American Chemical Society
Teaching Chemical Information:
Tips and Techniques
— August 1998 —
Integrated In-Class Presentation
Examples: Inorganic Chemistry Resources in the UCSB Library
Locating Books
To locate books on your topic, use the PEGASUS Online Catalog. As a starting point, use a subject search on the applicable broad subject terms. For a particular chemical element use the element name. Some classes of compounds (porphyrins, fullerenes) have their own subject headings. For the most general classes of inorganic chemistry, use chemistry, inorganic or inorganic compounds; organometallic chemistry or organometallic compounds; coordination chemistry. Don't try to get too specific in a subject search — the Library of Congress subject headings do not go into great depth in chemical terminology.
If you can't find anything useful with a subject search, try a keyword search on your terms. Keyword searching searches both book titles and subject headings, and, for recent works, may also search chapter titles. If you find a relevant record, check its subject headings to see if there is alternative terminology you should try.
General Overview Works
- Comprehensive Coordination Chemistry (Ref QD 474 .C65 1987)
- Comprehensive Inorganic Chemistry (Ref QD 151.2 .C64)
- Comprehensive Organometallic Chemistry (Ref QD 411 .C65 1982)
- Comprehensive Organometallic Chemistry II (Ref QD411 .C652 1995)
- Comprehensive Supramolecular Chemistry (Ref QD 411 .C66 1996)
These sets from Pergamon Press contain excellent review articles on various aspects of their respective subjects, and make good starting points for new research. The oldest of these, Comprehensive Inorganic Chemistry, is becoming somewhat dated, but is still useful. Each set is organized into volumes on broad subject areas; it's best to consult the subject indexes to locate your topic. Most of the sets also have an excellent molecular formula index.
- Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry
(QD 31 .M4 SEL Ref Area)
Commonly referred to as “Mellor's” after its original editor, this set is old even in its most recent supplements, but is still a very useful one-stop source for classical inorganic chemistry of the elements. It is organized by periodic groups.
- Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology (TP 9 .E685 SEL Ref Area)
Commonly referred to as “Kirk-Othmer” after its original editors, this series of encyclopedias has good overview articles on substances of commercial importance. It does not go into depth on laboratory methods, but there is frequently useful property information, and the articles are very well referenced. The Fourth Edition (started 1991) is only complete through the early S's, so you may have to check the Third Edition (began 1978) for some areas.
- Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry (Ref QD148 .E53 1994)
This is a fairly new work, containing a mixture of short “definition” articles with longer review articles by noted authors; the articles have good bibliographies. It covers inorganic, bioinorganic, organometallic and coordination chemistry. The encyclopedia is organized alphabetically, with a thematic list in the foreword, a subject index and list of contributors.
- Gmelin Handbook of Inorganic and Orgamometallic Chemistry
(QD 151 .G52 SEL Ref Area)
This is the most comprehensive source of information in inorganic chemistry. Begun in 1817 by Leopold Gmelin, it went through seven editions before the current on began in 1924. Originally focused on classic inorganic chemistry; organometallic was recently added to the title to reflect the vast growth of the latter field. Gmelin is strong on both tabulated property data and descriptive information on compounds and reactions.
Gmelin publishes volumes entirely according to editorial choice, reflecting mainly the volume of research in a given area since the last such volume. Gmelin does not attempt to cover chronological periods in a block. Each volume is devoted to a particular aspect of the chemistry of a single element, with a specified closing date. Examples:
- Magnesium has had eight volumes published — none since 1952.
- Iron has had over 30 volumes on its organometallic chemistry since 1974, with eleven volumes on ferrocenes alone!
- Uranium has special volumes on nuclear fuel behavior, extraction and purification.
The Gmelin volumes are organized by “principal element”, where, in general, transition metals rank higher than main group metals, which rank higher than nonmetals. Examples:
- NaCl — Sodium is Vol. 21; Chlorine is Vol. 6. Therefore: Vol. 21
- Ferrocene — Carbon is Vol. 14; Hydrogen is Vol. 2; Iron is Vol. 59. Therefore Ferrocene appears in Vol. 59
- (NH4)2Cr2O7 — Chromium is Vol 52; Ammonium gets its own volume, 23: Oxygen is Vol. 2. Therefore: Vol. 52.
Gmelin has comprehensive formula indexes, in three parts: 1924-74, 1974-79, and 1980-87. The index for 1988-1992 is now being published. Formulas are listed alphabetically using Hill notation. Volumes before 1980 are in German; volumes since 1980 are in English. The UCSB Library does not have a complete set of Gmelin, lacking volumes published before 1960 and after 1991.
Physical Properties
- CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (QD 65 .H3 SEL Ref Desk)
Probably the most familiar source, the CRC handbook is published annually but usually changes little from one year to the next. It contains a variety of useful physical and chemical data, with some references. Some of the data is given in the main table of inorganic compounds, other data appears in separate tables grouped by data type. Not very systematic in choice of data, and indexing can be inconsistent.
- Dictionary of Inorganic Compounds (Ref QD 148 .D53 1992)
- Dictionary of Organometallic Compounds, 2nd ed.
(Ref QD 411 .D53 1995)
Chapman-Hall publishes a variety of “dictionaries” of compounds, including these two sets. They give structure diagrams, basic physical data (on both the compound and significant derivatives), and references for other information (syntheses, spectra, etc.). Alphabetical arrangement; well-indexed, including CAS Registry Numbers.
Synthetic Methods
- Inorganic Syntheses (QD 151 .I5 SEL Ref Area)
This is a less-than-annual publication, similar in format to the more famous Organic Syntheses, giving detailed and tested methods for syntheses, including reaction conditions, yields and safety information. It covers inorganic and organometallic compounds (including boranes, synthetic metals, ceramic superconductors, etc.) The series has no collective volumes, but the indexes cumulate every five volumes.
Locating Articles
- Current Contents on MELVYL
Current Contents surveys a large part of the inorganic chemistry literature, back to 1989. However, be aware that you can only search by the words in the title of the article. There is no detailed indexing, and so you may miss relevant material if you search here only. Locating material on specific compounds is especially difficult. However, it does contain recent material, and primarily in journals which UCSB owns.
- Science Citation Index on CD-ROM
SCI has the same strengths and weaknesses as Current Contents for inorganic chemistry subject searches — you can only search subject terms in the titles of articles. However, its primarily usefulness is for citation searching, that is, locating articles which cite a particular previous document. Since an author cites papers which are relevant to the new research, this can be a powerful way to trace the thread of research on a particular compound, class of compounds or technique forward in time from a key reference. The SCI CD-ROM also has a feature called “Related Records” which allows you to find articles in the same year which cite one or more papers in common with a given paper. SCI on CD-ROM covers 1980 to the present; a handout on its use is available at the SEL Reference Desk where you check out the discs. For earlier years, the Library owns the print version of SCI from 1955 to 1979 (Z 7401 .A1 S36 SEL Reference Area).
- Chemical Abstracts (QD 1 .C43 SEL Index Area)
This is the most complete and comprehensive index to the chemical literature, but by virtue of its size, can be difficult to use for some purposes. For either substances or techniques, check first in the Index Guide to make sure you have the correct terminology. For individual substances, then look in the Chemical Substance Index; for classes of substances or for techniques, look in the General Subject Index. Heavily researched substances may have subject subheadings attached, such as compounds or preparation. For less common substances, simply scan the list under the subject heading.
The years 1907-1991 are indexed in Cumulative Indexes covering 5 or 10 year periods. 1992-present are covered in Volume Indexes (6 months worth at a time). The cumulative indexes will give a volume and abstract number (e.g. 100:10715); volume indexes will just give the abstract number.
If you do not recognize a journal title from the Chemical Abstracts abbreviation, check the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI) available at the SEL Reference Desk, both in print and on CD-ROM. If you have trouble finding the correct chemical name for a substance in the Index Guide, try to locate its Chemical Abstracts Registry Number in the CRC Handbook, Dictionary of Inorganic Compounds or other handbook, then use the Registry Number Handbook to find the CA standard name.
Internet Resources
More and more resources of value to the inorganic chemist are becoming available over the World Wide Web. Some are available free of charge, some are not. You may try using Internet search engines such as Yahoo, Infoseek, Alta Vista, etc.; however, depending on the keywords you choose, you may find nothing, or you may find large amounts of irrelevant material. It can be more effective to seek out sites which are specifically devoted to chemical information. Many such links can be found on the UCSB Library's InfoSurf Chemistry page (http://www.library.ucsb.edu/subj/chemistr.html).