Campus Logistics
UW-Madison Campus Libraries
The UW Libraries emphasize service, serving over 4,000,000 visitors every year. Campus libraries are open to the public, and with the exception of Memorial Library and late night hours at College Library, do not require an ID to enter. Library hours vary, so check library hours before coming to campus. Electronic library resources may be accessed in any campus library. You do not need to be in the Chemistry Library to access Reaxys or SciFinder Scholar, two of our most important chemistry databases. However, you do need to use a library's public workstation (as opposed to a DoIT computer lab inside a campus library) to access SciFinder Scholar.
The Chemistry Library is located in Room 2361 of the Daniels wing of the Chemistry Building, 1101 University Avenue (corner of University Avenue and Mills Street). map & hours
To browse for organic chemistry books in the library's reference collection and circulating collection, look in the call number range QD241 - QD441
MadCat lists the collections of the UW-Madison Libraries—including print and electronic books and titles of journals, some course reserves, videos, sound recordings and some full text of government information. Note that journal articles are not in MadCat. The MadCat record will give you holdings, library location, call number, and item status information. There are several search modes in MadCat:
- Words Anywhere - search for all terms entered in the search box
- Basic - when you know exactly what you are looking for
- Guided - when you not sure of an exact title or subject searching
- Course Reserves .- for non-electronic resources on reserve for UW-Madison courses
Borrowing Priviledges
To check out library materials, Edgewood College students may obtain a courtesy library card Card Application Window of Memorial Library. You must show your Edgewood College ID with a current student status sticker to obtain a courtesy card. The Card Application Window is open Monday - Friday (8:00 am - 6:00 pm) and Saturday - Sunday (10:00 am - 4:00 pm), and is located just inside the main entrance to Memorial Library.
map & hours
Scanning, Photocopying, and Printing
Scanning to an email address is free in campus libraries. You need a debitcard to make photocopies and to print from Library workstations. Debitcard wall units are available in most libraries for the purchase of debitcards and for adding money to debitcards. $1.00 will purchase a card ($.75 is encoded on the card; the cost of the card is $.25). Wall units will accept currency in $1, $5, $10 or $20 bills. Coins are not accepted, and change is not given. Photocopying costs $.10/side. Printing from a library workstation costs $.07/side (black & white).
Campus Parking
Parking on campus is limited. Check the Parking and Transportation web site for public parking and bus service.
Handbooks and Dictionaries
These resources provide physical constants for particular organic compounds and, in some cases, reference to the original literature. They included selected compounds by various criteria.
- Dictionary of Organic Compounds. 5th edition, 5 volumes, supplements added yearly, 1982. (Ref QD 251 H45)
- CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. CRC Press. new editions annually (Ref QD 65 H32, copies on shelves in reference area, latest edition on reserve)
- CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, most recent edition. Online. (Internet access licensed for UW-Madison students, faculty, staff)
- Handbook of Data on Organic Compounds, CRC Press, 2nd edition, 1990 (Ref QD 257.7 H36)
- Knovel Scientific and Engineering Online References (Internet access licensed for UW-Madison students, faculty, staff)
The Knovel database contains of some of the leading chemistry and engineering reference handbooks, databases, and conference proceedings. Some of the standard reference texts included are Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook and Lange's Handbook of Chemistry. The content of more than 200 books is interactive and cross-searchable. Users can manipulate and extract information (for example, text, live tables, graphs, images, databases) to suit their needs. Data searching retrieves tables, graphs, and equations that can be further manipulated in spreadsheets and with java applets.
- The Merck Index (Ref RS 356 M52, copies on shelves in reference area, latest edition on reserve)
Commercially Available Chemicals
Print resources
- Aldrich handbook of fine chemicals and laboratory equipment (Chemistry Library Ref TP202 A55 Located on handbook shelf in Reference area).
- Biochemicals and reagents for life science research. Sigma. (Chemistry Library Ref TP202 S5772 Located on handbook shelf in reference area)
Internet resources:
Chemical Abstracts Registry Numbers
The Registry number is a unique, three-part identifier assigned to each compound indexed in Chemical Abstracts (CA). The RN for acetic acid, for example is 64-19-7. An excellent way to find chemical names and registry numbers is to search either Reaxys or SciFinder Scholar (Chemical Abstracts) databases by inputting a molecular structure. (Note: Not all Reaxys records contain CA Registry Numbers.)
Finding Reaction Conditions
If the procedure was considered "common knowledge" by the original author, it may not appear in Reaxys (Beilstein) or SciFinder Scholar. For this information the best sources are:
- Organic Syntheses (Chem Lib Ref. QD 262 O721) - a collection of detailed preparations of widely used compounds. This content is searchable on the Internet at the Organic Syntheses Website (http://www.orgsyn.org/).
- Organic Reactions (Chem Lib Ref QD 251 O7) - detailed review articles on major synthetic reactions with extensive tales of references.
- Theilheimer's Synthetic Methods (Chem Lib Ref QD 262 T48) - abstracts arranged by reaction type and indexed by compound type of both starting material and product.
- Feiser and Feiser's Reagents for Organic Synthesis (Chem Lib Ref QD 262 F5)
- Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis (Chem Lib Ref QD 77 E53 1995)
Online. (Internet access licensed for UW-Madison students, faculty, staff)
Article Databases
Applied Science and Technology (Internet access licensed for UW-Madison students, faculty, staff)
Applied Science and Technology Abstracts covers more than 400 English language scholarly and trade journals in the general fields of engineering, computers, chemistry, applied mathematics, energy, and a wide variety of applied sciences. There are abstracts beginning with 1993. Most journals are available on campus.
Reaxys (formerly Beilstein and Gmelin)
Reaxys includes Beilstein, which covers organic compounds and is based upon the venerable German work, Beilstein's Handbuch der Organischen Chemie. The oeganic portion of Reaxys contains all information in the handbook plus continued coverage of about 150 organic chemistry journals and organic patents. Reaxys is the only index that covers the very old literature (earliest record is 1771). Reaxys may be searched in a number of ways: molecular formula, chemical name, chemical structure/substructure, reaction, etc. For more information, see Chemistry Library's Reaxys
SciFinder Scholar (requires individual SciFinder username and password.with a UW-Madison email address)
SciFinder Scholar was created to provide user-friendly, computer access to selected CAS databases such as Chemical Abstracts, plus Medline. It may be searched by molecular structure (exact or partial), reaction, chemical name, formula, and research topic using natural language.
SciFinder's Chemical Abstracts coverage extends back to 1907, with some ACS journals indexed back to late 1800's. Substance searches (Registry File) - formula, name, and structure - will only retrieve references from 1957 to date (with some substances indexed back to early 1900s). Reaction searches (CAS Reacts) identify journal literature (1985 - present) and patents (1991 - present). You should use Reaxys to retrieve older compound references or search SciFinder Scholar by text terms for the pre-1957 literature. For search help, see SciFinder Scholar Help
Web of Knowledge (WOK) (Internet access licensed for UW-Madison students, faculty, staff)
1965 - present for Science Citation Index, 1982 - present for Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences
SCI's most powerful search feature is the cited reference search. This feature permits you to find new information on a topic by using citation connections between articles, rather than the subject terms of a traditional index. Cited referencing is often most active and relevant in the years immediately following the original publication. Organic chemists use cited reference searching to find information about specific reactions. For example, if you need to find current uses of the Wittig reaction, begin with the paper in which the reaction was first described. A citation search of that paper in WOK leads you to newer uses of the reaction. However you should always conduct a phrase search of the name reaction. "OR" these results together for a complete search.
Primary Research Journals
The indexes described above will not necessarily give you all the information you will need to complete the library exercise. In some cases you will have to look up the journal articles referenced in the indexes. Use the find full text links withn the database citations to locate the article. FindIt provides a link to our electronic journal subscriptions as well as links to the MadCat print record. If you know the journal citation information, use the Journals tab on the library home page to locate yoru specific article.
The abbreviations used for journals in chemical publications vary and are sometimes cryptic. Increasingly, CA abbreviations are becoming standard and you are asked to use them in completing the mini-library assignment. Look up CA abbreviations in CASSI (Chemical Abstracts Source Index) located near the Circulation Desk.
UW-Madison Libraries provides licensed access to a number of chemistry publishers' web site. The publication web site usually provides a search feature for its online journals, but a journal database like Reaxys or SciFinder Scholar will retrieve results from more than one publisher. For collections of electronic journals specific to chemistry, use SUBJECT BROWSE tab within the E-JOURNAL TITLE LIST. For collections of publishers' journals, use MORE OPTIONS tab within the E-JOURNAL TITLE LIST.
Edgewood College RefWorks
When you are in UW-Madison libraries, the default RefWorks login page will say "University of Wisconsin, Madison".
- To login to your Edgewood College RefWorks account from the UW-Madison RefWorks web site, click not my institution from our login page. Then Login to your Edgewood college account using the Edgewood Group code. See Edgewood College RefWorks for help.
- To import Reaxys records into your RefWorks account, see Moving Citations from Reaxys.
