My attempts to interest my students in books and bibliographies are
briefly these: For one term of 15 weeks of the junior year the students
of the course in chemistry devote an hour each week (with two hours
assigned for preparation) to practice in reading chemical German. The
subject matter assigned is either from some work on general or
analytical chemistry or from some current journal. Of late I have
confined myself mostly to a work on inorganic chemistry. The purpose
here is not at all to attempt to teach German, but to assist the
students in acquiring a moderate facility in reading, that is,
sufficient to enable them to get the _essentials_ from an article,
rather than to make a finished translation.
During the term following this, there is assigned to the class one or
more (usually two) topics, and they are required to prepare and submit
for inspection a bibliography of the journal literature upon these
subjects. This year the topic assigned to the whole class was the
"Determination of sulphur in irons and steels." The class (of 30) was
divided into squads, and to each squad a second topic was assigned, such
as "The use of sodium peroxide in analytical chemistry," "The
preparation and analysis of persulphuric acid and the persulphates,"
"The recovery of molybdic acid from residues," etc.
General directions are given as to procedure in the compilation of the
bibliography, the use of such periodicals as the _Centralblatt_ as a
starting point, and also the way to record and classify the references
found.
This year we have used library cards for the recording of the references
for the first time, with marked success. Each card was to bear the
original reference, the _Centralblatt_ or _Jahresbericht_ reference, the
title of the article (if possible) and a very brief statement of its
contents. The cards were then to be grouped according to a
classification to be worked out by the student.
Each student had finally about 200 cards, often with several references
on a card. They were allowed to divide the journals among the members of
a given squad, and to exchange cards.
The results are most satisfactory. The work has been well done as a
whole, and already I hear of resolves on their part to keep up a card
catalog of interesting articles, which is a promising symptom.
Each year for some time, I have devoted a single hour near the close of
the year to a brief discussion of books, from the point of view of the
needs of a person desiring to collect a small library. In this
connection I have put into the students hands a list of "Standard works"
citing the essential reference books on the subject, and have commented
briefly on the list. Please understand that this list is not by any
means infallible, and that there are doubtless other works just as good
as those mentioned.
Our senior students are all required to compile a bibliography of the
literature of the subject chosen as a thesis, and to prepare a brief
review of all recorded work, before they can begin their investigation,
and the way in which they attack this work seems to indicate that the
familiarity with journals and methods gained in the work of the junior
year outlined above stands them in good stead.
In connection with the instruction in the history of chemistry, frequent
preparation of memoirs and a study of works in this field is also
required.
The list of books referred to in Dr. Talbot's letter was divided under
the following heads: History of chemistry, Physiological chemistry,
Organic chemistry, Technical chemistry, Agricultural chemistry,
Analytical chemistry, Biography, Dictionaries, Tables, Dyeing, Foods,
General chemistry, Toxicology.
J. I. WYER, librarian of the University of Nebraska, outlined a course
of 16 lectures which are given there during the first semester of every
alternate year, embracing national and trade bibliography, reference
books, and thorough drill in subject bibliography. The work is primarily
given as part of the apprentices' training for the library, but is
attended by advanced and graduate students in other departments.
Regular university credit is given for the work.