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Collection Development for Chemistry in the Boston College Libraries

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Scope and Collecting Emphases

Framework used in building the chemistry collections in the Boston College Libraries

Guide to the Chemistry Collections

This collection serves the needs of the Boston College Chemistry Department, as well as chemistry-related needs of researchers and students in the other sciences.  The Chemistry Bibliographer selects materials based on user requests, curricular needs and knowledge of the discipline.  The bibliographer collaborates with the faculty library liaison appointed by the department and acts on purchase requests by faculty and graduate students whenever possible.

Disciplinary Scope and Collecting Emphases

This collection spans all areas of chemistry (QD), but with emphases as shown below.  

Selection favors materials from high quality scholarly publishers, regardless of country of origin or location of research.  The most important publishers in the field include the American Chemical Society, Cambridge University Press, Elsevier Publishing Company, Oxford University Press, the Royal Society of Chemistry, Springer Nature, Wiley and other highly-regarded commercial and scholarly presses.

Given the research interests of the Chemistry Department, the major areas of collection focus include:

  • Energy Science
  • ​Materials Chemistry
  • Biological and Medicinal Chemistry
  • Organic Synthesis
  • Organometallic Chemistry, in particular, asymmetric catalysis

Materials are also purchased to support all areas of the curriculum.

Collaborative interdisciplinary relationships are seen particularly with Biology and Physics.  Interdisciplinary work, especially in Energy Research and Materials Science, is expected to increase with creation of the Schiller Institute.