Subject guides are designed to help students begin the research process, find reputable sources, and save time.

To locate books and other materials in CCSF Libraries, select the Library Catalog from the Library's Homepage. You will notice many ways to search, such as Title, Author, Subject, Subject Keyword, etc.

Examples of Subject searches include: Flower arrangement, Gardening, Landscape design, Landscape gardening, Nurseries (horticulture), Ornamental horticulture and many more.

Reserve Materials

Reserve Materials include books, sample tests, class notes, and other items that instructors put at the library for class use. The check out time is shorter than regular circulating books.

To search for a book on reserve in the Library Catalog, select either Reserves by Course or Reserves by Instructor.

When you have located the materials, write down the Course Number and Title on the green “Reserve Materials Request Card” and present this, along with your CCSF Student ID, at the Circulation Desk.

Reference books provide background information and overviews on a given topic. Some relevant reference books in horticulture include:

The American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants by Bricknell, Christopher and Judith D. Zuk, editors-in-chief. New York : DK Pub., 1997.

Hortus Third: a Concise Dictionary of Plants Cultivated in the United States and Canada by Bailey, Liberty Hyde and Ethel Zoe Bailey; revised and expanded by the staff of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. New York: Macmillan, 1976.
Note: Hortus Third has not been updated in many years, and plant names have changed over time. However, it is still heavily used by horticulturists and is still considered a standard reference work.
SB 45 .B22 1976 Rosenberg Reference

The Jepson Manual : Higher Plants of California by Hickman, James C., ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. QK 149 .J56 1993 Rosenberg Reference

Plants of the San Francisco Bay Region: Mendocino to Monterey by Beidleman, Linda H. and Eugene N. Kozloff. Berkeley: UC Press, 2003. PUT ON NEXT LINE: QK 149 .K72 2003 Rosenberg Reference

Sunset Western Garden Book by Brenzel, Kathleen Norris, ed., 7th ed. Menlo Park, Calif.: Sunset Pub. Corp., 2001.
SB 453.2.W4 S9 2001 Rosenberg Reference, Downtown Reference

Infotrac Web
Infotrac is a brand name for several databases with coverage from 1980 to the present. Most useful for horticultural topics are Expanded Academic ASAP, InfoTrac Onefile, and Science Resource Center. Searching on horticulture in the Subject Guide Search, then selecting Related Subjects, is a helpful way of seeing the variety of topics covered in these databases. General Business File ASAP and Business and Company ASAP have information on the horticultural industry. These databases let you limit your results to documents with full-text, peer-reviewed publications and documents with images. You can also limit by date, publication title and publication subject

Ethnic Newswatch
Comprised of newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press in America, this unique body of materials covers a wide range of current topics and countless other social, political and educational subjects. Horticulture topics in this database include: horticulture and its related topics, gardens and gardening, and more. More than 200 publications covering 1990 to the present are represented, and searchable in both English and Spanish.

CQ Researcher
CQ provides lengthy research reports written by the editorial staff of the Congressional Quarterly, Inc. Current and controversial topics related to horticulture, such as pesticide use, genetically-engineered crops, and biotech foods are covered in this database.