser, you will see Find It @ PCC links to full text if we have the article (Google Scholar sometimes also provides links to other free sources for full text).

You can learn more about setting Google Scholar preferences on the PCC Library Website. 

This six minute video tutorial shows you the fastest way to find articles from PCC Library databases, using the EBSCOHost databases from the Articles tab.

For more tips on selecting effective search terms, watch this three minute video:  Brainstorming keywords

Get tips for reading and understanding peer reviewed research articles: How to Read a Scientific Article.