The chemistry collection has been developed to support the instructional and research endeavors of the Chemistry Department at the undergraduate, master's and doctoral level. These works may be descriptive treatments of a particular element or class of chemicals, studies of reactions by type, or physical and theoretical studies of chemical properties or phenomena. The extremely active research focus of the Department, as evidenced by an extensive list of faculty publications, and the nature of contemporary chemical research require the provision of print and electronic resources that allow the chemist to be alerted to the most current international research on a weekly or even daily basis. Delivery of information in electronic format is a given in chemistry. The major chemistry and interdisciplinary science indexes and abstracts are crucial to constantly alert researchers to the newest journal articles, patents, and technical reports.
Electronic journals are the next area of major collection growth.
Increasingly, faculty are requesting that long standing major chemistry journals and new chemistry journal subscriptions be available in both formats. Chemistry faculty and students prefer to access as much material as possible in electronic format via their computer desktop. Most undergraduate students in the program also conduct independent research within a research group. As a result of this activity, most undergraduate students read publications that are at the same level of complexity as those read by graduate students and faculty. See also the Boston College Electronic Journals list.