Building an Integrated Information
Literacy Program in Undergraduate
Chemistry
Bonnie J. M. Swoger
Chemistry Librarians Workshop
University of Toronto, June 5, 2009
SUNY Geneseo’s Integrated Science Center.
Completed in 2006
SUNY Geneseo’s Milne Library
Integrated Information Literacy
History of Information Literacy in
Chemistry at Milne Library
New Tools
Our Program
Freshman
Sophomore
• Freshman Seminar
• Introduction to the scientific literature
• Organic Chemistry Lab
• SciFinder
Junior
• In progress
• Upper level classes
Senior
• Senior Seminar
• SciFinder, Scopus
Sample Freshman Exercise

Locate and examine these two articles
◦ Scientific American article
◦ Journal of the American Chemistry Society
◦ Directions for locating the articles given

For each article, answer these questions:
◦ Who are the authors? What do they do for a
job?
◦ How is the article organized?
◦ Whose research are they writing about?
◦ How do the authors reference other research?
Our Program
Freshman
Sophomore
• Freshman Seminar
• Introduction to the scientific literature
• Organic Chemistry Lab
• SciFinder
Junior
• In progress
• Upper level classes
Senior
• Senior Seminar
• SciFinder, Scopus
Sample Sophomore Exercise

Find the substance FAMOTIDINE
◦
◦
◦
◦
Registry number?
Formula?
Melting point?
Why is there more than one entry for melting
point?
◦ Who is the first author of the first paper listed
that determined the melting point?
◦ How would you get access to that paper?
Print, online, ILL?
Our Program
Freshman
Sophomore
• Freshman Seminar
• Introduction to the scientific literature
• Organic Chemistry Lab
• SciFinder
Junior
• In progress
• Upper level classes
Senior
• Senior Seminar
• SciFinder, Scopus
Sample Senior Exercise

Based on your practice with SciFinder and
Scopus:
◦ Which resource would be best to find
information on chemical compounds?
◦ Describe the difference between the way the
two resources interpreted your search
statement.
◦ Which resource would be better for locating
citations related to a known paper?
Challenges
Time
Changing
faculty
Follow-up
assignments
A Work in Progress
Changes in chemistry curriculum
 New Faculty
 Better allocation of resources

For additional information
http://tinyurl.com/qay2ar