Nature Alberta: An Illustrated Guide to Common Plants and Animals

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

Unlike most field guides, this volume is aimed at the novice. Pains have
been taken to keep it simple and easy to use. Organization, text, and
illustrations are all designed for novice users.

The volume is divided into two sections: vertebrate animals and plants.
The animals section is organized primarily in reverse taxonomic order,
with color-coded page guides for each order. However, the author has
varied from this pattern whenever some other grouping is more useful to
the novice.

The plant section is smaller than the animal section; it covers trees,
shrubs, and wildflowers. The shrubs are organized by color of berry, the
wildflowers by color of flower. This organization the author claims to
be most useful to the novice.

Text has been kept brief. Scientific names and height or length are
given in all cases. Descriptions concentrate on habitat, seasonal
variations, and the most obvious physical characteristics. Technical
information is minimal. Detail not immediately useful for identification
has been omitted. Illustrations are restricted to the most prominent
form of the organism: the adult male animal or the flower in bloom.
While they supply the visual information most likely to be used for
identification, quality is uneven. The plant illustrations are drawn to
various scales and are presented without a visual scale, which can be
confusing.

The volume is limited to 330 common species. Anyone who uses it
intensively will quickly be frustrated by the exclusions, particularly
in the plant section. For readers whose needs extend beyond the scope of
this volume, there is a source list that includes most of the
comprehensive field guides.

Despite its limitations, this volume has two advantages that make it
attractive. First, it covers the flora and fauna in a single volume
which can easily be carried in the glove box of a car or in a backpack.
Second, it is reasonably priced, making it a viable purchase for
occasional use.

Nature Alberta should be a part of high-school, public, and college
library collections in Alberta.