Creation of an Instructional Module Highlighting Free

Chemical Information Resources

Susan K. Cardinal, University of RochesterCarrie Newsom, University of Florida

ACS Meeting: March 26, 2007

CINF Education Committee

ObjectiveProvide educational outreach to chemical

information users, of all degrees of experience, in all venues

• 8 academic librarians with consultants• Meet at each ACS National meetings

For history: “50 Years of Chemical Information in the American Chemical Society 1943-1993” by W. V. Metanomski

The Need for Modular Instruction

• Low workshop attendance• “How Chemical Information is being taught”

survey results* • Target audience not at national meetings• Internet as communication tool• Constant turnover of volunteers

*For “How Chemical Information is being taught” see Chemical Information Instruction, 1984-2004: Who is Leading the Charge? by Jeremy Garritano and Bartow Culp. Poster for 2005 SLA meeting

Module Topics

• Education Committee members and consultants suggested ~60 topics

• After prioritizing, the top 5 topics were:– Overview of the Chemical Literature– Affordable Resources– Finding Physical Properties– Teaching Chemical Information– SciFinder Scholar

Vision for Affordable Resources Module

• Purpose– This module will highlight free resources

that may be used to teach aspects of chemical information literacy in accordance with the chemical information literacy guidelines

• Audience– Librarians and Chemistry Faculty who

teach Chemical Information

Survey of Small College Chemical Information Instructors

• What support do small college librarians and chemistry faculty need?

• 12 questions• Used Survey Monkey• Distributed to Chminf-L, SLA DCHE.

NYSciLibs, word of mouth

Survey Results

• 31 Responses, some faculty, mostly librarians

• Most respondents teach chemical information.– Knowledge– Resources– Skills– Databases

Percentage of respondents who teach chemical

information

94%

6%

YesNo

61% have chemical information topics that they don’t teach because of lack of knowledge or resources.

Want to know more about:• expensive tools, • new online tools, • advanced searching techniques,• structure and substructure searching,• and much more

Most useful topics to include

1.68

2.10

2.26

2.29

2.58

2.81

2.87

2.87

2.97

3

3.17

3.19

0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50

Biographical information

Patents

Scientific communication

Safety

Background materials

Synthesis data

Finding journals

Spectra

Structure searching

Unique nature of the chemical lite rature

Ide ntifying articles

Property data

Average response (0 = not useful; 4 = most useful)

Inspiration for topics from "Ideal Chemical Information Curriculum" by Carol Carr and Arleen Somerville at the National Chemical Information Symposium, June 1994, University of Vermont

Topics for us to consider

• Resources for Environmental Science, Physical Science, Biochemistry, Biomedical

• Tested problems for students• Chemical pricing• Encouraging students to use tutorials & help• Database comparison• Finding jobs, grants and funding• Rational for finding patents• Evaluation of information• Citation style

Preferred Module Formats

0

5

10

15

20

25

Pow

erpo

int

slid

es

Pod

cast

Scr

eenc

ast

Wor

dD

ocum

ent

Web

site

Oth

er

Num

ber

of r

espo

nden

ts

How respondents plan to use the module

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

in classdemonstrations

hands onexercises foryour students

self education(yourself)

self education(your students)

all the above

Num

ber o

f res

pond

ents

Progress on Module

• Started with Sources for Finding Physical Properties

• PowerPoint slides and HTML• Post to the CINF Education Committee

website

Evaluating Property Resources

• Where does the data come from? Authority? Accuracy?

• Contains– how many compounds?– how many types of properties? – properties that undergraduates need? Boiling point,

melting point, density, bond angle, etc.– valuable references?

• Ease of use/ setup?• Cost?• Accessibility?

First Piece of Module Available

• URL: http://www.acscinf.org/html/educ.html

Plans for Module

• Feedback from collaborators• Survey chemistry professors• Develop next segments• Enhance with sound (podcast) and

video (screencast) files?• Each module segment will take a short

time to for user to complete.• Periodic updates

Google Groups and Docs

Collaborators

• 18 volunteers including Robert Landolt• Encouraged to contact

– CUR, – 2YC3, – SOCED, – J Chem Ed, – CPT

Acknowledgements

Co-author Carrie NewsomEd Committee MembersJudith CurranoGrace BaysingerJeremy GarritanoMeghan LaffertySong YuBruce Slutsky

For encouragementBob LandoltAdrienne KozlowskiArleen Somerville

For supportUniversity of RochesterUniversity of Florida