Chemical information instruction and support at ETH Zürich: Concept, realization, and trends

CINF 109

Martin P. Braendle, braendle@chem.ethz.ch, Engelbert Zass, zass@chem.ethz.ch, Blanka Cartier, and Arun Kumar. Informationszentrum Chemie Biologie Pharmazie, ETH Zuerich, HCI G 5.3, CH-8093 Zuerich, Switzerland
Nowadays, chemists are faced with various electronic information sources at their workbench. Proper selection and use of these tools requires knowledge of their strengths and deficiencies. Students and faculty often don't comprehend the need for chemical information instruction which would impart this knowledge; librarians encounter difficulties to get enough time in the tightly subject matter packed curricula. Given these conditions at ETH Zürich, we have worked out a comprehensive concept for chemical information instruction and support. It comprises: 1. Lessons in chemical information that are integrated in lab courses and lectures. These problem-oriented units are taught by scientific staff from the Information Center and accompany students for their entire Bachelor courses, starting in the first term. 2. E-learning material produced in the BMBF-project „Networked Chemistry Studies“. 3. Supporting web pages for major databases and individual end-user support. In addition, we try to improve our basic access points and our instruction by analyzing feedback from end-user search, e.g. with text mining.