State of the Art Survey of Reference Sources in Chemistry

The science of chemistry is almost unique among the sciences in being blessed with a single, thoroughly comprehensive key to the literature. That key, of course, is Chemical Abstracts. Hence, when there is a change in Chemical Abstracts format or indexing policy, or when Chemical Abstracts Service introduces a new product, science librarians who serve any part of the chemical community are professionally affected by these changes. This was evident when, in 1972, at the beginning of the ninth collective period for Chemical Abstracts, a number of new features were introduced. Perhaps the most obvious was the break‐up of the subject index into two parts — the general subject index and the chemical substance index. The over‐hauling of Chemical Abstracts nomenclature (particularly for organic compounds) at that same time was a more subtle, but probably also a more disorienting break with the past. The nomenclature changes were needed, however, and have been discussed and defended in an article by Donaldson and others.