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%

 

Articles about Field Guides

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