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Ornithology Resources at Yale Library: Library Catalog Tips for Ornithology Research

This guide provides information on holdings in Yale collections online and in print alongside advice about how to use them efficiently and effectively for your research.

A Guide to the Catalog

There are several ways to achieve serendipity when looking at the catalog: using call numbers and using subject headings.

Call numbers are standardized. Yale Library uses the Library of Congress for the majority of our books, and in online systems, the print books we hold will have call numbers that virtually place them next to one another when you perform a call number search. Most ebooks do not have call numbers in their record right now, though, because we receive ebook records from the vendors without a call number.

Subject headings leverages the classification tools that librarians have created to make finding materials easier. Both online and print books have subject headings, and the subject headings in a catalog record are clickable.

  • Doing a subject search from the catalog using the drop-down will show you anywhere a term comes up.
  • Clicking on a term on a specific catalog record item will show you other items within the same subject heading hierarchy

A "subject heading hierarchy" means that Birds > Egypt > Western Desert and Egypt, if you click on "Egypt" in both of the records, will take you to different places. There's a nested hierarchy where everything to the right of the top term is a more granular form. 

How to Use the Catalog

Search Options

The image below shows you how to do a subject search (for the words anywhere they may appear in our subject terms). We have a suite of options for catalog searches.

The subject search option in the catalog

The image below shows how to do a call number search. This works best if you just use the first line of the call number.

A call number search

What's In a Record

The book record below shows an example of where to find a call number and the clickable subject terms. Depending on where the book is, there may be different options for acquiring the book, such as receiving a scan of a book or having the book delivered to a location near you. This book is in the Ornithology Library and thus only has the scanning service available.

This shows a catalog record and is intended to help people visually locate where the Subjects are on the page and where the call number is on the page.

Understanding Book Call Numbers

Resources for Using Our Collections

The RSS feed below will take you to a catalog search for A Field Guide to the Birds, which seems to be what most bird guides call themselves. A selection of the titles is listed below.

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This call number list is not exhaustive, but it will give you a good start. If you find a print book or several that are very helpful to you, be sure to note down their call numbers. If you're curious about how to read the other lines, please see the video about reading call numbers on this page below the "How to Use the Catalog" section — if you're on a laptop or desktop, it will be at the bottom of the left column.

  • QL Zoology
  • QL 671- 699 Birds
  • QL 671 Journals, societies' publications, congresses, yearbooks on birds
  • QL 675 Birds' eggs and nests
  • QL 676.7 Rare and endangered species
  • QL 677 Classification and Nomenclature
  • QL 677.3 Evolution
  • QL 681 North American and the United States
  • QL 685 Canada
  • QL 686 Mexico
  • QL 690 Europe
  • QL 692 Africa
  • QL 694.5 Atlantic islands
  • QL 695 Arctic regions
  • QL 695.2 Antarctic regions
  • QL 696 Systematic divisions. by order and family, A-Z
  • QL 696 P2 Passeriformes
  • QL 697 Anatomy and morphology
  • QL 698 Phyiology
  • QL 698.3 Behavior
  • QL 698.5 Song
  • QL 698.7 Flight
  • QL 698.8 Navigation
  • QL 698.9 Migration

The 16 volume set Handbook of the Birds of the World (1992-2011) is held at the Ornithology Library in paper (non-circulating) and is available at LSF (circulating). location  

Online version: Birds of the World. It has been merged with Birds of North America, Neotropical Birds, and Bird Families of the World. From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

  • Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks
  • Volume 2: New World Warblers to Guineafowl
  • Volume 3: Hoatzin to Auks
  • Volume 4: Sandgrouse to Cuckooos
  • Volume 5: Barn-owls to Hummingbirds
  • Volume 6: Mousebirds to Hornbills
  • Volume 7: Jacamars to Woodpeckers
  • Volume 8: Broadbills to Tapaculos
  • Volume 9: Cotingas to Pipits and Wagtails
  • Volume 10: Cuckoo-shrikes to Thrushes
  • Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers
  • Volume 12: Picathartes, Babblers, Parrotbills, Australian Bubblers, Logrunners, Jewelbabblers and allies, Whistlers, Australian kkRobins, Fairywrens, Bristlebirds, Thornbills, Australian Chats, Sittellas, Australian Treecreepers, Tits and Chickadees
  • Volume 13: Penduline-tits, Long-tailed Tits, Nuthatchers, Wallcreeper, Treecreepers, Honeyeaters or Wigshrikes, Rhabdornis, Sunbirds, Berrypeckers and Longbills, Painted Berrypeckers, Flowerpeckers, Pardalotes, White-eyes, Sugarbirds, Honeyeaters, Orioles, Shrikes
  • Volume 14: Bush-shrikes, Helmet-shrikes, Vangas, Drongos, New Zealand Wafflebirds, Stitchbird, Mudlarks, Australian Mudnesters, Woodswallows, Butcherbrds, Bowerbirds, Bristlehead, Birds-of-Paradise, Crows, Oxpeckers, Starlings, Old World Sparrows
  • Volume 15: Weavers, Whydahs and Indigobirds, Waxbills, Vireos, Finches, Hawaiian Honey Creepers
  • Volume 16: Tanagers, Buntings, New World Sparrows, Cardinals, New World Blackbirds