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Home > LITS > Library Research & Collections > Find Articles > Research Guides > Research Guides for Courses - Fall '09 > Chemistry 201
Chemistry 201
Finding your way
Library, Information and Technology Services (LITS) provides library and technology support to the campus. Use our document Getting Around in LITS to tell you where to find people and places in our buildings.
You may also want to Ask a Librarian for assistance. The science librarian is Sarah Oelker, and her office is next to the Reference Room on Level 4 of Williston Library.
The library also has a lot of online tools and tips for helping you with your research:
Writing and Citing Tools - links to lots of online writing and citing information, including how to get started with RefWorks bibliographic management software
RefWorks - the bibliography software purchased by MHC for student use. You will need to sign up for this system from a computer that is on our campus network, in order to begin putting references in the system.
Inter-Library Loan (ILLiad) - our system for requesting books outside of the five colleges. If you have not registered for ILL use yet, please click on the "New to ILLiad? Sign up!" link on the page. You will need the library barcode on the back of your OneCard in order to sign up, and please don't use the same password for this system as for your MHC email account.
Books and other Background Information For your presentation you will need to find documents that will give you background information and "the big picture" about the systems you are studying. One of those ways is to search the Library catalog.
Go here to search among just the books here at MHC
Or try here to find books in the rest of the Five Colleges
Want a book from one of the libraries on another campus or at the Depository? Look for this image, and click on it to request that materials be sent to MHC for you:
Requested books arrive in about two business days, and you will get an email when a book you have requested is ready for pickup at the circulation desk here at the MHC main library.
Here are some reference works available in the Reference Room in the library:
Q121 .M3 2002 McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology
QD5.C5 2001 Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary
QD8.5 .M34 1998 How to Find Chemical Information
QD65 .H3 CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
RA1215 .S58 2002 Sittig's Handbook of Toxic and Hazardous Chemicals
RS356 .M524 Merck Index: an encyc of chemicals, drugs, & biologicals
T47 .B552 The Way Things Work
You may also want to browse in the library for books on your topic. Here are some general categories of call numbers to keep in mind:
Q (general science)
QD (chemistry)
QH (natural history, general biology, ecology)
R (medicine)
T (technology)
TP (chemical technology)
There are other places where you can find books or book chapters for background information:
Ebrary - this collection of online books is represented in the library catalog too, but you may want to use the search interface on their website to find books in their collection. You cannot print more than a few pages from these sources, but they're accessible anywhere on campus!
NetLibrary - another collection of online books Mount Holyoke subscribes to, also represented in the catalog. Again, use this link if you want to just search for materials within this collection.
WorldCAT - a database combining the catalogs of thousands of libraries.
Choosing Search Terms
Here are some specific suggestions for finding books and background on each of your topics:
Fuel cells - call numbers TP359 and TK2901 have materials about fuel cells and about power sources in general. The phrase "fuel cells" in quotes is a great place to start searching in any of the collections listed above-- you may want to search for specific types of fuel cells ("regenerative fuel cells" or "solid oxide fuel cells" for example), or switch to the journal databases, to get to more technical details later.
Solar cells - call numbers TK2960 and TK2901 are about solar cells and about power sources in general. "Solar cells" is an excellent search phrase to start with, and once you have basic information about the types of solar cells ("amorphous solar cells" or "crystalline solar cells", for example), you can try searching for those too.
Acid rain - call numbers TD196, TD195, QH545, and GE170 will all give you information about acid rain. The phrase "acid rain" is a great place to start, but do more searching on specific acids in rainfall once you know more.
Environmental impact of CO2 - The best phrase for beginning to search this topic is "atmospheric carbon dioxide" or "atmospheric CO2." Try both, and see what you get. Look at the subject headings of books you find, to link out to more books on the same topic. There are some good ones at QH344 and QK753.
Biological buffers - Make sure you search all five colleges for books on this topic, and try ebrary, because most of the books on this topic aren't actually at MHC! "Buffer theory," "buffer solutions," and "hydrogen-ion concentration" are good search terms.
Calcium-loaded zeolites as hemostatic agents - Another word for "hemostatic agents" is "antihemorrhagic agents" so be sure and try both. To get background on zeolites, search the catalogs for "supramolecular chemistry" and "zeolites," but expect to go on to PubMed to find out about medical uses.
Journal Articles, AKA Primary Sources
Academic Search Premier - This index covers major science magazines like Discover, New Scientist, Science News and Scientific American, as well as many science journals, so it's a great place to start.
Web of Science - ISI Web of Knowledge and Web of Science index the most highly cited journals in many subject areas. This is also an easy way to see who has cited whom. This database can be confusing to search-- try this Web of Science Guide from librarians at The University of Maine for more help. Look for the MH Links buttons to tell you which things we own (and help you request the others via inter-library loan!)
JSTOR - this system's full name is The Journal Storage Project, a large archive of journal articles in all subject areas. Note the word "storage"-- there's nothing newer than five years old, in this system. The other databases on this list may reference material for which the whole articles are stored in here, so you don't have to do searching in JSTOR: Web of Science and PubMed will point you to important papers in it!
SciFinder - the link on this page leads you through the registration process for SciFinder, a specialized Chemistry database which requires you to select your own username and password and verify that you have a valid MHC email account.
Need more help?
Try our Ask a Librarian page if you would like more assistance from the LITS liaisons-- it's a way to reach the entire Research and Instructional Support team. You can also visit us at the reference desk in the library's main reading room. You may want to speak with Sarah Oelker, Liaison to Biological Sciences, and she can make individual appointments with students who need additional help. You can find additional resources on the library's Biology Research Guides page too.
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