Chemistry Resources in the Electronic Age

Citation

Fourie, I. (2004), "Chemistry Resources in the Electronic Age", Online Information Review, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 239-240. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520410543706

Chemistry Resources in the Electronic Age is a very useful guide to electronic information sources relevant to students, secondary school pupils, teachers and lecturers in the field of chemistry. It is also aimed at parents wishing to support their children's chemistry studies.

Although the book focuses mostly on Web‐based information resources, the author explains that the Web is but one of many available electronic resources such as CD‐ROM databases, multimedia encyclopaedias, chat groups and digital libraries. The rationale for focusing on the Web is the wealth of information available and its accessibility to anybody with Internet access. Although the Web offers a wealth of information, many of the resources are unreliable and unsuitable. Reliable sources that are also age‐appropriate are often time‐consuming to identify, especially if you lack good search skills. It also takes time to evaluate such information sources. In Chemistry Resources in the Electronic Age Judith Bazler and her graduate students address this problem. They have compiled a timely and extensive review list of the most reliable chemistry Web sites.

The book includes a basic first chapter introducing information sources. This deals with different types of Web resources, the basics of using the Web, basic search techniques, and aspects to consider when evaluating Web information sources. It includes a reasonable overview of search engines and meta search engines. The section on formulating search strategies is, however, rather disappointing. One would expect more detail and examples for a field such as chemistry, where information retrieval and search skills have been strongly emphasised since the early days of electronic information sources. What I really miss is a reference to Dialog and its range of chemistry‐related databases, including Chemical Abstracts. These databases can be accessed through the Dialog Web site <http://www.dialog.com> and, although it is very costly and mostly used by subscribers, one can search using a credit card. Although such a database is outside the reach of school children, it should certainly be brought to the attention of chemistry students – even if it is only to alert them to its existence when entering practice.

There are also three short chapters covering museums, science centres and summer programmes, suppliers and careers in chemistry. The main body of Chemistry Resources in the Electronic Age, however, is Chapter 2, containing the Web site reviews. It consists of three sections. The first covers types of general science resources such as reference works, commercial and government sites. The second section covers general sources of information on chemistry such as glossaries and dictionaries, standard tables and charts, while the third section deals with reviews under alphabetically arranged chemistry‐related subjects such as acids, biochemistry, electronic structure and thermodynamics. Each review discusses the most appropriate grade level of the site and analyses its accuracy and usefulness. It also provides hints for getting the most out of the Web site (information source). The book concludes with a very basic glossary and an excellent and detailed index.

Chemistry Resources in the Electronic Age is a clear and well‐written hard‐cover publication that is highly recommended to students of chemistry at tertiary as well as secondary level, and their lecturers/teachers.