A Brief Guide to Finding Information
Chemistry 34: Principles of Physical Chemistry
Kathleen Howard
Fall 2005

1. Get some background information on your subject.

• Go into TRIPOD and do a WORD search to see if there are any books on the subject. Look at publication dates - unless this is an historical overview, you'll most likely want current books on your topic. (QD450 - QD731 is where the Physical Chemistry books are found. QP517 is where the Physical Biochemistry books are found).

• Using Encyclopedias & Handbooks in the Reference section can also give you manageable overview articles & potential keywords:

Ref Q121 .M3 1997 McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology (Check out the online version on theAccess Science site!)

Ref Q123 .E496 1992 Encyclopedia of Physical Science & Technology

Ref QD5 .V37 2005 Van Nostrand's Encylopedia of Chemistry

Ref TP9 .E685 1991 Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology

Other useful Reference books for Chemistry:

Ref QD65 .C4 CRC Handbook of Chemistry & Physics - we also have the ONLINE version

Ref QD8 .5 .A25 1997 The ACS Style Guide - 2nd edition (or take a look at the online style guide, The Council of Biology Editors Style of Documentation in Science or Mathematics for information on electronic citations, etc.).

• Check out xRefer Plus is a giant online reference library that provides you with access to a selection of 169 reference books. xreferplus includes encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and books of quotations, not to mention a range of subject-specific titles covering everything from art to accountancy and literature to law. Find out about the Science titles in xreferplus.

2. Now you want to see what has been written specifically about your topic in JOURNALS. The databases below should serve your research needs for this course:
Indexes on Tripod & the Web

• ProQuest - a good place to start your research.

• WEB OF SCIENCE - This is a good, interdisciplinary index with a unique feature which allows you to search for articles which CITE a particular article. There is a brief guide to using Web of Science, with more in-depth online help. Coverage goes back to 1989. Endnote and Web of Science

• PubChem - produced by the National Library of Medicine, PubChem provides information on the biological activities of small molecules. Can search by structure, name, substance or biassay records.

• Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB) - Comprehensive, peer-reviewed toxicology data for about 5,000 chemicals.

• SciFinder Scholar is our latest online access to Chemical Abstracts! Access is available on our public PCs (not the Macs).

• INSPEC - the main Physics Index. January 1969 to the present. There is a brief guide to using INSPEC, plus online help.

• Scitation - provides the most current indexing and abstracting of major American and Russian physics and astronomy journals.

• Annual Review of Physical Chemistry - a good source or REVIEW articles. Also available in PRINT at QD1 .A6.

Electronic Journals & MORE!

• We do not have electronic access to ALL journals! There are still journals that don't exist electronically. Check Tripod for PRINT holdings.

• Look for the Connect to [journal title] from SWARTHMORE message in the middle of the journal record. If there is no Swarthmore message, that means we don't have access to it. If the journal is available at Bryn Mawr or Haverford Science Libraries, you will need to request the article via InterLibrary Loan.

• Look for the MORE! button by citations when you run a search in most indexes. Click on the MORE! button next to the citation you want and a second window will open up.
From this window you can:

• Link to the electronic article if it is from an e-journal subscribed to by Swarthmore.

• Search TRIPOD to see if Swarthmore has the journal IN PRINT.

• SEARCH TRIPOD to see if the journal is available from Bryn Mawr or Haverford.

• Send an article request to InterLibrary Loan. The form will self-populate with the necessary information from the citation. All you need to do is add your name & barcode and press the 'send request' button!

• Find out more about MORE!
Electronic Journal Packages

• American Chemical Society - electronic access to 23 ACS journals, including Journal of the ACS and their newest journal, Organic Letters. These journals have their own search engine.

• Royal Society of Chemistry - this will link you to the search engine for RSC journals. We don't have access to ALL of these journals, but for the ones we do subscribe to, you should be able to get full-text access online.

• IOP E-Journal Database - FREE full text searching is available for IOP's Electronic Journals archive back to 1874. The archive includes over 172,000 articles and 1,000 volume-years of journals. Full text links to those IOP journals we have online access to.

• Nature Physics Portal - "one-stop resource for physicists, providing highlights of the latest research in Nature and elsewhere".

Science - online coverage goes back to October 1995. Online issues back to volume 1 (1880!) are available via JSTOR.

Nature - online coverage goes back to October 1999.

InterLibrary Loan

While Cornell Library has a really good collection, obviously there will be times when we don't actually own something you've located in your research. That is when you'll need to borrow from other libraries and to do this you will need Inter-Library Loan (ILL).

Tri-College ILL - BOOKS: If you want a book from Bryn Mawr or Haverford, simply press the REQUEST button at the top of the Tripod screen. Enter your name & barcode, and select WHERE you want to pick up the book. Delivery takes approximately one day library to library.

Non-TriCollege ILL - BOOKS: For books NOT available in Tripod, try E-Z Borrow and request books directly from nearby Pennsylvania & NJ libraries.

JOURNAL ARTICLES: If you need an article from a journal not subscribed to by Swarthmore, fill out the journal article request form.

* Journals DO circulate from main libraries, so if you need an article from a non-science library journal, place a hold on the actual journal volume in Tripod and it will be sent via TriCo van!

• Your Swat ID will get you into Penn's libraries, but you cannot borrow directly from them. You must use ILL to get anything from Penn.

Chemistry Web Sites

Google is still the best search engine out there, but also check out Scirus, a web search engine devoted to Science & Technology. Vivisimo, is a good metasearch engine, which is useful for browsing or looking for an overview.

• Google: Physical Chemistry web sites

• The Information Retrieval in Chemistry - comprehensive index of chemistry on the web.

• PubChem Project - ' provides information on the biological activities of small molecules.' This web site provides a free structure searching database!

• ChemFinder - A searchable database for chemicals. Can search by common name, molecular weight or formula or CAS registry number. You may need to set up a user profile, but using this web site is free.

• Sigma-Aldrich - another searchable database for chemicals.

• Any questions about these resources? Do not hesitate to contact Meg by e-mail or phone (x7685). Cornell does not have formal reference desk hours, so come and see Meg in her office, or ask the student assistants after hours.

 Meg Spencer, Science Librarian

http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/cornell/Sciences/chem34.htm

Created 8.14.03. mes Last updated 10.18.05