As you are well aware, your data are valuable only as they relate to those of others. Thus you must know what other experimenters have observed and they should know what you have seen.

Librarian Donna Jacobs in the College of Wooster's Timken Science Library leads classes on searching the biological literature as a part of Biology
401 Independent Study. She has prepared a Guide to Library Research in Biology, which she updates regularly. In addition, Jan Pechenik has a section on "Locating Useful Sources" in A Short Guide to Writing about Biology, 5th ed.