Finding Books

Most research assignments should have a combination of different source types within your research. Books are a great resource for doing research. E-books and physical books both fall into this category.

Books differ from peer-reviewed journal articles because books provide general overviews of a topic, whereas articles are shorter and more specific.

Remember: You don't have to read the entire book! If there is one chapter in the book that works for your topic, just read that chapter.

Find Books at the VCSU Library

Using the VCSU Library Catalog

The link to the library catalog will take you to an advanced search. Use these steps to fill in the search box:

Make sure the "library catalog" option is selected at the top of the search box.
Enter the keyword you want to search.
Add a second keyword to the next line if you want to be more specific.
Click the "material type" dropdown menu on the right side of the box, then choose "books."
The language dropdown is right below the material type. Pick English from these options unless you specifically need a book in another language.
If you need a book published during a specific time period, use the start date and end date options below the language menu to set a date range.
Click search to get your results!

Your results will come up as a list of sources with the ability to save links. Along the right side of the page is a sidebar with more filtering options.

The sidebar is labeled "Tweak your results." Use some or all of the following tips to narrow down your results further:

Your results are normally sorted by relevance, but you can sort them by date, title, or author instead if you prefer.
Use the "availability: section to choose what format of book you prefer. If you want E-books, choose "available online." If you want physical books, choose "physical items."
You can use the "subject" section to make sure you are only looking at sources from the fields of study you need. For example, If I want to research space exploration, but the search term "exploration" brought information about both exploring space and historical exploration of the United States, I can check here for ways to filter out the unwanted options.
If you didn't add a date to your original search or if you don't like the date range you used, you can edit the date range under the "creation date" section.

Finding Scholarly Articles

These articles are basically the "bread-and-butter" sources for scholarly research - they're used in every discipline.

What does peer-reviewed mean?

If an article is peer-reviewed that means that before the article was published it was reviewed and scrutinized by other experts in the same field. This process ensures that the sources are reliable and trustworthy.

Why you should use them:

Information is based on research and expertise
Information is detailed and focused on a narrow topic
The peer-review process (mostly) insures that the information is accurate
They add to a growing understanding of a topic by contributing new ideas

These source types may also be referred to as peer-reviewed article, academic article, or journal article.

Here are some of the best databases to use for finding scholarly articles in chemistry:

General Science Collection This link opens in a new window
A collection of over 200 journals, providing researchers with the information needed to stay current on the latest scientific developments -- including such topics as particle physics, advanced mathematics, and nanotechnology.
ECOTOX This link opens in a new window
From the US Environmental Protection Agency, the ECOTOX (ECOTOXicology) database provides single chemical toxicity information for aquatic and terrestrial life. ECOTOX is a useful tool for examining impacts of chemicals on the environment.

Finding Reference Resources

Reference resources are great sources to provide you with background information or context for a topic. These resources can be dictionaries, encyclopedias, guides, handbooks, etc.

The best place at the VCSU Library to find reference information is our Credo Reference Database.

Web Resources

Chemical Information

PubChem: Chemical Compound Information published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Includes three searches: PubChem Substance, PubChem Compound, and PubChem BioAssay.

NIST Chemistry WebBook: National Institute of Standards and Technology database of chemical properties. The NIST Chemistry WebBook provides users with easy access to chemical and physical property data for chemical species.

OpenMolecules: Open source cheminformatics tools for synthetic and medicinal chemists

American Mineralogist Crystal Structure Database: From the homepage: A "crystal structure database that includes every structure published in the American Mineralogist, The Canadian Mineralogist, European Journal of Mineralogy and Physics and Chemistry of Minerals, as well as selected datasets from other journals. The database is maintained under the care of the Mineralogical Society of America and the Mineralogical Association of Canada, and financed by the National Science Foundation."

3-D Organic Chemistry Animations: This website, from the University of Liverpool, provides 3-D animations of orgamic chemistry reactions.

Visual Elements Periodic Table: An interactive and educational website featuring the periodic table. Published by the RSC. Links to facts about compounds.

Science.gov: Science.gov is a gateway to government science information and research results. Currently in its fifth generation, Science.gov provides a search of over 45 scientific databases and 200 million pages of science information with just one query, and is a gateway to over 2100 scientific Websites.

Learning Chemistry

The Periodic Table of Videos: Fun, educational videos for each element

MIT Open Courseware: Lecture notes, video lectures, and other college-level chemistry resources from MIT

Organizations

NDSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

American Chemical Society: Professional organization for chemists and students of chemistry. Check out their career information section!

Patents & Dissertations

Patents

USPTO Patent Full-Text Database: Database published by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Provides full-text access to US-issued patents. A TIFF reader is needed to view images.

Dissertations / Thesis

Dissertations and theses are written by graduate students and are the culminating works of their graduate research. Dissertations are written by doctoral candidates, while these are usually written by master's students.

Looking for a dissertation or thesis? Narrow your source type in the database to Dissertations!

New dissertations are often available in full-text from the database. Theses and older dissertations may only be available in print. If you need to request a print dissertation from another university, fill out an interlibrary loan request form.