Teaching Chemical Information:
Tips and Techniques

— August 1998 —

In-class Demonstrations

1. What will you demonstrate?
   • Power of searching?
   • Typical search for audience?
   • Emphasize content or logistics (i.e., truncation symbol, how to print)?
2. Demonstrate access points to information.
   • Combining several concepts (boolean)
   • Avoiding nomenclature uncertainties (structures)
   • Avoiding indexing limitations (headings vs free-text)
3. What if you cannot go online in class?
   • Store results from earlier search and go through “screens”.
   • Can do in several ways:
     • do PowerPoint capture
     • take “snapshots” from Internet and store on desktop
     • use word processing stored search
     • use transparencies of actual search printouts

Articles about Internet demos.

• Using Netscape as a Presentation Manager
  Van Bramer, Scott: ChemConf'97, Summer On-Line Conference on Chemical Education, June 1 – August 1, 1997. paper No. 1

Grace Baysinger, Head Librarian and Bibliographer
Swain Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Library, Stanford University Libraries
graceb@stanford.edu