This page should help you with your library research assignment. Feel free to contact me with questions. You may also want to try the UO Libraries LibX Toolbar for your browser!
Good for its mix of popular, news and scholarly articles. You have to exercise your critical evaluation skills to help determine what's what. (Do NOT rely solely on their limit to peer-reviewed feature--it is not reliable.)
Produced by the National Agriculture Library, this database covers far more than "traditional" agriculture. E.g., you could find articles on using electronic noses to analyze wines, or how floral scents interact with pollinators.
in UOWorldCat (UO Libraries and beyond)
A few book search tips:
Use less specific terms than when searching for articles. E.g., if you
want books that will tell you about electronic noses, you might need to search for a book on chemical sensors or sensor systems, which would include electronic noses.
UO WorldCat searches for articles, and many other formats besides books. To limit to books, click on book under format on the left side.
You may get better results if you do a Subject Heading search for a broad term. To do a search by Subject, go to Advanced Search. You also can click on the subject heading links at the bottom of the full record display for a book that you like, to get more like it.
Encyclopedia of Analytical Science.(6 vols.) SCI REF QD71.5 .E53 1995
Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. (20 vols.) SCI REF QH302.5 .E53 2001
See entries on chemosensory systems, olfaction, plant volatiles.
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (20 vols.) SCI REF Q121 .M3 2007
Online
(You must be on campus, or an authorized UO user if off campus, to access)
Encyclopedia of Biological Chemistry also in print: SCI REF QD415 .A25 E53 2004
A good source of information on the biochemistry of olfaction, ofactory receptors, etc.
You can search the whole collection, or see particularly: Chemistry: Foundations & Applications, Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine (for smelling disorders, etc.)
Contains many dictionaries, scientific and otherwise.
Compare the above reference sources with: Wikipedia
Do the articles have identified authors? Are the authors' credentials and affiliations available? Do the articles have references or bibliographies? If so, are there differences in the kinds of references given?
Wikipedia is a very handy, free Internet source, but it is not necessarily reliable. For a humorous demonstration of this phenomenon, watch this excerpt of the Colbert Report on Comedy Central. (Some improvements have been made to Wikipedia since this was aired.)