Conversations with chemists: information seeking behavior of chemistry faculty in the electronic age.

This manuscript is a final draft of the article as submitted to the Haworth journal Science and Technology Libraries in December 2002. Due to editorial error, Haworth published an earlier draft of this paper instead of the final draft. They declined to rectify this error in the online version of the journal. The reader is advised that the author considers this version to be the definitive final draft that should have been published but was not. Scholars wishing to cite this work should preferably cite this final preprint, rather than the published article.Six faculty members in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin were interviewed one-on-one to gather information about their information-seeking behavior, favored resources, and opinions about the transition from a print to an electronic information environment. In most cases, these chemistry faculty members have eagerly embraced the enhanced access to chemical information made possible by the steady addition of electronic journals and networked database systems. The most-cited benefits include significant time-saving and convenience as well as access to more journals than ever. As a result, use of the physical library and its printed collections by faculty is declining. Chemistry faculty interviewed expressed a strong self-reliance in their information-seeking skills, and showed sophistication in their choice of tools.UT Librarie

The World Before 1907: Searching for Chemical Literature before Chemical Abstracts.

An overview of early abstracting sources for historical chemical literature prior to the launch of Chemical Abstracts in 1907.UT Librarie

The Chemical Abstacts Centennial: Whither CAS?

Essay summarizing the history of Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) and recommendations for future development of their SciFinder database product.UT Librarie

The Unbearable Lightness of Data: Touloukian’s Quest and Why It Still Matters

Essay on the difficulty of locating published scientific data, and how this was addressed by Y.S. Touloukian and his index titled "Thermophysical Properties Research Literature Retrieval Guide," with a description thereof.UT Librarie

Understanding the research and information practices of chemists at the University of Texas at Austin: Final report

Report on an interview-based study of the information practices of faculty in the Department of Chemistry, carried out in 2018. Topics covered include information seeking, discovery and management; publication and dissemination practices; data management and sharing practices; and laboratory recordkeeping.UT Librarie

Analysis of Citations to Books in Chemistry PhD Dissertations in an Era of Transition

A citation analysis of chemistry PhD dissertations at the University of Texas at Austin yielded data on how often graduate students cite books in their bibliographies, and on the characteristics of the books cited, in terms of age and local ownership. The analysis examined samples of dissertations selected from five discrete years - 1988, 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2015 - in order to provide longitudinal data on how citation trends are changing during a transition period in libraries. Data indicated that chemistry graduate students cited low numbers of books relative to journal articles, confirming expectations from similar studies, and that the trend over the time period studied is downward, despite the increasing number and availability of e-books. The results could inform collection management decisions and strategies for promoting book content to graduate students in future.UT Librarie

Fading shades of gray? ACS Meeting preprints, past, present, future.

This conference presentation summarized the history and present status of ACS divisional meeting preprint series, in terms of access, discovery, citation rates, and preservation.UT Librarie

Enhancing departmental engagement: Using a LibGuide to promote an invited speaker seminar series

UT Librarie