the computer and other experiments will be reported separately. In the interim, we hope that this device can be used as an effective tool for teaching avariety of chemical and physical concepts.
How to Save Time with Current Contents on Diskette and Interlibrary Loan Requests Ernest C. McGoran DBpartrnent 01 Cheminry/Blochemistry Eastern Washington University Cheney. WA 99004 The time needed for keeping abreast of chemical literature can be sienificantlv saved throueh comouterized methods that g r e h y improve efficiencfin locating articles of interest. Searchine databases is facilitated bv -com~uterized . on-line services such as STN5 and Dialogqhat allow for broad exolorations of the scientific literature retroactivelv and help t o maintain current awareness. A popular way to k e e ~informed of recent oublications is through Current contents, a service of the-institute for scientific Information (ISI).7 The weekly issues reproduce the content pages fromthousands of scientific publications in both a s o f t cover, printed format and, since 1989, a disk format for both IBM-compatible and Macintosh PC's. Current Contents has different editions t o match the interests of the reader; the "Phvsical. Chemical and Earth Sciences". "Life Sciences", a i d ' ' ~ E n ~ i n e e r iTechnology n~ and ~ p p l i e dScience" versions are the ones widely used by chemists. Advantages of using Current Contents are access to uncommon scientific nublications and timeliness. eenerallv a maximum of two to ;our weeks lag between a journal's publication date and its appearance in Current Contents (23). The time required for studentss or other users to obtain a copy of a desired article can vary significantly. Users can employ ISI's "Genuine Article" service or can send reprint requests directly to article authors. The interlibrary loan service provided by most university libraries is a convenient alternate. Generally there isa form to be filledout giving the standard bibliographic information required for proceusing. A straightforward procedure for generating computerprinted interlibrary loan requests uses Current Contents on Diskette and Mcrosoft Word. The bibliographic information can be directlv transferred from Current Contents on Diakelle many srandard interlibrary loan requevt form.The method discussed aoolies to the Macintosh but can be readily adapted to the s a k e software on IBM compatibles. The process makes use of the Print Merge command of Microsoft Word for form letters and an exported Personal Interest Checklists (PIC) file generated from within Current Contents on Diskette. ~~
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STN International, c/o Chemical Abstracts Service, 2540 Olentangy River Road, P.O. Box 3012, Columbus. OH 43210. B~ialog,3460 Hlllvlew Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304. Institute for Scientific Information. 3501 Market Street, Phiiadetphia, PA 19104. We introduce our students to Current Contents on Diskefie in a chemistry course on research and literature methods. Although our students also use STN, Current Contents provides a more economical alternate for independent student searching of the computerized literature, c.f., Miller, J. M. J. Chem. Educ. I989 86, 24. A226
Journal of Chemlcal Education
the computer An MS Word file of the specific interlibrary loan request form used by your library is prepared and stored in "locked file" format so i t can he used repeatedly as aform. If desired, thecurrent date can he incorporated by means of the Glossary/Date menu. In the spaces on the form where the bibliographic dataneed t o be entered are placed the names for the "fields." - ~ - - ~ for -~ - examole. . which will be filled in with the exact nakes from the PIC (DATA) file: ~
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