Information • Textbooks • Media • Resources edited by
Chemical Information Instructor
Arleen N. Somerville Department of Chemistry University of Rochester Rochester, NY 14627
Utilization of SciFinder Scholar at an Undergraduate Institution
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Stacy A. O’Reilly and Anne M. Wilson* Department of Chemistry, Butler University, Indianapolis, IN 46208-3487; *
[email protected] Barbara Howes Science Library, Butler University, Indianapolis, IN 46208
Undergraduate science educators have reported that students should know how to locate and use chemical information (1). Articles pertaining to the use of online resources for this purpose have appeared in this Journal (2–12). The American Chemical Society guidelines for a certified degree have made it clear that students “must learn how to retrieve specific information from the enormous and rapidly expanding chemical literature” (13). The guidelines also state that “it is essential that students gain experience with online, interactive computer files” (13). One of the goals of Butler University’s chemistry program is to provide a comprehensive education and we believe, even though we are a primarily undergraduate institution, that this includes understanding and using all available research tools. Introducing undergraduate students to the chemical literature early and exposing them to it often is a challenge faced at all teaching institutions. Traditional undergraduate curricula that include chemical literature generally do it in one of three ways: as a formal chemical literature course (2–5), by integrating literature searching into an existing course (6–8), or by general undergraduate usage (9–11). The Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) online searching products used in the cited courses were STN Mentor (2); STN through the Academic Plan including CA (bibliographic file), the Registry File (structures), CAOLD (bibliographic file pre-1967), LCA (Learning CA file), LREG (Learning Registry File), and LCASReact (Learning reactions) (3, 4, 6, 8, 10); Dialog (5, 8, 11); and Dialog Classroom Instruction Program (CIP) (7). Until recently, Butler University was an extensive user of STN and Dialog for all our online searching needs. Since January 1, 2001, we have used SciFinder Scholar, a product available to teaching and research institutions since 1997 (14–16 ), in our teaching and research (17 ). This online searching tool has several advantages over other products as outlined in this report. The use of online search resources at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs), is even more challenging because resources at these institutions are often limited. There can be a significant cost when large numbers of students perform CAS online searching, or search time through STN and Dialog products may be restricted. In fact, two papers reported that searches were performed during off-peak hours (9, 11). With SciFinder Scholar, we have significantly increased students’ access to CAS online services and have allowed them to become active partners in their own explorations of the chemical literature database. 524
Use of SciFinder Scholar at Butler University
Coursework Currently undergraduate students are exposed to online searching tools in the Chemical Literature (CH491) course taught by our science librarian. This course has been a longstanding part of our curriculum and is required for graduation with ACS certification of the B.S. degree in chemistry. Fifteen students were enrolled in the course in the 2001 school year: two sophomores, seven juniors, and six seniors. In our traditional chemical literature course before SciFinder Scholar (2), a significant amount of time was devoted to instructing students on the use of print Chemical Abstracts and the proper use of the Index Guide and chemical nomenclature. In addition, a lecture and an assignment covered electronic access to a version of the CA database on Dialog in which the students had a limited time to practice searching for chemical topics and physical properties of chemicals. The library also maintained an STN Express account in order to provide structure-searching capability. However, this was never fully integrated into CH491 owing to the evening/weekend search restrictions required when utilizing the academic discount. Instead, STN Express was used primarily by faculty for their own research needs. Implementation of SciFinder Scholar into the curriculum has greatly simplified the teaching of electronic chemical information retrieval and encouraged undergraduate student use of and access to the chemical literature. One lecture assignment was devoted to searching the literature by topic, author, and company name. Another lecture and assignment involved searching the literature by chemical structure, chemical name, chemical formula, and registry number. For this, permission was obtained from CAS to have simultaneous access for the CH491 students; the class met in a computer lab to practice drawing chemical structures with the software provided by SciFinder Scholar. A follow-up assignment was then given to combine all searching modes of SciFinder Scholar.W Students were given a topic to research by either topic or structure drawing, and after locating appropriate articles, they summarized and evaluated these studies. SciFinder Scholar was enthusiastically received by CH491 students enrolled during the spring semester, 2001. They found the database to be very user friendly and appreciated the ease of searching topics using natural language (without having to link the terms with Boolean operators, use
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 79 No. 4 April 2002 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
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truncation, or work with controlled vocabulary terms as in the case of the Index Guide). Students could easily perform author searching without knowing exact spellings of authors’ names and without having to learn the “expand” commands used in more traditional databases. Similarly, molecular formula searching became almost foolproof without having to place elements in the Hill Order. Because the library did not have to pay connect or print charges, the students did not feel rushed by time restrictions as they performed the searches. Other features noted by the students were the links to full-text articles and referenced articles. Butler University subscribes to the American Chemical Society electronic journal collection, and the immediate links have greatly enhanced access to full articles. SciFinder Scholar easily allows novice users to perform detailed searches with good to excellent results. Students are free to search at any time and from any computer where SciFinder Scholar software has been installed (either Macintosh or PC platform). Compared to STN Express, its structure drawing and searching tools are much easier to use and modify and make iterative searches very straightforward. Students also suggested two improvements that would make this tool more helpful. First, numbering the records on the hit list would tell the user which records are currently displayed on the screen. Second, several students noted that they would like to see the language of the publication displayed on the default display mode (it is displayed on the detailed listing). SciFinder Scholar has been extensively used in an Advanced Organic Laboratory course in addition to the Chemical Literature course. During the spring semester of 2001, nine students (seven sophomores, one junior, and one senior) were enrolled in this course. Under the instruction of a faculty mentor and the science librarian, they used SciFinder Scholar to search structures to determine if they had been previously reported in CAS. All these students were novice users, yet they found the use of the online tool to be straightforward. In view of the success of these two courses, there is every reason to expect that more classes will make use of SciFinder Scholar. Its ease of use by novices and undergraduates makes this a particularly powerful product at a PUI. The utility of searching topic, author, or, most importantly, structure has effectively won over the student, staff, and faculty population at this institution.
Undergraduate Research Undergraduates also have the opportunity to work with SciFinder Scholar if they are engaged in independent study research. The University has three forms of independent study research and an individual student may elect to engage in all three: (i) independent study research with a faculty mentor; (ii) preparation of a proposal for Butler Summer Institute, a summer program with a faculty mentor; (iii) preparation of an undergraduate Honors thesis with a faculty mentor, which may be laboratory or literature based. Almost all undergraduate students who engage in research with a faculty mentor are required to refer to the primary literature to gain background information for their research project. Recently, selected science faculty members in the chemistry department have been demonstrating the use of SciFinder Scholar to students choosing to perform independent study research. Most have encouraged these research students
Table 1. A SciFinder Scholar Search O O
Structure searched
O O
C C C M C C O
Number of hits
746
O O C
O O
C C C Cr C C O
579
C
O O
C C C Cr C C
O
O
O O
O
O C
467
O C
C O
C
C
O
Fe C
Fe C
C
O
C
C O
O
26
C O
22
to use SciFinder Scholar to search for this literature themselves. This has the great advantage that students who initially search too broad a subject find their own qualifiers to narrow the search results. To become a part of the Butler Summer Institute (BSI), students are required to submit a research proposal to an oncampus faculty committee stating the objectives, goals, and an outline of the research plan. They are also required to provide an annotated bibliography and a literature review of their research topic. This year, several students used SciFinder to prepare these proposals. The synthesis of iron–Fischer carbene complexes is an example of how SciFinder Scholar was instrumental in the preparation of a BSI proposal. It was necessary for the student to understand how much work had been done on group 6 metal–carbene species. A generic group 6 metal–carbene was searched for its role anywhere in a reaction sequence (see Table 1). The structure of the carbene was then narrowed incrementally, limiting the metal and the heteroatom identity as indicated in the table. Search of a general iron–carbene structure yielded far fewer hits. This was also narrowed to a manageable number of specific articles. This exercise helped the student to place the role of the project in the overall area of metal–carbenes and illustrated how the research would be meaningful in the larger picture. Students who choose to receive Latin honors from Butler University are required to submit a written thesis. SciFinder Scholar was used to obtain background material for a thesis on ring-closing metathesis. The student was able to find a series of reviews to use for background and to search specific metathesis catalysts using the structure search portion of the program. Structure searches were performed of compounds synthesized during the project, and these compounds were identified in the thesis by their CAS numbers. The student’s work now contains the hallmarks of a well-written, scientifically sound thesis, and this was made significantly easier through the use of SciFinder Scholar.
Faculty Development At an institution that focuses on the learning environment of undergraduates, the research component of faculty members’ time is often clothed in student-directed independent study. However, increasing demands are being placed upon faculty members, even at primarily undergraduate institutions, to remain research active and engaged in their discipline (18). SciFinder Scholar has allowed our faculty members immediate access to the same information as faculty members have at large institutions. SciFinder has been indispensable for searching a topic or structure when preparing proposals for internal or extramural
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funding. In conjunction with an online consortium with other undergraduate institutions in Indiana and the electronic links to the American Chemical Society electronic journals, the workload in these proposal preparations has been significantly reduced. A significant time savings has been realized through the ability to check an article online for relevance before printing it. In addition to all these advantages, having the same online resources as larger institutions allows faculty members of a PUI to remain intellectually competitive. The ease of using SciFinder Scholar allows a PUI researcher attempting to do research while carrying a substantial teaching load to revisit online searching without having to recall complicated commands or menu options. The ability for faculty members to search from their personal desktops rather than having to use a common terminal and the personal assistance of our science librarian or other staff member makes SciFinder Scholar a very convenient product. Overall, faculty response to SciFinder Scholar has been overwhelmingly positive. Summary The implementation of SciFinder Scholar at Butler University has galvanized a change in teaching, student-based research, and faculty development in the Chemistry Department. Searching CAS has become routine for individuals for whom it otherwise would not have been. Several key courses now include online searching as an integral part of the curriculum. The professional quality of student research proposals, honors theses, and written reports has improved. Finally, access to an online searching tool linked to the literature has been made significantly easier for research-active faculty. Acknowledgments We would like to thank Butler University’s spring 2001 Chemistry classes, independent study students, research students, and honors students for sharing their experiences; CAS for
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their help with the implementation of SciFinder Scholar on campus; and the Reilly Foundation for the generous donation of funds to support SciFinder Scholar. WSupplemental
Material A sample assignment using SciFinder Scholar is available in this issue of JCE Online. Literature Cited 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
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Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 79 No. 4 April 2002 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
