LibGuides: Upper School Library: Science: Advanced Chemistry

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Fort Vancouver Regional Library

Fall 2023

LIBRARY HOURS: Mon., Tues. & Thurs: 7:30am-4:30pm;
Wed: 7:30am-3:20pm (afternoon faculty meeting);
Fri: 7:30am-4pm.
CLOSED on non-class days.

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Middle School Library Guide

Choosing Databases

Selecting the right tool for the job is the first task. Different databases search for different kinds of content. For current scientific research, journal articles are like bakery pastries: FRESH FRESH FRESH is what you want! Here are your best choices for Advanced Chemistry.

HELPFUL HINT: When using EbscoHost databases, you can select and search multiple databases simultaneously!

Academic Search Premier (EbscoHost)
Contains nearly 500 chemistry journals, many of them full-text. This is your best all-around choice for Chemistry research.
Business Source Premier (EbscoHost)
Articles from trade and industry journals about materials, product developments, and their commercial use in industry.
Green File (EbscoHost)
Journal articles and government sources on sustainability, recycling, agriculture, renewable energy, and related topics.
Health Source: Nursing & Academic Edition (EbscoHost)
A good choice if your research involves technology advances in human health.
Medline (EbscoHost)
A strong source of articles on human health research from the National Library of Science.
Military & Government Collection (EbscoHost)
Journal articles relevant to branches of the US military, including technology, materials, strategy, and geopolitical information.
PLOS: Public Library of Science
An open-access set of journals that contains some articles on human health, biology, and materials science.
PubMed Central
Medical journals database by the National Library of Medicine. May be useful for medical applications in the field of Chemistry.
JSTOR
NOTE: JSTOR is a poor first choice for this assignment. It contains articles that are 5-7 years old, and contains a small number of environmental studies journals that may be relevant to your topic. For scientific research on new developments, consider other databases first.

Help! I Need a Topic!

Becky has provided some great links on your Haiku page to help you generate ideas.

1). Brainstorm keywords and phrases. This is the rocket fuel for your search.

Use quotation marks for exact phrases:

ex: "acid rain"
ex: "air pollution"
ex: "waste treatment"

Wild cards find all versions of a word when added after the word's root:

ex: react* finds react, reacts, reacted, reaction, reactions, etc.
ex: generat* finds generate, generates, generator, generation, etc.

Start with a general search, and narrow it down as you look through your results.

Read abstracts when they are available. They're brief summaries of the contents of a long, complex article. Borrow their terminology and add it to your own searches. This helps you learn the scientific vocabulary used by experts.

Here's an example of a simple search in Academic Search Premier. Too many results!

Now, add some keywords to focus your search.

Now we can add more keywords, and narrow it down to full-text results, and results within a recent time frame. Now we're getting somewhere!

Need further help? Be sure to ask Becky or Sue.

Your US Librarian

Sue Phillips

Email Me

Contact:

Upper School Library

503.297.1894 x4550 (circulation desk); (503)297-1894 x4100 (voicemail)