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Use of Course Reserves as a Chemical Literature Donna Wrublewski Ph.D. Marston Science Library University of Florida American Chemical Society Meeting March 24, 2012

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About Course Reserves at UF

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Genesis of Project: Something Needed Fixing Upper division Physical/Biophysical Chemistry Laboratory Course (5 sections, ~70 students total) Lab manual provides references for each report Students required to cite references in lab reports Library lecture during semester

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Genesis of Project: Something Needed Fixing Students started coming to me asking where to find references in manual Digging deeper, multiple problems were found: Citations in manual incorrect Books were different editions Books cross listed under different lab courses References missing altogether

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Initiative Talked to circ staff and reviewed ARES listings VERY confusing, outdated ARES makes no direct provision for cross listing items Talked to faculty positive response Got copies of lab manuals and other supplementary materials listing to consolidate reserves

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Pulling It All Together Four lab courses consolidated Lab manuals reviewed : Checked that all references available either in hardcopy on reserve, electronic reserve, or full text of article available through catalog Updated references with different/newer editions of text Suggested newer/alternate references and sources Subject Expertise comes in handy

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Included explicit instruction on reserves system in library instruction starting Summer 2011 I ncluded citation analysis Posted updated references lists on Guide:

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9 items, all but one show usage this semester Print usage cyclical with enrollment, more analysis to determine which titles got most usage

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Department Interaction Goal: collect feedback from instructors on Use as evidence to recommend better reserve texts Having subject experience helps!

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Ongoing and Future Work Led to major review of ALL reserves holdings Prepared proposal and received $7500 from administration funds to update holdings Work with faculty to keep manual up to date Suggest new, more relevant references Promote use of Institutional Repository for long term preservation and access for UF instructional materials (videos, etc.)

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Acknowledgements Circulation/Reserves Processing staff: Brad Curry, Vanessa Jewitt Reserves Coordinator: Janice Kahler Circulation Data: Christine Cogar and Denise Beaubien Bennett Stacks Photos: Joe Baca

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Preliminary Results If You Teach It, They Will Use It 9 E reserves items total, all but one showed usage Print usage is cyclical and covers several classes there is some evidence that specialized texts are being used, but further analysis is necessary Increase in questions related to accessing e journals and resources After end of current semester, collect feedback from instructor on lab report source quality Future Work Library assignments will be tailored more toward elucidating the skills above but in the context of a literature search exerc ise rather than a questionnaire (perhaps even a lab assignment) based assignments in conjunction with experiment topics Library instruction lectures will be modified to include: or each one Chemical Literature Donna Wrublewski, Marston Science Library, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 Faculty Librarian Partnership for Student Research Presentations in a Physical Chemistry Laboratory Course Donna Wrublewski, Marston Science Library, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 Mine Ucak Astarlioglu, Department of Chemistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 Why Course Reserves? Provide easy, targeted access to library resources Hard copy reserves get students into the library Once they understand the types of resources available and how to access them, students should be more likely to use the libra ry for other research Initial Challenges in ce upper division labs all share the same books Students discovered errors in citations in lab manuals Response Performed systematic review of all references in all manuals for accuracy and availability, cross referenced different editions of texts, and added new or updated sources Consolidated separate reserve course listings under one course number to make it easier for students and circulation staff to f ind Included updated list of laboratory references on course Library Guide website Included specific instruction in library literacy instructional sessions on how to access course reserves system (ARES, Atlas S ystems) as well as how to locate citations in the catalog for articles not in reserves system Future Improvements Work with faculty on updating lab manual references Identify newer and more relevant information sources Use the UF Institutional Repository as a potential long term storage and access site for course specific instruction materials such as videos Acknowledgements Marston Circulation and Course Reserves Staff Christine Cogar, Brad Curry and Vanessa Jewitt Department of Chemistry Instructors Ben Killian, Mine Ucak Astarlioglu, K athryn Williams, Vaneica Young Denise Beaubien Bennett Project Introduction At the invitation of one of the instructors for an upper level Biophysical Chemistry Laboratory course, the chemistry librarian participated in the planning and evaluation of a new library component for the Fall 2011 semester. Currently, students are asked to prepare a talk on a paper from the chemical literature; the new comp one nt requires students to answer a questionnaire to explain paper selection, describe search strategies, and evaluate additional subject competency gained. This questionnaire is intended to h elp students to focus on increasing their chemical literature literacy and general subject knowledge as well as improving their abilities using search engines and correct keywords. In addition, the ex erc ise aims to improve library course content from developing and adapting more efficient search techniques, and improve education quality and student empowerment from fostering closer chemistry depar tme nt/library collaborations. Questionnaire Development and Goals Collaborative effort between chemistry instructor and librarian Goal: make students think critically about their information searching habits and choice of paper Objectives: have students describe their search process and list information found while researching topic Sample Questions Why did you choose your topic and how did you narrow it down? (How did they decide important aspects of a topic?) What search terms or phrases did you initially use? (Can they identify keywords and index terms?) What specific databases did you use and which were the most useful? (Did they use something presented, something new, or something familiar?) Did you change your search strategy as you worked on the assignment, and if you could do this assignment again how would you ch ange your approach? (Did they adapt their approach based on their results and iterate their searches?) List three journals, three departments or organizations, and three researchers that publish research in this field. (Did they find relevant information?) Student Responses Topics were chosen for a variety of reasons, including familiarity (or unfamiliarity) with a topic, personal experience, or r es earch interest Most started with the broad topic search and identified sub topics of interest, then searched further using sub topics or chemi cal terms About equal numbers used multiple databases and used only one database (usually PubMed or Google Scholar) i.e. Google or Academic Search Premier Some confusion was seen between journals, journal publishers, and databases Insight Gained Students use tools when presented to them hat they knew Most were able to identify keywords and terms, as well as use database specific tools to narrow down searches (as in Web of Sci ence) The library link between subscriptions and access is not clear this is key for understanding the different means of access av ailable to students (i.e. ILL) SciFinder was useful, but the registration and time limits deterred students from using it