The Chemistry Community of Interest [COI] provides a discussion and meeting forum for librarians engaged in serving the needs of the various chemistry communities within the Boston Library Consortium.  Issues of collection development, reference and instruction all fall under this umbrella, and users served range from undergraduate through senior faculty.  Much of the discussion takes place over the listserv, but twice-yearly meetings are standard.  Meeting agendas are formulated by group email discussion, and typically consist of a variety of discussion topics.  It is also not usual for chemical information vendor representatives to be invited to present to the group.  

A continuing and significant focus for many members of the group is the maintenance of the Boston Library Consortium Collaborative Archiving of Science Abstracts & Indexes Memorandum of Understanding Agreement March 1, 2019 – December 31, 2034 (and its associated Addendum) which continues collaborative management of the print format of archival science indexes & abstracts.  This recent renewal has been conducted in partnership with the Five College Library Repository Collection for the purpose of maximizing information resources while releasing shelf space for all BLC participants.  According to the terms of the agreement, the Chemistry COI will notify the BLC Heads of Resource Management of the agreement terms every three years, with the first reminder due on March 1, 2022.

As of summer 2020, the Chemistry COI will merge with the Engineering COI to create a Science COI.

Membership

Membership is open to any librarian with an interest in the special needs of collecting and providing access to chemical information in all its forms.

Meetings

Meetings are typically held twice annually and are posted on the BLC website.