Syllabus, L624, Information in Science and Technology
MW, 1:00 – 3:45, LI 001, Summer II, June 14 – August 9, 2002
Coordinator: Bob Noel, Swain West, 208, 855-3437, rnoel@indiana.edu

Purpose:  The purpose of this class is to introduce students to a wide variety of library resources in physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, biology, geosciences, computing, health and medical sciences, and to prepare students for professional positions in science libraries.  

Required Text: Information Sources in Science and Technology. 3rd ed. C.D. Hurt. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1998. 346p. $55.00 (ISBN 1-56308-528-3) Available at the IU Bookstore. 

Online resources that will be used during the semester: Web of Knowledge (Web of Science, formerly the Science Citation Index), SciFinder Scholar (Chemical Abstracts), INSPEC, the ACM Digital Library (Association for Computing Machinery), Ei Compendex (trial), MathSciNet, GeoRef, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, Current Contents Connect, arXiv.org, BioMed Central, Journal Citation Reports. 

Objectives: 

• Understand how to use major online tools in the sciences. 
• Become familiar with some of the trends or up-and-coming areas of research in science and technology. (major project / presentation) 
• Gain some understanding of trends in scientific publishing and discussions surrounding access to information in the sciences. 

Major Project   At the beginning of the semester, students will be asked to identify and learn about a relatively new area of research in science or technology (new in the last 10-15 yrs.) This topic will be an individual focal point for smaller exercises and assignments during the eight weeks.  It will also be the subject of a 15 – 20 minute oral presentation scheduled for the final two days of class.  The topic can be anything from a new invention or new medical procedure (e.g. lasek surgery), or a new method of carrying out research that is accelerating discovery in an area (combinatorial materials chemistry, or robotic telescopes).  This project counts for 50% of the course grade.

Other topics suitable for this project:  

antibacterial products;  biomimetics or biomimicry;  solid oxide fuel cells;
genetic engineering/ gene splicing; bioremediation using microbes/ bacteria;
dark matter/ dark energy; computational quantum chemistry; grid computing;
carbon nanotubes; genetic algorithms; ultrawideband wireless technology; the atom laser

Students are free to choose their own research area; the goal is to become familiar with the science and the idea, and be able to communicate that topic to an audience of non-scientists, with particular emphasis on carrying out library research (directing students and scientists to desired sources). Confirm with the instructor that your topic is feasible before beginning this project.  A good way to begin this project is to look in periodicals like Science News, Scientific American, New Scientist, Discover, or science articles from the New York Times that may give an overview of an emerging technology.

Sample questions that may help in preparing for the presentation (overheads, a powerpoint presentation, or a web site): 

1. What are the key concepts and definitions in plain English?  
2. Which library resources are the most useful in gathering information about this topic, and why?  
3. Which sources are for the layperson; which major sources communicate the science itself, or are referred to by the scientists (handbooks)? 
4. Which scientific publications (papers and books) are the significant ones so far in this area?  How did you determine this?  
5. Which journals cover this topic?  What are the broader and narrower terms related to this field?  What are the common acronyms, and what kind of researchers are making advancements in this area (medical, chemical technologists, environmental scientists, engineers, physicists, some combination?)
6. Who are the individual pioneers in this field?  What does this technology / idea promise?  
7. What can, or what will be the impact of this development on society?  Who are the industry leaders, or which company is involved or likely to become more involved with this subject, if any?
8. What are the barriers to progress or discovery in this area?  Are there technological / engineering challenges, ethical considerations, economic considerations?  

Each student will design a Current Contents Connect alert on the topic during the second week.  These will be deleted at the end of the semester. The content of your presentation is the basis for your grade, not the style or format of the presentation.  

Other Assignments 

• Complete a cited reference study of a faculty member at a major university or research institution.  Encounter and understand typical problems or difficulties in carrying out a cited reference study, and seek to overcome those difficulties. (assignment 1, 10% of grade.) 
• Understand a journal’s impact factor, immediacy index, relevancy ratio, and how they are formulated. (assignment 2, E. Garfield readings, 10% of grade.) 
• Become familiar with at least one bibliographic software package available at IU: EndNote, ProCite, or Reference Manager. Retrieve and download citations from databases and analyze the publication patterns of a small group of scientists or engineers at a university, company, or other research institution. (assignment 3, 10% of grade.)
• Quiz on initialisms and acronyms.  (20% of grade.)

Other Readings

In Oldenburg's Long Shadow:  Librarians, Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific Publishing http://www.arl.org/arl/proceedings/138/guedon.html

[1] What is Chemical Information? http://www.indiana.edu/~cheminfo/acs800/index.html

[2] From Science Information to Science Informatics: Parallels and Paradoxes in Chemistry and Molecular Biology    http://www.indiana.edu/~cheminfo/gw/sla_ind_10_01.ppt

 [3] Greg Youngen, “Citation Patterns to Traditional and Electronic Preprints in the Published Literature”, College and Research Libraries, Vol. 59, 5, Sept. 1998, pp. 448-456.

[4] Carol Hoover, “Cancellation of Print Journals at a National Research Library”, conference paper, Special Libraries Association Annual Meeting Conference Proceedings, 2001, San Antonio, Texas.