Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 14:18:04 -0500 (EST)
From: "Hugh A. Blackmer" 
To: Barbara Brown 
Subject: Re: ACS (chem)

from http://www.acs.org/cpt/guide.htm

Library Requirements.

Essential to an approved chemistry program is a good library where faculty
and students have access to books and periodicals and where adequate
support for data base searching is available. Chemical Abstracts (hard
copy or on-line) must be a part of the collection. An institution with a
broad spectrum of research activity will require extensive holdings. The
department meets the minimum library requirement for approval if its
library subscribes to twenty or more refereed journals in the chemical
sciences and has a range of other reference materials. If an
institution subscribes to fewer than twenty current refereed journals in
the chemical sciences it must demonstrate that an adequate mechanism
exists for faculty and students to gain access to the wider literature. In
such instances, the on-site collection must have hard copy subscriptions
to no fewer than fourteen current journals chosen from the CPT library
listing (available from the Office of Professional Training, American
Chemical Society, 1155 16th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20036). Of the
fourteen, at least four must be from the general content list, and at
least one each must be from the areas of analytical, biological,
inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry. 

(and...):

Chemical Literature and Information Retrieval

Students preparing for professional work in chemistry must learn how to
retrieve specific information from the enormous and rapidly expanding
chemical literature. The complexity of this task is such that one can no
longer easily acquire the necessary skills without some formal
instruction. An excellent means for doing this is with a specific course,
although it should be pointed out that such a course cannot normally be
counted as satisfying a part of the advanced course requirement. Other
means for imparting these skills involve coordinated instruction
integrated into certain courses, preferably at the junior and senior
level. Library exercises should be included in such instruction. In
departments requiring undergraduate research, instruction in information
retrieval may be a part of the introduction to research, but it should be
recognized that adequate presentation of the subject- including an
understanding of the use of Chemical Abstracts, Beilstein, Gmelin, Science
Citation Index, and other compilations, such as Landolt-Bornstein- will
generally require formal lectures. It is highly desirable that students
gain some experience with on-line interactive computer files, and it
is essential that students understand the organization and use of printed
information sources in order to employ the computer-readable files to best
advantage.