1st Edition

Chemical Librarianship Challenges and Opportunities

By Arleen N Somerville Copyright 1997

    As early as the 18th century, chemists’emphasis on up-to-date literature presented research librarians with many challenges. But now, Chemical Librarianship: Challenges and Opportunities will show you how you can adapt your methods to the rapidly evolving demands of twentieth-century chemical researchers without sacrificing your high standards of service. Altogether, this comprehensive overview helps you see the major role librarians still play in information education and gives you a broad assortment of strategies for coping with the accelerated demands of today's shifting electronic research environment.

    In Chemical Librarianship, you'll read about the revolutionary pedagogical experiments of librarians, teachers, computer specialists, and graduate students. You'll see how those experiments have altered the way they approach research--for the better--and how you can make positive adjustments in your own successful formulae. Individual chapters discuss:

    • librarians as teachers
    • the pros and cons of integrating/separating chemical information courses
    • faculty and computing staff--partnership at the University of Florida
    • Yale University's experiment with The Electronic Seminar System
    • the evolution of electronic journals
    • the most recent trends in academic serial collection

      Take 100 mg of quickly changing research technology, a drop of increased enrollment, and 250 cc's of faculty requests, shake it up in an Erlenmeyer flask, heat it at 200 degrees Celsius, and what do you get? An explosion? A disaster? If these are your fears, put them away. Open up Chemical Librarianship and let some of the most informed experts on research and technology help you and your staff find just the right chemistry.

    Contents
    Introduction
    • Chemistry Librarians as Teachers: New Partnerships for a New Environment
    • Alternative Methods for Teaching Chemical Information to Undergraduates
    • Chemistry Information for the Undergraduate in a One-Credit Course: Faculty/Librarian Team Teaching
    • Cooperative Learning Using Chemical Literature
    • Partnerships in Undergraduate Chemistry Education
    • On the Way to the Virtual Laboratory: Integrating Chemical Information into the Undergraduate Physical Chemistry Laboratory Program
    • Virtual Seminars and Digital Filing Cabinets
    • TOC/DOC: “It Has Changed the Way I Do Science”
    • From Print to Electronic: The Adoption of Information Technology by Academic Chemists
    • Gauging Faculty Utilization of Science Journals: A Defensive Strategy for a Lean Budget Era
    • National Trends in Academic Chemistry Serial Collections, 1992-1994
    • Challenges and Benefits of Chemical Information Service in Industry

    Biography

    Somerville, Arleen N