Information Literacy for Undergraduate Chemistry Students Grace Baysinger Swain Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Librarian Stanford University Libraries graceb@stanford.edu Biennial Conference on Chemical Education 2012 Before and After the Lab: Instructing the Students on Non-Chemical Research Skills Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Abstract What chemical information skills should students have by the time they graduate? What resources should students know how to use? Using Information Competencies for Chemistry Undergraduates as a roadmap, this presentation will highlight skills and resources students need to know in order to help them be more successful in their undergraduate careers, prepare for graduate school, and be more competitive in the job market. 2
Information Competencies Citation and URL Information Competencies for Chemistry Undergraduates: the elements of information literacy. Special Libraries Association, Chemistry Division and American Chemical Society, Division of Chemical Information. 2nd ed. May 2011. In July 2012, Wikibook version launched to facilitate updating as needed. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/information_competenc ies_for_chemistry_undergraduates 3
Information Competencies Outline of Document This document contains four sections: 1. The Big Picture: The Library and Scientific Literature 2. Chemical Literature 3. Properties, Spectra, Crystallographic, and Safety Information 4. Scientific Communication and Ethical Conduct Plus Further Reading and Recommended Resources 4
Information Competencies Audience and Objectives Chemistry Instructors and librarians are intended audience for this document. This document can be used to: Improve undergraduate chemistry instruction Facilitate acquisition and assessment of information literacy skills by chemistry undergraduates Provide a list of recommended resources Serve as a bridge to guidelines developed by the ACS Committee on Professional Training and other library organizations Assist as a resource for developing subject-specific information literacy standards in related scientific disciplines 5
Information Competencies Sample Information Section 3. Properties, Spectra, Crystallographic, and Safety Information Throughout their coursework, undergraduate chemistry students need to obtain physical and chemical properties, syntheses, spectra, crystallographic, and safety information for various substances. This section outlines expected skills and recommended resources for finding this information. 3.1 PROPERTIES: Chemistry undergraduates should be able to search property information for both known and unknown compounds for conducting laboratory experiments and confirming laboratory results. Students should be acquainted with various chemical identifiers (chemical name, CAS RN, structure, molecular formula) and be able to use them as starting points to locate physical and chemical properties using the resources listed below as available on their campus. Students should be aware that it may be necessary to search a variety of resources, and/or try several different identifiers, before locating the desired property; and that property values reported in the literature and obtained in their laboratory can vary due to differing conditions, i.e. using different pressure, temperature, or solvents can lead to different results. Students should be aware that some resources may be searched numerically by property values to obtain a listing of compounds exhibiting these values. Basic Property Information Recommended resources: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (also online) $$ Combined Chemical Dictionary (CCD), includes inorganic, organic, and more $$ Dictionary of Inorganic and Organometallic Compounds (also online) $$ Dictionary of Natural Products (also online) $$ Dictionary of Organic Compounds (also online) $$ (these first five resources and more available online as CHEMnetBASE) Kaye and Laby s Table of Physical and Chemical Constants (also online) Knovel Critical Tables (registration required) Lange's Handbook of Chemistry $$ Merck Index / Merck Index Online $$ NIST Chemistry WebBook Perry's Chemical Engineers Handbook (also online) $$ Physical Reference Data (NIST Physics Lab) 6
Information Competencies Recommended Resources Index Note: Resources are free unless indicated by $$ Accounts of Chemical Research [American Chemical Society journal] (section 2.1) $$ http://pubs.acs.org/journal/achre4 (accessed March 17, 2011) ACS Style guide: Effective Communication of Scientific Information. Anne M. Coghill and Lorrin R. Garson, Eds. American Chemical Society, Washington, D. C. 3rd ed. 2006 (section 4.1) $$ Info: http://pubs.acs.org/page/books/styleguide/index.html (accessed March 17, 2011) Chapter 1: Ethics in Scientific Publication, by Gordon G. Hammes, p.3-10 (section 1.2g) Chapter 6: Peer Review, by Barbara Booth, p.71-76 (section 1.2f) Chapter 7: Copyright Basics, by Karen S. Buehler, C. Arleen Courtney, and Eric S. Slater, p.77-86. (section 1.2g) The ACS Style Guide. Chapter 1: Writing a Scientific Paper. 2nd ed. 1997 (section 4.1a) http://www.oup.com/us/samplechapters/0841234620/?view=usa (accessed March 13, 2011) The ACS Style Guide. Chapter 14: References, by Janet S. Dodd, Leah Solla, and Paula M. Bérardon. 3rd ed. 2006 (section 1.2c; 4.1a) http://pubs.acs.org/userimages/contenteditor/1246030496632/chapter14.pdf (accessed February 9, 2011) Aldrich Library of Spectra (FTIR, IR, NMR) (section 3.2a) $$ Info: FTIR http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/search/productdetail/aldrich/z286001?lang=en_us Info: IR http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/search/productdetail/aldrich/z107506?lang=en_us Info: NMR http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/search/productdetail/aldrich/z231037?lang=en_us (accessed March 17, 2011) 7
The Library Students should be able to use library tools to get needed information and what library services are available. How library is organized Purpose and characteristics of different search tools Services reserves, reference, instruction, interlibrary loan, online tutorials 8
The Scientific Literature Students should be able to understand, interpret, and evaluate the scientific literature plus be able to follow a logical path of inquiry. Flow of Scientific Information Nature and purpose of different types of scientific literature Read and Interpret citations Criteria for evaluating a document Peer review process Image: Flow of Scientific Information from the University of Waterloo Library. (accessed 27 July 2012) htt // lib t l / d/ d/ h k 9
The Chemical Literature Students need to understand unique features of the chemical literature and how to find Background information Journal articles Patents Chemical Substances, reactions, and syntheses 10
The Chemical Literature Nancy, a giraffe at the Columbus Zoo in the 1980s, showcases the Collective Index stacked here! The CAS databases have over 35 million journal and patent References 67 million organic and inorganic substances 63 million sequences 57.2 million reactions 14 million synthetic preparations 295,000 inventoried or regulated chemicals 69 million commercially available products CAS Databases at a Glance (accessed 27 July 2012) http://www.cas.org/expertise/cascontent/ataglance/index.ht ml Image in 100 th Anniversary Celebration > CAS Collage http://www.cas.org/aboutcas/cas100/cascollage.html 11
Properties, Spectra, Crystallographic and Safety Information Using chemical identifiers, students need to be able to find information published in data collections and in the literature. Their lab values may be different than those reported in reference sources and that values between reference sources vary too. TOXNET Spectral Database for Organic Compounds SDBS NIST Chemistry WebBook WebCSD - online access to the world's largest repository of small molecule crystal structures SpringerMaterials - The Landolt- Börnstein Database 12
Properties, Spectra, Crystallographic and Safety Physical Properties: Find basic property Information Locate comprehensive property information via Reaxys and SciFinder Information Crystallographic Data: Find crystallographic data in collections and in the literature using Reaxys and Scifinder Spectra Data: Use standard spectra collections in print and online Locate spectra in the literature using Reaxys and SciFinder Safety Information: Locate safety information on how chemical substances can be safely handled, stored, and used 13
Scientific Communication and Students should understand that being able to clearly and concisely present research conducted in an ethical manner is imperative to a scientist. Aware of different methods for communicating scientific research Find style guides and correctly cite references Use reference manager software Learn professional standards in the ACS Chemist s Code of Conduct Ethical Conduct Understand how to use information ethically 14
Partners and Support Librarians and libraries ACS Chemical Information Division SLA Chemistry Division Your local librarian Publishers and suppliers of chemical information Help desk Onsite training Webinars (live/recorded) Online tutorials Quick Reference Guides 15
Resource Hubs Information Competencies for Chemistry Undergraduates http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/information_competencies_for_che mistry_undergraduates Chemical Information Sources/Chemical Information Instructional Materials http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/chemical_information_sources/cii M XCITR: explore Chemical Information Teaching Resources http://www.xcitr.org/ 16
Examples of Database Provider SciFinder Training and Support Learning Solutions: http://www.cas.org/support/learning/index.html Support and Training: http://www.cas.org/support/scifi/index.html Reaxys Training Desk: http://trainingdesk.elsevier.com/reaxys Web of Science http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/training/wos/ Scopus http://trainingdesk.elsevier.com/sciverse-scopus 17
Reference and Acknowledgements Reference: Linda Galloway. 2012. One-shot wonder: Integrating Chemical Information Literacy into the Curriculum. Slides 7-8. http://www.slideshare.net/lmgalloway/one-shotwonder-galloway (accessed 27 July 2012) Co-Editors: Marion Peters, Cory Craig, and Linda Maddux ACS CINF Education Committee: Chuck Huber, Judith Currano XCITR: Andrea Twiss-Brooks 18