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Library research guide for
Chem 2210

This webpage is your guide to using the library to do research for your Sophomore Seminar class.

Questions? Problems?

If at any time you have general questions about the library or specific questions about library resources, please do not hesitate to stop by or call the Reference Desk (229-333-7149).

Reference Resources

Bibliographic Guides:

How to Find Chemical Information: A Guide for Practicing Chemists, Educators, and Students (REF QD8.5 .M34 1998)
Guide to Information Sources in the Physical Sciences (REF QC5.35 .S74 2000)

Handbooks:

Lange's Handbook of Chemistry (REF QD65 .L36)
Classic chemical reference source with facts, figures, and formulas.
CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (Ask at the Reference Desk)
Includes Physical Constants of Organic Compounds table, Critical Constants table, mathematical tables, and other facts and figures. (See the CRC website for the table of contents.)
Merck Index (Ask at the Reference Desk)
Contains 10,000 short entries on drugs, pharmaceuticals, organic and inorganic chemicals, and laboratory reagents.

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias:

Chemistry: Foundations and Applications (REF QD4 .C48 2004)
Condensed Chemical Dictionary (REF QD5 .C5 2001)
Dictionary of Chemistry (REF QD5 .H837 1999)
Dictionary of Organic Compounds (DOC) (REF QD246 .D5 1982)
Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology (REF TP9 .K54 2004)
Macmillan Encyclopedia of Chemistry (REF QD4 .M33 1997)
Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Technology (REF TP1110 .E53 2003)

Reactions:

Organic Syntheses (3rd Floor, QD262 .O7)
Organic Reactions (3rd Floor, QD251 .O7)

Safety:

Bretherick's Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards (REF T55.3.H3 B73 1990)
Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety (REF RC963.A3 E53 1998)

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Finding Books

LC Call Number Ranges

Subjects LC Range

Chemistry (General)	QD 1-69
Analytical Chemistry	QD 71-145
Inorganic Chemistry	QD 146-196
Organic Chemistry	QD 241-449
Physical & Theoretical Chemistry	QD 450-731
Crystallography	QD 911-999
Pharmacy and Medical Aspects	RS
Chemical Technology	TP

Online Catalog

To search for books that you can find at Odum Library, use the Online Catalog.

Click on
If you have a broad topic in mind or want to browse the list of "Library of Congress Subject Headings", use the Subject Heading search option.
Let's say you want to find books on the broad topic of biochemistry. Type in biochemistry and click in the circle next to Subject Heading. Hit enter.
This brings you to a screen that lists all the subject headings that begin with Biochemistry.
- You can see that 104 items, mostly books, have been assigned the general term Biochemistry.
- Note that the library subscribes to 15 periodicals, or journals, on the topic of biochemistry.
- Let's take a look at the 3 books that have been assigned the term Biochemistry History.
Here are the titles of the three books on the history of biochemistry.
- Note that the first book was published in 1970.
- The second book is available online through netLibrary.
- Note the call number of the third book. Books on similar topics are assigned similar call numbers and shelved together. If you find one relevant title, be sure to browse the shelf around it; you may come across other relevant books this way.

Command Search

If you are not sure about the exact subject heading or title, try combining terms using and. If you are interested in books about the effects of chemistry on society, you could try constructing searches like:
- chemistry and effects and society
- chemistry and environment
Scroll down and click in the circle next to Command. Click on the Go button.

WorldCat

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Finding Journal Articles

Accessing the GALILEO Databases:
To find journal articles on your topic, you should search GALILEO. If you are searching from home or any other site not located on the VSU campus , you will need to follow the directions for "anywhere access."

Suggested Databases:

AGRICOLA: Indexes agricultural sciences-related journals.
Current Contents: Abstracts for articles in scholarly journals and other research literature.
JSTOR: Some full-text coverage of Chemistry.
MEDLINE: Covers medicine,dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, psychology and more. Contains some full-text articles.
Science and Technology Collection: Covers over 800 full-text science and technology journals.
TOXLINE: Covers journal literature on air pollution, antidotes, the biological and adverse effects of drugs, carcinogenesis via chemicals, chemically induced diseases, environmental chemicals and pollutants, food additives, genotoxicty, hazardous materials, health and safety, human and animal toxicity, industrial and household chemicals, mutagenicity, pesticides, and radioactive materials.

How to Find Out if Odum Library has a Particular Journal

Odum Library does not subscribe to all the journals and magazines that you come across in the databases. To find out if the library has a specific journal, do a journal title search in the Online Catalog:

Click on the button.
Type the name of the journal in the search box.
Click in the circle next to Journal Title. Click on the Go button.

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Internet Resources

Evaluating Internet Resources

It is extremely important that you critically evaluate the web sites you use in your research. Note who is responsible for the site; pages maintained by reputable associations and educational institutions are your best bet. A checklist for evaluating Internet resources is available here.

Search Engines and Internet Subject Indexes

ChemDex: Categorized links maintained by Mark Winter at the University of Sheffield.
Cheminfo: "... is designed to help people find and learn how to use chemical information resources on the Internet and elsewhere." Maintained by Gary Wiggins at Indiana University.
eMolecules Searches for molecules using chemical structure.
Links for Chemists: Maintained by the University of Liverpool.

Online Handbooks and Chemical Databases

Chemical Information: The National Library of Medicine maintains this collection of databases.
- ChemIDplus is a database of 367,000 chemical records, including over 177,000 with structures.
- NCI-3D is a database of 213,628 substances with 2D and 3D information.
- TOXNET is a collection of toxicology and environmental health databases.
Google Directory of Science > Chemistry > Chemical Databases

Online Chemistry Journals

Government Documents