Information Retrieval for Chemists: 84:260 

Classes will be held on Thursdays at 11:30 AM, in the Lydon  Library Computer Lab, except the first class, which will be in the Viewing Room, in the Lydon Library basement.  All assignments are due at 3:30 PM Wednesday before the next Thursday class, unless noted otherwise. Classes missed due to a University closing will be rescheduled.

Ms. Muskiewicz’s hours: M-T; Th-F: 8:30 AM-5 PM.  W: 1PM-9PM.  No weekend hours.  You will find her at the Reference Desk or in her office: Lydon 103 (walk past the elevators and thru the staff  only door. it will be right in front of you. 
Dr. Ruths' office is Olney 216A.  Her office hours are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 9:30-11:30. 
Both of us are always available via email. 

List of Assigned Chemicals for 2009

Thursday January 29 (Viewing Room, Lydon Library Basement) 
Course requirements and overview; WEB page for course; Services of the Library; Citations; Hill notation.
Merck Index
Sigma/Aldrich
CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
MSDS Sheets
ASSIGNMENT 1:Hill Notation, Use of websites listed above, and writing citations.
Assignment 1a: article, due by Wednesday February 6.

Thursday February 5 (HANDS ON in Lydon Library Computer Lab)
Using a general library database (Academic Search Premier) and 360Search (Federated Searching). RefWorks.  Producing a bibliography. Finding formats and citation rules for journals.  Transferring citations into RefWorks.
ASSIGNMENT 2 :   Citation rules for specific journals; Preparing a bibliography in Refworks. 

Thursday February 12 (Lydon Library Computer Lab)
Knovel--electronic handbooks in science and engineering and ChemNetBase: Combined Chemical Dictionaries.
ASSIGNMENT 3: Knovel, ChemNetBase/Combined Chemical Dictionaries. 
 
Thursday February 19 (Lydon Library Computer Lab and 2nd floor Periodicals)
Quiz. Spectra.   Structure of journals and a journal article.  Finding journal articles in the library. Primary/secondary articles, formats. Refereed journals. CASSI.  Latin Abbreviations.
ASSIGNMENT 4 Spectral information. Finding a journal article.
 
Thursday February 26 (HANDS ON in Lydon Computer Lab)
Introduction to Chemical Abstracts. SciFinder Scholar. Reading and interpreting a citation.  Using SFS to search for and with registry numbers, synonyms. Content of Registry Records in SFS,
ASSIGNMENT 5: SFS I

Thursday March 5 (HANDS ON  in Lydon computer lab)
SciFinder Scholar.  Experimental and calculated values and spectra in registry records. Searching for subjects, author names, affiliations.  Narrowing your searches. How to use "analyze" and "refine".  
ASSIGNMENT 6:  SFS 2

Thursday March 12 (HANDS ON in Lydon Computer Lab)
SciFinder Scholar. Preparations. Reactions, ways to search.
ASSIGNMENT 7: SFS 3.

Thursday March 19: Spring break

Thursday March 26    (HANDS ON in Lydon Computer Lab)
Reading older abstracts. Pre-1960 searching.  Partial Citations. Organic Syntheses.
 ASSIGNMENT 8: SFS 4  

Thursday April 2   (HANDS ON work in Lydon Computer Lab)
Citation tracking.  "Keep me posted" features. 
ASSIGNMENT 9 SFS 5.   

Thursday April 9 (Lydon Computer Lab)
Quiz SFS. Patents.
Assignment 10: Patents.

Thursday April 16 (HANDS ON work in Lydon Reference Department)
Beilstein: overview and scope. Organization of an entry. Using it.
Assignment 11 Beilstein
Beilstein lecture notes.

Thursday April 23 (Hands On in Lydon Computer Lab)
Boolean Logic & Databases, what they have in common and how they are different. Using a new database. Full-text & full-content databases vs. citation databases. 
ASSIGNMENT 12: Boolean Logic & Databases.  

Thursday April 30 (HANDS ON in Lydon Computer Lab)
Evaluation of a WEB page. Virtual Catalog. Google Scholar.
ASSIGNMENT 13: WEB pages

Thursday May 7 (HANDS ON in Lydon Computer Lab)
Future directions. Using Other libraries.  Library of Congress, WorldCat. Business information, government web sites, graduate schools.  
Final (Take-home) handed out. 
 

Take home final  DUE  at 11 AM on Wednesday May 20th.