Collection Development Policy: Chemistry
  • Subject Librarian(s):
    Lee Pedersen

  • Departmental Library Representative (DLR):
    Carthene Bazemore-Walker

  • Description of the Academic Program | Home Page
    The Chemistry Department at Brown has excellent resources for advanced training and education in the chemical sciences. Research and instruction, under the guidance of a distinguished faculty, is carried out in modern chemical laboratories well-equipped with the most advanced scientific instrumentation. The graduate program has a strong tradition of training creative and successful scientists who have gone on to careers in university, government, and ndustrial settings. Through individual research projects, seminar programs, and formal courses each student has the opportunity to develop his or her scientific talent and to achieve a deeper level of understanding of chemical phenomena.

    Brown has vigorous programs in organic, inorganic, physical, and bio-chemistry as well as in related areas. Within the broad field of organic chemistry, there are research groups pursuing the total synthesis and the biosynthesis of natural products, the development of new synthetic methodology, the application and mechanisms of organometallic reactions, the intricacies of biochemical reaction mechanisms, and the dynamics of photochemical and free radical reactions. The research in inorganic and physical-inorganic chemistry spans the gamut from inorganic glasses, bioinorganic polymers and metalloenzyme models to work with multimetallic molecules, electrochemistry, and models for hydrodesulfurization. Research in biochemistry includes studies of enzyme mechanisms; the relationship between DNA sequence, conformation, and biological properties; the insertion of non-natural amino acids into proteins; and the in vivo NMR of biological tissues, organs, and organisms. Finally, physical chemistry and chemical physics are represented by theoretical and experimental programs focusing on surfaces, clusters, and liquids as well as on the development of state-of-the-art spectroscopic and ultrafast-electron-diffraction techniques.



  • Overview of the Collection
    The library collections for Chemistry include an estimated 11,000 titles, of which some 267 are currently-received serials, all housed in the Sciences Library. In addition, Chemistry benefits from resources purchased for Physics, Geology, Bio-medical Science and Engineering in the areas of bio/organic Chemistry, spectrum analysis, materials science, geochemistry, and laser chemistry.



  • General Collecting Guidelines
    According to the Collection Development Policy Statement for Chemistry, the desired coverage in all aspects of the discipline is RESEARCH. A RESEARCH level collection is one that includes the major source materials required for dissertation and independent research, including materials containing research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other information useful to researchers. It also includes all important reference works and a wide selection of specialized monographs, and an extensive collection of journals and major indexing/abstract services.

    The Library has endeavored to achieve a RESEARCH level collection in most of the major areas of interest to Chemistry. Emphasis is placed on experimental and theoretical applications of physical, inorganic, and organic chemistry.

  • Detailed Subject Breakdown

  • Specific Collecting Guidelines
    • Language: English; occasionally Western European languages
    • Chronological Span: 20th-21st centuries
    • Imprint Date: Current
    • Types of Material Included: Books, journals, CD-ROMs, online electronic resources
    • Excluded: Textbooks, how-to books


  • Areas of Distinction
    The Library has added a networked Chemical Sciences abstracting & indexing tool, SciFinder Scholar, the online version of Chemical Abstracts. Also electronically available is the Beilstein Database, one of the more comprehensive sources in organic chemistry. In addition, the library has gained electronic access to the full text of electronic journals published by the American Chemical Society.

    Overall, there are few weaknesses in the Chemistry collection. In recent years, special care has been taken to select more in the area of developing technology, such as the application of lasers in Chemistry and Biochemistry. Any weakness in Chemistry is due, in part, to the dramatic increase in the cost of journal publications.

  • Special Collections
    John Hay Library: History of Science Collection

  • Selected List of Key Internet Resources