International Field Guides Diane Schmidt

Articles about Field Guides

Schmidt, Diane. 2006. Field Guides in Academe: A Citation Study. Journal of Academic Librarianship 32(4):274-285.

Field Guide Statistics

When the International Field Guides database reached 5,000 records in summer 2007, Bird field guides were the most common at 17%, although birds make up less than 1% of all known species of organisms!  By contrast, 7% of field guides cover Insects, which make up about 60% of all species but are more difficult to identify in the field.  The most popular plant guides were Wildflower guides (12%) followed by general Plant guides (10%).  North American field guides made up nearly half of the database, followed by 19% European guides.  While the classification percentages are probably fairly accurate, the regional percentages almost certainly under-represent some regions of the world, especially those that use non-Roman alphabets and/or are not in areas actively collected by North American science libraries.

Multiple classifications:

• Flora and fauna guides: 5%
• Combined animal classifications: 53%
• Combined plant classifications: 39%
• All other guides (Miscellaneous, Rocks, Astronomy): 3%

Individual classifications:

• Bird guides: 17%
• Wildflower guides: 12%
• Plants: 10%
• Insects: 7%
• Trees: 7%
• Mammals: 6%
• Fish: 6%
• Animals: 5%
• Reptiles and Amphibians: 5%
• Mushrooms: 4%

 Regions:

• Africa 9%
• Asia 5%
• Australasia 8%
• Central and South America 7%
• Europe 19%
• Pacific Islands 2%
• North America 11%
• North America, Eastern 19%
• North America, Western 16%
• Worldwide 4%
• Other 4%
• All 3 North American regions: 46%
   

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