C471 Exercise 4: The Publication Process (Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources)
26 August 1997; Updated: 30 July 2003
Key Points: This is largely a treasure hunt
designed to familiarize you with the library, to give you an idea of the
utility of the concept of subject classification, and to enable you to
identify certain types of materials by document format.
Map of the Chemistry Library: http://www.indiana.edu/~libchem/map.html
You will:
- Find a review journal or serial in a particular subarea of chemistry
- Find a book (monograph) in the same subarea of chemistry
- Find a treatise in the subarea of chemistry
- Look at a dissertation
- Find various types of journals
- Look at the printed Chemical Abstracts.
A standard information storage and retrieval technique is to
group materials or records that deal with similar subjects so that they
physically sit
together on a library shelf or are found in the same section of a printed
abstracting or indexing service. We'll see how the Library of Congress
Call Numbers perform that function for books and how Chemical Abstracts
Service categorizes similar materials in the printed CA.
We'll also begin to see that there are different types of secondary sources
that repackage primary scientific research findings into more usable or
findable formats:
- abstracting or indexing journals (that try to
comprehensively cover the new literature that appears as quickly as
possible after it is published).
- review serials (containing review articles
or chapters that succinctly survey the key literature that has appeared
in a given period of time), and
- treatises (multi-volume sets that cover a whole
subdiscipline of a subject),
1. Look at
the broad Library of Congress
(LC) call number ranges for chemistry, and select the call number range
for your favorite area of chemistry (analytical, biochemistry, etc.).
Which area and call number
range did you choose?
- Look at the many titles on the linked list of review
serials. You will notice that several words are found in a number of titles:
"Advances," "Annual," "Progress," and, of course, "Reviews."
Find one of the titles with the word "Annual" in the title
that falls in the call
number range you selected AND has had a volume published within the last five
years. HINT: You can use the option Edit: Find in Page
(Netscape) or Edit: Find (on This Page) (Internet Explorer) to search for a
particular word or character string while looking at a Web page.
Write down the title and call number you selected.
Does the call number fall in the range you selected for your subarea of Chemistry?
If not, why?
Check IUCAT to see the holdings and call number in your library.
- Find the review serial you selected. [In the IUB Chemistry Library,
review serials are shelved in the book section. Turn to the left as you
come in the door.]
- Select the latest volume of the title and look at the bibliography of
one of the chapters. How many bibliographic references are in
the bibliography? (It's ok to estimate if they are not numbered.)
- While in this area of the library, scan the shelves and
notice that books on similar topics are found on the nearby shelves.
2. Look at the index
to LC call numbers relevant to chemistry
and pick out a particular subject you are interested in.
- Find a book that is NOT a review serial in that call number area of the
book stacks and write down its title and call number.
3. Again, using the subject area you chose in question 1 from the broad LC chemistry
table, scan the shelves in that section of the Reference Area of the
library. [In the IUB Chemistry Library, turn to the right as you come into
the library, turn left at the computers, walk toward the fire exit doors, and
turn left.]
- List the name and call number of one treatise found in the area you
examined.
If no
treatise is found in that area, be sure to indicate that on your answer
sheet.
[HINT: Treatises often have the word "Comprehensive" in the
title, and they are always published in several volumes.]
4. For this exercise, we have placed on reserve in the IUB Chemistry
Library an uncataloged copy of an IU chemistry
dissertation: Total synthesis of Myxovirescin A(1) and approaches toward the
synthesis of the A/B ring system of Zoanthamine.
- Examine the dissertation, paying attention to the size and level of
detail. Look especially at the bibliographies at the end of the chapters.
- How many pages are in the dissertation?
5. Browse through the unbound journals section of the Chemistry Library and
find the following types of science journals. Write down the title of
each example you select.
- news journal (hint: probably weekly, about the size of Time magazine or NewsWeek)
- primary research journal
- review journal (hint: often has words like "Progress," "Advances," in
the title)
6. Locate the printed Chemical Abstracts in the Reference Area.
Look at one of the bound volumes for the year 2000. Pay attention to the subject
matter covered in each weekly issue and how it is arranged into 80 subject
categories.
- Which range of Chemical Abstracts section numbers corresponds most closely
to the area of chemistry you chose in question 1? (hint: See
The Sections of
Chemical Abstracts)