The catalog is a searchable listing of materials owned and located in the MSU Libraries, including books, journals, government documents, videos/DVDs/CDs, etc. If you live within the U.S., we can arrange to ship most circulating items to you. See information under "Request Materials."
When should I use the catalog?
NOTE: You cannot use the catalog to find individual articles within a journal-you must use a periodical index for that (See Finding Articles).
Begin with a keyword search which allows the use of everyday terminology and the combination of two or more concepts (e.g. "food safety and packaging"; "pesticide residues and food"); click on a title of interest and follow the subject hotlinks in the cataloging record to locate other books on the same topic. Use the truncation symbol to retrieve alternate forms of a word (e.g., food contamina* will find food contamination, food contaminants; food label* will find food label, food labels, food labelling). Alternatively, you can do a subject search instead of a keyword search. Subject searches are more precise, but require the use of the standardized Library of Congress subject headings assigned by catalogers. Some of the official Library of Congress subject headings used in this area are:
FOOD-SAFETY MEASURES
FOOD-TOXICOLOGY
FOOD ADDITIVES
FOOD ADULTERATION AND INSPECTION
FOOD ALLERGY
FOOD CONTAMINATION
FOOD MICROBIOLOGY
FOOD POISONING
FOOD SPOILAGE
FOODBORNE DISEASES
PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN FOOD
RADIATION PRESERVATION OF FOOD
Need something online?: You can search for Electronic Materials only. To find resources by topic, click Keyword or Subject, enter your search terms, and click the Search button. You will retrieve a list of electronic resources, ranked by relevancy and displayed 50 per screen, with the most recent listed first. Click on a title of interest for further information and hyperlink.
The Knovel Life Sciences, Chemistry, Food Science and Metals/Metallurgy Collection includes almost 500 fully-searchable handbooks and reference works covering all areas of food science and technology. Many are related to food microbiology, food safety & quality.
Specialized dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, etc. can help you to explore a topic; identify trends, issues, key people, potential keywords for database searching; and find references to books and articles on the subject. You may find the following useful:
