Marion Sparks' Chemical Literature and Its Use: First chemical information text

HIST 14

Tina E. Chrzastowski, chrz@uiuc.edu, Chemistry Library, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 170 Noyes Laboratory, 505 S. Mathews, Urbana, IL 61801 and F. Bartow Culp, bculp@purdue.edu, Mellon Library of Chemistry, Purdue University, 504 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2058.
Marion Sparks' lifelong interest was teaching chemical literature. In 1912, she began by giving three lectures to the University of Illinois' Chemistry Club on library research; she presented six lectures in 1913. During the 1914-1915 school year, Sparks began teaching "Chemistry 19", a required course for junior chemistry majors. In 1919, using class notes compiled from her previous five years of teaching, Sparks self-published her textbook for the course. With Chemical Literature and Its Use, she arguably authored and published the first book to address chemical literature and library instruction, and formalized the field of chemical information. A second edition, also self-published and self-distributed, was produced in 1921.