ZOOLOGICAL RECORDS - DIGITAL ARCHIVE

 

Q: What is the Zoological Record Archive?

A: These new backfiles contain the digitized content of the print Zoological Record Volumes 1-114, 1864-1977. These volumes have been digitized and enhanced with current controlled vocabulary indexing to match the current Zoological Record format. The bibliographic data (authors, titles, source data) found in Archive records are presented largely as published in the original print volumes.

Q: How can I limit a search to the archive or a specific Zoological Record volume or abstract number?

A: Archive years can be selected using the Select Timespan options at the top of the General Search. The Accession Number of each record contains the original Zoological Record volume number from which it was taken along with the abstract number. For example, accession number ZOOR07100012509 is abstract number 12509 from Volume 71, published in 1925.
Accession numbers can be searched in the Identifying Codes field – for example, searching ZOOR071* would retrieve all records from volume 71 (1925).

Q: What about searching the Archive in conjunction with the 1978+ file – are there any differences that may affect my search strategy?

A: For the most part, searching all date segments is seamless, but there are several points that should be considered in your search strategy.

  • Source Titles – Journal titles in the Archive are generally in abbreviated format, while the 1978+ file uses mainly the full format. You should “OR” the abbreviated and full forms of a journal title for best results. The Source Index search aid on the General Search browse will let you browse for both the full and abbreviated titles.
  • Author Names – Author names in the Archives are provided as published in the original Zoological Record volume, in most cases as the last name plus initials. Last name and initials were also the elements captured for 1978-1997. Beginning in 1998, full author names were captured, if provided in the source document. To get best results when searching across all date segment files, you should do a “last name and first initial with truncation” search, for example, “NADLER L*”.
  • Indexing – The Archive records contain the subject (Descriptors) and animal name (Taxa) indexing from the original Zoological Record volumes enhanced with current controlled vocabulary to provide seamless searching using the online thesaurus. For best results the recommendation to search using the Topics field or the General Search remains true.