Legend
- McGill users only
- In-library-use only
- Catalogue record
1. Sources for background information
If you are not sure what your topic is all about, look it up in a dictionary or encyclopedia. Start with:
Dictionaries and encyclopedias
- Chemical tradename dictionary
- Dictionary of chemistry (Oxford Reference Online)
- Encyclopedia of chemical physics and physical chemistry
- Encyclopedia of computational chemistry
- Encyclopedia of inorganic chemistry
- Kirk-Othmer encyclopedia of chemical technology
- Ullmann's encyclopedia of industrial chemistry
- Van Nostrand's Encyclopedia of Chemistry
Handbooks (sources of chemical data)
- Bretherick's Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards
- CRC handbook of chemistry and physics
- Dictionary of substances and their effects
- Merck index
- Sax's Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials
2. Searching the library catalogue
Use the basic word(s) anywhere or advanced keyword search in the library catalogue. You can search using words like - chemistry, chem?, organic, inorganic, etc.
Search tips for the library catalogue
| Truncation symbol: | ? | e.g. chem? will retrieve catalogue records containing the words chemical, chemistry, chemist, etc. |
| Phrase searching: | "___" | e.g. "organic chemistry" will retrieve catalogue records containing the phrase organic chemistry |
| Boolean operators: | (), AND, OR, NOT default: AND |
e.g. chemistry AND (physical OR inorganic) will retrieve catalogue records containing the word chemistry AND either physical OR inorganic |
Get more catalogue search tips.
Search the Library catalogue: Keyword(s):
You can also browse the catalogue, or the shelves at the following call numbers
| Call Number | Subject |
| QD1-999 | Chemistry |
| QD1-65 | General, including Alchemy |
| QD71-142 | Analytical chemistry |
| QD146-197 | Inorganic chemistry |
| QD241-441 | Organic chemistry |
| QD415-436 | Biochemistry |
| QD450-801 | Physical and theoretical chemistry |
| QD625-655 | Radiation chemistry |
| QD701-731 | Photochemistry |
| QD901-999 | Crystallography |
3.1 Core databases for Chemistry
- SciFinder
Chemical Abstracts plus substance and reaction information. Intended for grad students faculty and researchers. - General Science Full Text
Intended for undergraduate students. - Scopus
multidisciplinary - Web of Science
multidisciplinary
3.2 Additional databases for Chemistry
- BIOSIS Previews
biological - CCINFOweb
environmental and occupational health and safety, including Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) - Current Protocols Online
benchmark laboratory manuals for scientific research methods - Materials Research Database with METADEX (CSA)
Or search subfiles separately:- Aluminium Industry Abstracts / Ceramic Abstracts / Copper Data Center
- Engineered Materials (provides access to Advanced Polymer Abstracts)
- METADEX (metals and alloys)
- MEDLINE (via Ovid)
medical - also available in SciFinder Scholar - PIRA (Packaging, Paper, Printing and Publishing, Imaging and Nonwovens Abstracts)
pulp and paper chemistry (click on the logon button - you do not need to enter a Subaccount number) - TOXLINE (CSA)
all areas of toxicology
You can also search the full text of core journals:
- American Chemical Society: ACS Publications
- Annual Review of Biochemistry
- Annual Review of Physical Chemistry
- Journal of Chemical Education
- Royal Society of Chemistry Online Journals
Additional databases for graduate students and researchers
- Directory of graduate research
from the American Chemical Society. Find information on chemical research and researchers at U.S. and Canadian universities. - ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
abstracts of doctoral dissertations and master's theses, as well as over 600,000 full text dissertations and theses
COLOMBO (interlibrary loan)
- All McGill students and staff may order books, articles and conference reports not available at McGill using COLOMBO.
4. Selected Internet sites for Chemistry
Enzyme Internet sites
Periodic table Internet sites
Physical properties and spectra Internet sites
- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ASTDR)
- ChemBioFinder.com - structures, properties and links to other websites
- Landonlt-Börnstein Online - physical data
- Human Metabolome Database - information on small molecule metabolites
- NIST Chemistry Webbook - spectra, as well as thermochemistry and phase transition data
- Physical Reference Data
- PubChem - information on the biological activities of small molecules
- SDBS - spectral database for organic compounds
- Sigma-Aldrich - search their product catalogues
Search engines
- eMolecules - chemistry search engine that enables structure searching
- Scirus - scientific information
- Scitopia.org - science and technology
Miscellaneous Internet sites
- ACD/ChemSketch - free software for chemical drawing (registration required)
- American Chemical Society
- Chemistry Central - peer-reviewed open access research in chemistry from BioMed Central
- ChemWeb.com - chemistry portal (registration required)
- Crystallography Open Database
- IUPAC compendium of chemical terminology
- Jmol - free, open source molecule viewer
- Organic Syntheses - procedures for the synthesis of organic compounds