Agronomy & Plant Pathology 

Accessing databases and journals from off-campus

UF doesn't have my resource

Get more help

Bibliographic management software: RefWorks

Finding governmental grey literature

1. I'm working off campus. How can I access the databases and read electronic journals?

   The majority of our electronic databases and journals are restricted for use only by UF faculty, staff, and students. If you are on campus, the library recognizes your IP address, however if you are off campus, you will need to log on using the UF VPN software.

2. The UF library doesn't have my:
   
   
   • Journal: Be sure that you are looking in the catalog for the journal and not just through the e-journal locator. We have an increasing number of journals online but many titles (especially older volumes) are still in print format. The print journals in Marston are shelved by call number and date: volumes after 1990 are on the 3rd floor and before 1990 on the 1st floor. If we don't hold your desired journal, you can request the individual article through Interlibrary Loan (see book below).
     
     
   • Book: If you can't locate the book in the catalog, you can request it through Interlibrary Loan. You will need to create a separate ILL account with you contact information and specify as much information as you can about the desired book.
     
     
   • In either scenario, please contact Valrie Davis so she is aware of the missing resource.
     
     
3. How can I get more help about using the library?

   The best way to obtain help is to contact Valrie Davis, your librarian. She can be reached by email at vdavis@ufl.edu, in person at Marston L-209A, or by phone at 352-273-2880. Please contact her if you are having trouble finding material, wish to place material on course reserve, have questions about databases, or would like to schedule an instruction session for yourself, class, or lab group.

   For general reference questions, please call the Marston Science Library reference desk at 352-273-2856 or instant message our chat reference service at screen-name uflibrarian on Google, AOL, or Yahoo. For more information, please see our "Ask A Librarian" page.

4. I'd like to use software to manage my citations. Does the library provide such software?

   We offer RefWorks, a web-based bibliographic manager, for all faculty, staff, and students. RefWorks allows users to create an unlimited number of accounts, import and create article citations, and format and quickly output reference lists into Word, HTML, or plain text format. You will need to create an account and, if off campus, be sure to use the UF Group code. Currently, RefWorks is allowing an unlimited amount of data to be stored in each account and you can upload citations, images, documents, and other types of files (up to 10 MB). There is an extensive amount of help documentation available, or please contact Valrie Davis with any questions. Locate RefWorks under "databases."

5. What is a good way to find government grey literature online?

   http://www.google.com/ig/usgov is a good place to start when looking for general and modern government information. If you don’t know what agency is producing relevant materials, or which congress was in session when your topic was addressed, this site will get you to online resources. Those resources can provide a good starting point for more in depth research. Once you have the name of a relevant agency, you can do an author search in the library catalog for older, print-only, materials. Don’t forget, citations in found articles will often point you to more specific documents, many of which are housed in the Government Documents department of the UF Libraries.