Resumen de Chemical Information Literacy at a Liberal Arts College
Chemistry majors at Goucher College are now required to take a 1-credit course in their sophomore year entitled Chemical Information Literacy. Students in the course learn the structure and organization of the chemical literature, and how to carry out searches of various databases for topic, author, chemical compound, or structure. They learn related skills such as how to use a citation manager to organize citations, and how to use a structure-drawing program. Students are also exposed to the patent literature, and databases of molecular properties. A highlight of the course is a unit on current events in which students learn how to read a paper for general content even if they do not understand every word of it. The course culminates in students choosing a topic of interest to them, and preparing an annotated bibliography that can be used for writing a review article in a subsequent course. As a result of this course, students learn the skills required to be productive researchers, and develop an appreciation for the breadth of chemistry within the first half of their college careers. Furthermore, use of both the ACS journals subscription and the SciFinder search engine among students increased dramatically as a result of this course.
