OCTOBER. 1953
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A HOME REFERENCE LIBRARY FOR CHEMISTRY STUDENTS GERALD JAAODA University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
BECAU~E of the vast
accumulation of data, today's student of chemistry must rely on the literature more than ever before. It is therefore to his advantage to become acquainted with the organization and proper use of the chemical literature a t the earliest possible stage of his training. A good way of helping him to accomplish this in an informal fashion is to encourage him t o acquire for his own collection a core of reference books. A great number of undergraduate as well as graduate students are not aware of the wealth of information available in basic reference tools such as dictionaries and handbooks, simply because they are not in the habit of regularly consulting them. By owning a number of these relatively inexpensive reference tools, the student will have a great deal of information at his fingertips, and through constant use of it will develop good library habits which mill not only benefit him throughout his professional career hut also reduce his tendency to memorize material which he can readily obtain from these books. The present article contains an annotated list of dictionaries, guides to the literature, handbooks, and aids for report writing and literature searches. The lower-priced books have been chosen with the student's limited budget in mind. This would naturally exclude encyclopedias, abstracts, indexes,
etc., which are a part of every technical library's basic collection. In our opinion the student will make better use of these comprehensive tools after developing the habit of going t o his own reference books for information. DICTIONARIES
General: Aside from its common function of definition, a dictionary may have one or more of the following features: pronunciation of words, lists of abbreviations, grammatical aids, style manuals, biographical and geographical data, and synonyms and antonyms (important for getting subject headings in literature searches). "Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary," G. and C. Merriam Ca., Springfield, Mass., 1949, $5.
Webster's dictionary has all of the above features. New words and foreign words and phrases have been revised from the 1936 edition, so that this dictionary is useful for short, up-to-date definitions of technical terms. ".Merriitm-Webster's Pooket Dictionary," Pooket Books, Inc., Sew York, 1947, $0.35.
Issued by arrangement with the publishers of Web-
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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
A. M., "A French-English Dictionary for Chemists," ster's New Collegiate Dictionary, this volume is smal- PATTERSON, John Wiley &Sans, Ine., New York, 1921, $4.50. ler in size and less comprehensive in coverage (25,000 entries as against 125,000) and without the encycloThis work is by the same author as the Germanpedic features of the collegiate dictionary, except for English dictionary, although it is not as up to date as lists of abbreviations and sizes of cities. the latter. Chemical: Chemical dictionaries describe or briefly L.,"French-English Science Dictionary for Students define compounds, laws and theories, reactions, instru- DEinVRIES, Agricultural, Biological, and Physical Sciences," 2nd ed., ments, and apparatus in chemistry and related fields. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., Xew York, 1951, $6.50. "Hackb's Chemical Dictionary," 3rd ed., The Blakiston Co., Philadelphia, 1944, $8.50.
Again, this is not exclusively devoted to chemistry, but is more up to date in terminology than Patterson. I t contains a list of other French-English, EnglishFrench dictionaries for further reference.
This volume contains brief definitions of chemical terms, and is fully illustrated with charts (e. g., industrial gases, electromagnetic radiations, indicators), description of elements, compounds, minerals, drugs, HANDBOOKS animal and vegetable products. There are also drawHandbooks contain a large amount of useful inforings of chemical instruments and apparatus, and pormation mhich may be either of a general nature (e. g., traits and brief biographical sketches of prominent World Almanac) or pertaining to a special subject chemists. (e. g., Handbook of Chemistry). Data on a variety of "Condensed Chemical Dictionary," 4th ed., Reinhold Publishing subjects is conveniently assembled in one volume, Corp., Wew York, 1950, $12. making the information readily available. Since all The emphasis here is on substances with commercial this information is copied from another source, errors importance. A feature of this dictionary is a list of occasionally occur, and, in the case of chemical inforchemicals by trade and brand names, with name of mation, the data are seldom up to date. It might be manufacturer. For important compounds, the phys- pointed out that one cannot make a literature search ical properties, derivation, impurities, grades, contain- merely by consulting a chemical handbook, and that the information contained therein should be evaluated ers, uses, caution, and shipping regulations are given. These are but two examples of the half-dozen or so with its limitations kept in mind. General: chemical dictionaries which are currently on the market. The former covers a broader field of the science, and "World Alrnrtnsc and Book of Facts," World Telegram and Sun, gives longer definitions. The latter stresses applied New York, yearly, $1.10. chemistry, and is useful for identifying compounds The material covered by the Almanac ranges from known only by trade names. important historical dates since 4,004 B.C. to vital st* Bilingual Technical Dictionaries: A large portion of the literature is written in foreign languages, German tistics about Miss America. Topics of more pertinent and French being the most important ones, with Rus- interest to chemists are Nobel Prize winners, American sian constantly becoming more significant. A good Chemical Society awards, U. S. patent and trade mark technical dictionary should contain the following fe* laws, mean temperature and precipitation in the tures: up-to-date technical terms in chemical as well United States, and average wholesale prices for chemas related sciences, a basic general vocabulary, a brief icals 1920-51, among others. Chemistry: The two major handbooks in chemistry introduction to the grammar, and an explanation of are: the system of alphabetizing. PATTERSON, A. M., "A German-English Dictionary far Chemists," 3rd ed., John Wiley & Sons, Ino., New York, 1950, $5.50.
Patterson has all of these features. There are over 59,000 terms, including a list of abbreviations interfled alphabetically. In many instances, the science in mhich the word is used is indicated. In addition to pure and applied chemistry, Patterson also covers important terms in related sciences. In the introduction, a. large number of other German-English, English-German technical dictionaries, which will be found in most large libraries, are mentioned. D E VRIES,L., "German-English Science Dictionary for Students in the Agriculturd, Biological, and Physical Sciences," 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, 1946, $5.
This dictionary covers a broader range of the sciences and is therefore not, as inclusive for chemical terms.
LANQB,N. A,, "Handbook of Chemistry," 8th ed., Handbook Publishers, Sandusky, Ohio, 1952, $7. "Handbook of Chemistry and Physics," 33rd ed., Chemical Rubber Co.. Cleveland, Ohio, 1951, $7.50.
Both of these include tables of physical properties of compounds, glossaries of technical terms, laboratory formulas and recipes, first aid directions, tables of hazardous chemicals, specific gravity of aqueous solutions, trade names of chemicals, and mathematical tables. Lange gives references to Beilstein for organic compounds, has an outline of qualitative analyses based on Hi3 separation, a list of organic solvents arranged in the order of their boiling points, a dilution table for volumetric solutions, and a list of volume numbers and years for important chemical journals. The "Chemical Rubber Handbook," as the "Handbook of Chemistry and Physics" is commonly called, has more mathemati-
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OCTOBER, 1953
cal tables, physical constants of metal-organic compounds, and, in general, more data on physics.
CUMULATIVE INDEXES
Rand MeNslly'~Pocket World Atlas, Pocket Books Inc., New York, 1951, $0.35.
Annual Review of Biochemistry, Cumulative Index 1-10,1932-11; 11-20, 1942-51, $6 each. Annual Reports on the Progress of Chemistry (Chemical Society, London), Cumulative Index 1-46, 1904-49, 8 . 5 0 . EDUCATION, Cumulative Index 1-25, JOURNALOF CHEMICAL
Cumulative indexes are guides t o the contents of a number of volumes of periodicals. They are a timeATLASES saver in literature searching since instead of having to Although chemists are seldom called upon to use check up to 4G individual annual indexes, one finds the atlases in their professional work, a recent inexpensive identical information in just one volume. Some pocket book edition of high quality seems worth men- cumulative indexes can he purchased separately, and tioning: make an excellent bibliography on certain topics.
This atlas, issued by one of the best U. S. atlas publishers, has many of the features of a regular-sized atlas, although a reading-glass is sometimes necessary to discern the fine print. There are 174 pages of maps, some of them in full color, with an index t o cities and towns as well as economic facts for principal countries and geographical and historical facts about the United States. GUIDES TO THE LITERATURE
The chemical literature is well organized and neatly compartmentalized by types of publications. Guides to the literature will help students to determine where to search for specific information. DYSON,G. MALCOLM, ''A Short Guide to Chemical Litersture," Longmans, Green and Co., New York, 1951, $2.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC AIDS "List of Periodicals Abstracted by Chemical Abstracts," Chemical Abstracts, Columbus, Ohio, 1951, $3.
This hook, issued with the 1951 Chemical Abstracts Subject Index or sold separately, gives the official abbreviations for periodicals for use in bibliographic citations, a list of libraries receiving a given periodical, its frequency of appearance, and the 1951 volume number. REPORT WRITING
Hints as to format, presentation, style, and content of a technical report will be found in the following works especially prepared for students.
This, the latest and most compact guide, briefly lists dictionaries, encyclopedias, journals, abstracts, and texts. One chapter gives an example of an organic "What to Think About in Report and Letter Writing," Sun Oil Co., Philadelphia, 1951, free. chemistry literature search. This is a 33-page pamphlet describing the various SOULE,B. A,, "Library Guide for the Chemist," McGraw-Hill types of reports, giving guidance in their preparation, Book Co., Inc., New York, 1938, $3.75. and a few notes on grammar. This is not as up to date, although more comprehensive. It covers the literature by field of chemistry, KEEEEES, F., AND R. WINPREY,"Iteport Prepamtion,)' 2nd ed., Iowa State College Press, Ames, Iowa, 1951, $6.80. and contains chapters on the use of the library, patents, government publications, and reports. This is a more comprehensive text, dealing fully with MELWN,M. G., "Chemical Publications, Their Nature and Use," the collection of information, mechanics of style, and 2nd ed., MeGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, 1940, 8 . 7 5 . format and arrangements of technical letters, papers, and articles. Each section is illustrated with a reproThis hook, as well as Soule, is a text, Mellon's being duction of an original report. The book contains an intended for a course in chemical literature taught by excellent discussion of tabular presentation and the the author at Purdue University. I t includes sections preparation of illustrations. on patents and other government publications, textOnce the student has these basic reference works as books and general reference works, and a list of peri- part of his own collection and makes efficientuse of the odical articles for further reference. information contained therein, the tendency to memoHUNTRESS, E. H., "Brief Introduction to the Use of Beilatein's rize all data, often carried over from the earliest stages Handbuch der organisehen Chemie," 2nd ed., John Wiley & of his training, will be decreased. Independent use of Sons, Ine., New York, 1938, $1.75. these aids will help to awaken his initiative in finding Beilstein is not only the most important reference information for himself. Thus, to encourage him to work in organic chemistry but also one of the most build up his own reference collection and use it as an difficult to use. This valuable pamphlet gives a good everyday tool will help to make him utilize intelligently description of Beilstein's classification scheme, and the recorded literatureupon which, in the final analysis. his work is dependent. illustrates how to find a particular compound.
