Independent Student Searching of the Chemical Abstracts Files J a m e s M. Miller Drew University. Madison, NJ 07940 The undergraduate chemistry curriculum ought to contain some instruction in online searchine of Chemical Abstracts (CAI. Special learning files ~ O ~ C A ' ( L C and A ) for the Reeistrv file (LREG) orovided hv STN' facilitate this oroce& A-recent paper i n this ~ o u r n a Pdescribes the basic ~rocedurein using the LCA file to teach online searching. In addition, Chemical Abstracts Service has published a workbook for using the learning files.' This paper descrihes an experiment in the teaching of online searching in which the students were given unlimited access to the learning files for independent individual searching based on a limited amount of class instruction. It was intended todetermine the level of diff~cultyand the cost of searching, m.hich would include a significant amount of trial-and.error learning. This experiment was made feasihle hy se\.eral factors. Chemical Ahstracts Service' offers a discount rate for uffhours use of LCA and LKEG by colleaes that meet certain requirements. In addition, all students at Drew have their own IBM-compatible personal computers (PC's) in their rooms, and we were able to provide all of the chemistry majors with 1200 baud modems, making it possible for them to conduct online searches from their rooms. Formerlv online searching was conducted by a chemically trained 1il;rarian with student collaboration. We were interested tosee how the students would do on their own. At Drew, instruction in information retrieval is spread
' STN International. The Scientific & Technical lnformatlon Network, clo Chemical Abstracts Service, 2540 Olentangy River Road, P.O. Box 02228, Columbus, OH 43202. Krumpolc, M.; Trimakas, D.: Miller, C. J. Chem. Educ. 1987. 84. 55-59. Part 2 of this reference appears on page 26 of this issue. Chemical Abstracts Service. "Using the Learning Files": American Chemical Socieiv. Columbus. OH. 1985. * Colleoes and uni&sities that subscribe to- fulldervlde -~ - - Chemical - -~bsrracr;( ssues and inoexes) or to CA issues under the CAS Small College Program pay only 10% of the CAS Dill if they have estaolisneo an account and use STN off-ho.rs (essentially 5 p.m. to 8 am. US. Eastern Time), ~
24
~
~~
~
~~~~~
~~
Journal of Chemical Education
~
throughout the curriculum in small complementary assignments. Online searching is usuallv t a u ~ hin t the iunior vear. . . so a first semester course in i n s t r k e n t a t i o n was chosen for this trial. The class was composed of 13 juniors and one senior, all chemistry majors. Class time was devoted to this topic once a week for about half of the weeks in the semester for a total of 6 to 7 classroom hours. Students were given copies of the two S T N tutorial disks, "STN Overview" and "Introduction to CAS Online". The six specific assignments are listed in the table, and in the beginning it was also necessarv to helo the students learn how to use the communicationssoftware (Pibterm) and tologon toSTN. Nosearch software (such as S T V s Exoress) . . was used. One student was a commuter and set up his modem a t home, and two students shared a phone. Some problems that
Asslgnrnents tor Onllne Searching Title Flnd all of the papers in the LCA file by A. J. P. Marth: find the CAS Registry Number for ceffehe. Find any patems in the LCA file Containing information about the
pharmaceutical "meraton". Using the differentproxlmiIy operators. search the Bask Index and Tiles for GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY. Flnd documems reporling research in India on the substance whose structure is given (a fungicide). Use the structure building commands and find the Registry Number and all citations for the substance given (dl-lsopropylphthalate). Find documents reporting on stereospeclflc or stereo-seIectIve reactions of ketones, as a class.
Reference None Footnote 3. Search #t None Footnote 3. Search #3 Footnote 3. Search #5
Fwtnote 3. Search #7
had to he addressed for the efficient operation of modems from student rooms include: the necessity for longer cables than those supplied with the modems; the fact that the Call Waiting feature most students had on their phones caused the PC to be disconnected from the network; and the recognition that the software needed to be adjusted to accommodate pulse vs. tone phones. One student who forgot his password and repeatedly tried t o logon by trial and error was refused access to STN and had to have his account reinstated. Three accounts were established with STN thus providing 15 individual passwords so each student could have herhis own. The regular cost of each account was $50, hut a special offer of $19.50 was available a t the time the accounts were set up. STN also provided at little additional cost the tutorial disks mentioned earlier. The invoices provided by STN make it possible to determine the actual usage by each student. Aside from the necessity to perform their searches during off-hours and a general request not to waste time (and money) online, students were given unlimited access to LCA and LREG on STN. They were asked to keep logs of their modem usage, and their records checked quite closely with the STN invoices. The total connect time for all students for all searches was 38.16 hours or an average of 2.73 hours per student. The average full cost hilling averaged
about $110 per student with a range from $41.60 to $173.70. With the discount. the actual Der student cost for the six searches was $35.50. Most of the cost is for the network (Telenet) which is not discounted, so that the actual costwas 32% of the total, not 10%. In virtually all cases, the students were successful in acquiring the "correct" information from the databases. Presumahly they "learned" the basics of online searching as described in footnote 2, and in addition they learned several techniques for use in the Registry File. We conclude that undergraduate students familiar with PC's can perform individualized "independent" online searching of LCA and LREG files and that the discount available from CAS makes it affordable. The wide ranee of costs among this group of students can probably he attrkuted to the extent to which they prepared their searches before going online, reflecting their regard for our admonition to conserve funds. The success we have found with undereraduates leads us to predict that if all of the materials avaaahle from STN were made available to graduate students they could teach themselves online searching a t a moderate cost (of time and money) using the learning files. We would like to thank the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation for partial support of this experiment, and the students in Chem 107 for their cooperation.
Volume 66
Number 1 January 1989
25
