84:260 Information Retrieval

Course Outline Spring 2007

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Dr. Ruth Tanner, Department of Chemistry
Marion S. Muskiewicz, Science Reference Librarian

Classes will be held on Thursdays at 11:30 AM, in the Lydon  Library Computer Lab, except the first class, which will be in the Viewing Room, in the Lydon Library basement. All assignments are linked here.  All assignments are due at 2:00 PM Wednesday before the next Thursday class, unless noted otherwise. Classes missed due to a University closing will be rescheduled.

Ms. Muskiewicz’s hours: M-T; Th-F: 8:30 AM-5 PM.  W: 1PM-9PM.  No weekend hours.  You will find her at the Reference Desk or in her office: Lydon 302 (take a left off the elevator).

The instructors are assuming that all students know how to use the following web sites::

Merck Index
Sigma/Aldrich
CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
ChemFinder.com
MSDS Sheets
Citation Sheet

Transfer students or others who are not familiar with these tools (or would like a review) may sign up with Ms. Muskiewicz for a review session, which will be held on Friday Jan 26 at a time convenient to the students attending.

List of Assigned Chemicals for 2007

Thursday January 25 (Viewing Room, Lydon Library Basement) 
Course requirements and overview; WEB page for course; Services of the Library; Citations; Hill notation.
ASSIGNMENT 1:Hill Notation, Use of websites listed above, and writing citations.

Thursday February 1 (HANDS ON in Lydon Library Computer Lab)
Knovel--electronic handbooks in science and engineering and ChemNetBase: Combined Chemical Dictionaries.
ASSIGNMENT 2: Knovel, ChemNetBase/Combined Chemical Dictionaries.
ASSIGNMENT 2A: Article, due by Wednesday February 14.

Thursday February 8 (Olney Computer Lab)
Spectra.  Know-It-All Bio-Rad spectral program.  Aldrich spectra and other sites.
ASSIGNMENT 3 Spectral information.

Thursday February15 (Lydon Library Computer Lab and 2nd floor Periodicals)
Quiz.
Structure of journals and a journal article.  Finding journal articles in the library. Primary/secondary articles, formats. Refereed journals. CASSI.  Latin Abbreviations. Finding formats and citation rules for journals.
ASSIGNMENT 4 :  Finding a journal article and citation rules for specific journals.

Thursday February 22 (HANDS ON in Lydon Computer Lab)
Introduction to Chemical Abstracts. SciFinder Scholar. Reading and interpreting a citation.  Using SFS to search for and with registry numbers, synonyms. Content of Registry Records in SFS,
ASSIGNMENT 5:SFS I

Thursday March 1 (HANDS ON  in Lydon computer lab)
SciFinder Scholar.  Experimental and calculated values and spectra in registry records. Searching for subjects, author names, affiliations, tables of contents.  Narrowing your searches. How to use "analyze" and "refine".  
ASSIGNMENT 6:  SFS 2

Thursday March 8 (HANDS ON in Lydon Computer Lab)
Quiz. SciFinder Scholar. Preparations. Reactions, ways to search.
ASSIGNMENT 7: SFS 3.

Thursday March 15: Spring break

Thursday March 22    (HANDS ON in Lydon Computer Lab)
Reading older abstracts. Pre-1960 searching. RefWorks.
 ASSIGNMENT 8: SFS 4

Thursday March 29   (HANDS ON work in Lydon Computer Lab)
Citation tracking.  Partial Citations.
ASSIGNMENT 9 SFS 5. 

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Thursday April 5 (HANDS ON work in Lydon Reference Department)
Quiz SFS.  Patents. Organic Syntheses.
Assignment 10: Patents, Organic Syntheses.

Thursday April 12 (Lydon Computer Lab)
Beilstein: overview and scope. Organization of an entry. Using it.
Assignment 11 Beilstein

Thursday April 19 (Hands On in Lydon Computer Lab)
Boolean Logic & Databases, what they have in common and how they are different. How to adapt yourself to use a new database. Full-text & full-content databases vs. citation databases. 
ASSIGNMENT 12:Boolean Logic & Databases.  

Thursday April 26 (HANDS ON in Lydon Computer Lab)
Evaluation of a WEB page. Virtual Catalog. Google Scholar.
ASSIGNMENT 13: WEB pages

Thursday May 3 (HANDS ON in Lydon Computer Lab)
Future directions. Using Other libraries.  Library of Congress, WorldCat. Business information, government web sites, graduate schools.  
Final (Take-home) handed out.

Thursday May 10 is a Friday schedule.
 

Take home final DUE Thursday May 17, 2007 by 5 PM.

 

msm 4/25/07

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