Stanford University Libraries

Chemical Literature (Chem 184/284)
University of California at Santa Barbara

Introductory Notes

Purpose and Goals of the Course

The chemical literature is both vast and complex. Exploring every aspect of it in depth would require far more time than we have this quarter. I do hope to give you the basic tools and concepts to make more efficient use of the literature, both here at UCSB and in your future careers. In particular, we will cover the use of computerized databases, an increasingly dominant tool for both current awareness and in-depth literature searching.

Textbooks

There is no required textbook for this course this quarter. How to Find Chemical Information (2nd ed., 1987), by Robert Maizell, and Chemical Information Sources (1991) by Gary Wiggins are good general reference sources, and Online Searching: A Scientist's Perspective by Damon Ridley is a good how-to manual for Chemical Abstracts Online searching. Suggested readings from these texts may be mentioned from time to time. There is a copy of Maizell in the Ready Reference section next to the SEL Desk (Call number: QD 8.5 .M34 1987), and of Wiggins and Ridley in the “Stack D” section behind the desk (Call number: QD 8.5 .W54 1991 and Z 699.5 .S3 R53 1996). Other useful reference books on the chemical literature are listed on the Chemical Information References in the UCSB Library page.

Computer Searching Details

Each registered student will have scheduled time for supervised practice searching in the Learning files of Chemical Abstracts Online, probably in three half-hour sessions We will draw up the schedule a week or two before the lectures on online searching begin, so start thinking about what times are convenient for you. The system is only available (at discount rates) after 5:00 p.m., so all practice hours will be in the evening. Weekend hours may be scheduled if necessary.

For the final project (see below) each student will be allowed about $25-30 worth of supervised free searching on the main Chemical Abstracts databases. Again, these searches will be scheduled later. Some of you may have access to Chemical Abstracts Online accounts in your research groups. There is obviously no way that I can stop students from practicing on their own time or augmenting their searches with searches on their group accounts, so I encourage those of you with such access to make use of it. Similarly, if students wish to pay for additional searching time either themselves or by recharge to research group accounts, that is permissible. No one will be penalized, however, in grading for lacking the opportunity for additional searching. (See also Grading below.)

Final Project

In lieu of a final exam, each registered student will have a literature searching project. The topic of the search should be a subject area, non-trivial in scope, but not overly large either. For example, searching a topic which has only been researched by one's own research group for the past two months is probably too narrow, while doing a comprehensive search of “analytical chemistry” is definitely biting off too big a chunk.

I encourage you to pick topics which are relevant to your interests and research; the more relevant the project is, the more interesting the search will be, both for you and the rest of us. A written proposal for the search will be due about mid-term (see class schedule).

Each student will give a brief presentation on his/her search in class the last week of class, and turn in a written report. The report should explain why you researched the topic, how you went about the search, why you chose the sources you did or did not use, and give at least a representative cross-section of the results. Approaches that didn't work (and explanations of why) should be mentioned. If there were further avenues which you would have used given more time (or money, in the case of online searches), describe what you would have done with the opportunity. The written reports should be typed or computer-printed; if for some reason you feel you cannot do this, please discuss it with me well in advance. The written report will be due the Tuesday following the oral presentations (see the class schedule). For more detail on what I'm looking for in the final projects, see the Term Project page.

Grading

There will be a small number of homework assignments, due dates to be announced when they are handed out. These will count 15-20% of the final grade. A takehome mid-term exam, covering the first part of the course — mainly print sources, and the introduction to online sources — will count for 30% of the grade. The final project will count for 50% of the grade.

This page created by Chuck Huber (huber@library.ucsb.edu).

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