Chemical Info Literacy Tools: a work in progress Debbie Chaves, Wilfred Laurier U, Patricia Meindl, U of Toronto,

Subject Guides – What do we want? Hope that subject guides provide students with a starting point for research Point of need – point of access – easy to find Must not be static  easily changed Include library content: catalogues, databases, e- references… Include course content: direct links to the classroom assignment Include 2-way communication: chat boxes, Skype… Include writing content: citation, writing centre…. Include RSS feeds, del.icio.us cloud tags, book covers from librarything.com, videos….

How do we create the paragon of Subject Guides? Drupal: - open source content management platformhttp://drupal.org Moodle: 3 – open source content management system 3 MyLibrary: - open source subject guide applicationhttp://mylibrary.library.nd.edu/ SubjectPlus: - database- driven subject guidehttp:// LibData: – open source authoring environmenthttp://libdata.sourceforge.net ResearchGuide: – open source environment for subject guide creationhttp://researchguide.sourceforge.net LibGuides: - $ to create and host platformhttp://

What to include? What type of information should be included within a subject guide? When is it too much information? How broad should the information be?

References EBSCOhost: Internet Subject Guides in Academic Libraries. (n.d.).. Retrieved June 4, 2009, from 43f5-a122-96aa9ce27550%40sessionmgr7. Edward M. Corrado and Kathryn A. Frederick. (2008, April 10). Free and Open Source Options for Creating Database-Driven Subject Guides. The Code4Lib Journal. Retrieved June 4, 2009, from iLibrarian » A Librarian’s Guide to Creating 2.0 Subject Guides. (n.d.).. Retrieved June 4, 2009, from librarians-guide-to-creating-20-subject-guides/. Project MUSE - portal: Libraries and the Academy - Students, Librarians, and Subject Guides: Improving a Poor Rate of Return. (n.d.).. Retrieved June 4, 2009, from my/v004/4.1reeb.html.

Online tutorials Demonstrate the search process Added value info On-demand access Interactivity available in some software Can be assignment-focused New simple software – Commercial: Captivate, Camtasia – Free: Wink, Camstudio

Chemistry - a special case? Unique needs of chemistry – Properties – Spectra – Chemical structures – Reactions Not just topic-based searching

Examples Scifinder web – More specific tutorials More specific tutorials In a Maths for Chemists course (p.37) In a Maths for Chemists course FIS 2132 examples Unfortunately most examples seem to be on Blackboard type portals and not freely visible

Problem 1 An organic chemistry professor is going to give his students an assignment on Named Reactions – they have to identify the origins of a specific named reaction and then find examples of the reaction in the current literature – The professor could give you 20 minutes in class to tell the students where to look – But is there a better way to get the info to students?

Problem 2 A analytical lab course is going to examine many chemical properties during the term – The instructor has asked the librarian to show the students where to get the literature data – he can fit you in during the first lab class Is there a better way?

Problem 3 A large first year class needs to learn how to use the handbooks and MDS sheets – Each lab group is doing the experiments in a different order (due to access to facilities) – These are also new students and could use a general library orientation as well – How to deal with this?

Problem 4 Suggestions?