At a glance

Swain Chemistry & Chemical Engineering Library

The collection

Collection overview

Swain Library offers broad coverage of chemistry and chemical engineering in a collection of over 44,000 volumes, 375 current e-journal subscriptions, and many online books and reference materials. Chemistry and Chemical Engineering theses from the mid-1950s to the present are also at the library (digital versions available 1989–present). Due to licensing restrictions, access to some online resources is limited to current Stanford students, faculty, and staff. To help use materials on-site, there are 17 computers, 1 scanner, 2 photocopiers, 1 color printer, 1 black & white printer, and 1 microfiche/film reader printer. A cash-to-card dispenser for photocopying and printing is available. The library also has four circulating iPad2s.

Safety collection

A non-circulating collection of handbooks and other materials on lab safety is available in the middle right side of the library. It complements an online collection of safety resources.

Online resources

The library provides access to a number of online databases such as Cambridge Structural Database, Derwent Innovations Index, Engineering Village, Reaxys Xcelerate, SciFinder, Scopus, and Web of Science. Please note that license agreements for many electronic resources restrict access to current Stanford students, faculty, and staff. Alerting services are available for some databases.

Other resources include access to a growing number of ebooks and e-journals plus campus-wide site licenses for software such as ACD Lab’s Spectral/Physical Properties, ChemBioOffice Ultra, and PyMOL.

Major print resources

Major printed reference sources at the library include the Beilstein Handbook of Organic Chemistry, Gmelin Handbook of Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry, Houben-Weyl Methoden der Organischen Chemie/Science of Synthesis, and Landolt-Börnstein Physikalisch-chemische Tabellen.

Microform resources

Bio-Rad spectra, ACS Supplemental Materials, and several journal titles are available in microform.