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