Creation of an Instructional Module Highlighting Free Chemical Information Resources Susan K. Cardinal, University of Rochester Carrie Newsom, University of Florida ACS Meeting: March 26, 2007

CINF Education Committee Objective Provide 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 ” 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, : Who is Leading the Charge? by Jeremy Garritano and Bartow Culp. Poster for 2005 SLA meetingChemical Information Instruction, : Who is Leading the Charge?

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

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 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"Ideal Chemical Information Curriculum"

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

How respondents plan to use the module

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:

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 Newsom Ed Committee Members Judith Currano Grace Baysinger Jeremy Garritano Meghan Lafferty Song Yu Bruce Slutsky For encouragement Bob Landolt Adrienne Kozlowski Arleen Somerville For support University of Rochester University of Florida

Abstract: The Chemical Education Committee of ACS CINF is creating modular instructional materials for the web. One module will teach science librarians of small colleges about free or nearly free resources and how the resources may used to teach chemistry undergraduates about chemical information. We will report on our progress and give a preview of the format and contents of the module.