ROBERT B. DEAN University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon
N o ONE who has done any significant research in been used by the author, is to assign term papers in chemistry will doubt the need for a good search of the graduate and "fifth" courses. These assignments literature. Various problems associated with such require that the student refer to the original literature a search have been discussed from time to time in THIS although they sometimes turn out to be based upon a single review article. Since, for many of the students, JOURNAL and else~here.~. Many schools offer a course in chemical literature such a term paper is their first encounter with the although some do not require it of their undergraduate original literature, it seems desirable to give some inmajors. Many other departments feel that a formal troduction to the library and the bibliographic aids course in chemical literature is undesirable for budget- which are available. Such an introduction can be made ary reasons or because it would take time which cannot in a single lecture followed by a tour of the library be spared from a crowded program. It has been stated facilities. A follow-up of this introduction to the library is with considerable justification that a course about chemical literature is like a course about research3and logically a specific assignment involving the finding of is of little interest unless correlated with live problems. some original data. Obviously each student must Professor Sillen has discussed this problem in ~ u b l i c have an individual assignment, both to insure indelectures ("The Chemist's Brain-A Housing Problem") pendent work and to reduce the wear and tear on the which unfortunately has only been published in Swed- library facilities. Individual assignments present no i ~ h .He ~ points out that while the fund of knowledge problem in small classes but the task of preparing is increasing exponentially with time, the material twenty to fifty different problems may prove to be a which a student remembers decreases exponentially sufficient additional burden to result in its postponewith the time elapsed since it was studied. As a result, ment "until I have more time!" no chemist can possibly know more than a minute fracIn order to reduce the labor of making up and grading tion of the available chemical knowledge. However, literature search assignments in a course on the colloid it is still possible for him to know how to find a sub- chemistry of high polymers, the following form was stantial fraction of the total knowledge although some prepared and duplicated. phases will remain unintelligible for lack of suitable training. Sillen makes a plea for more attention to Literature Search learning principles and methods of finding information and less attention to memorizing unrelated facts. He Student's name describes a method of literature training in use at Locate the following information and outline the chain of Stockholm's Technical University. The students are references that you followed to obtain it. Do not include blind set small literature problems from their first year: leade. Indicate any article which you were unable to see and if "What is known about the formula for chloride of possible give a reference to an ahstract of this article. Report your findings on this page, giving title of artiole, and journal lime?"; "Outline safety precautions for the use of reference or patent number. perchloric acid"; "How are the atoms arranged in red I. The first paper or patent describing the production o f . lead?" which require reference to information beyond (3-in. space) that found in the ordinary textbooks. This is followed 11. A recent review article dealing with the properties, producby problems in synthetic inorganic and organic chem- tion, or use of this material. istry which are not presented in a laboratory manual (1-in. space) but must be looked up in the original. In this way, 111. Tabulate, with reference to the original source, at least the habit of referring to the larger handbooks and three physical properties of this material. abstract journals for needed information is instilled A different high polymer was entered on each form along with the basic principles of chemistry. one common approach to this problem, which has and the students drew their assignments a t random from the sheaf of forms to avoid charges of favoritism 1 Presented at the Pacific Northwest Regional Meeting of the since some assignments are inevitably easier than others. American Chemical Society, Seattle, June &9, 1951. Other branches of chemistry would require obvious "or example see: EGLOFF,G., et al., J. CHEM.EDUC.,20, 493, 587 (1943); ibid., 21, 615 (1944). Also, "Searching the modifications of this wording. One might use nearly Chemical Literature," Staff of Industrial and Engineering Cbem- the same form for industrial chemicals or pharmaceuistry,A. C. S., 1951. tical products. A rather different form would be' 3 MELDRUM, W. B., AND T. 0.JONES,J. CHEM.EDUC., 20,592 necessary to give training in searching for preparative methods. In analytical chemistry one could ask for a
DECEMBER, 1951
review of the methods for determining a given compound or element, a reference to the original paper describing one of these methods, and a presentation of the range and limits of precision of a modern version of the same method. In physical chemistry one could similarly ask the students to locate references to methods for determining a physical property. This form is similar to that reported by Emling for a Patent assignment.' His assignment has been used with favorable results as a sequel to the one presented 'Eanmo, B.L., J. CEEM.EDUC.,28,133 (1951).
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here since a more detailed knowledge of the type of information contained in patents is desirable for all chemists who are going into industry, or who expect to teach chemists who will go into industry. ~ h literature , search assignment described in this paper may be of questionable value if it is not followed up by further problems such as arise in the preparation papers and ultimately in the preparation of of research theses. Its main function is to help the stuthat he may be expected to do a dent to get better job on his first term paper.
