Part I: Chemical Abstracts

Chemical Abstracts• each year or half year has the following

– Chem Abs # volumes (given by number ranges)– author, subject, formula indexes

• look for decennial indexes if possible– if you are not exactly certain of the year, these

10-year volumes are cumulative

• let’s some examples– author: F.E. Lytle, 1971– subject: information retrieval (F.E. Lytle)– formula: C10H10Fe

Author Search

Chemical Abstracts• the subject search should reveal the same

information

• since the article is about information retrieval, I looked it up– subject searches require you have a good idea of

the general topic

• article title = “Some Comments on Computer Searching of Information File Using Hash Codes”– worked information– did not work hash, searching

Chemical Abstracts• now that I have the Chem Abstract #, what

do I do with it?– use the other books in the same volume to find the

journal reference for the paper

• the # was 104930t– 104930 is the column number– t is the paragraph or row number– older volumes use superscripted numbers for

rows, such as 61464, where the 4 is the row

Finding the Journal Reference

journal reference

Chemical Abstracts• with Decennial indexes, the

volume # is also given with the Chem Abstract #

the volume number

the Chem. Abstract #

Chemical Abstracts• let’s try a formula search

– find ferrocene via its formula C10H10Fe

Formula Search

Formula Search

Formula Search

Chemical Abstracts - other hints• use the Decennial indexes if possible

• search the year before and the year after target year– paper may have been published near a year end

Your Assignments• report your results on the backside of the

worksheet

Author Formula Subject

Search Search Search

Jamie Doyle 6 5 2

Michael Heiston 3 7 7

Sam Kistler 5 6 6

Amanda Kistler 7 2 4

Myrta See 2 3 3

Bob Wallace 1 1 5

Part II: CAS Online/STN

Chemical Abstracts Online• Chemical Abstract Service (CAS)

– founded in 1907– indexes and abstracts patents, journal articles – indexes over 9,000 scientific journals – 2002 CAS indexed over 800,000 entries (that year)

• STN is used to access CAS– STN = Scientific and Technical information

Network– BC has an account with STN

• use it only after 5 PM (90% discount after that)

– use the “Using STN” cheat sheet for logging in & searching

STN Help• more help with STN commands is

available at – http://www.stn-international.de/

training_center/messenger/training/stncommands.html

Getting the Article• now that you have the journal reference you

need to get the actual article

• sources– hard copy in our library– ACS Web Editions– Google search (you could get lucky!)– InterLibrary Loans

Getting the Article• let’s try to find the following

– F.E. Lytle’s paper: Anal. Chem. vol. 43, p. 1334• Use ACS Web Editions

– ferrocene paper: J. Chem. Phys. vol. 24, p. 1260• Periodic Locator

• Sometimes it does not go back far enough in time

• Use ILL

BC Library

InterLibrary Loans (ILL’s)• use when our library or other online sources

do not have the desired journal

• it takes a week or so, but it is convenient and easy

Starting an ILL