Chemistry librarians and chemists might be familiar with the names of Beilstein and Gmelin. However, their lives and how they composed these two influential chemistry handbooks have not been well discussed. In this presentation, I will briefly introduce their careers and works, and what contents of these two handbooks are covered in Reaxys, a key chemistry database. The history of these two earliest chemistry handbooks will inform chemical information professionals of their values about 150 and 200 years after they first came out. 

Conference name: Great Lakes Science Boot Camp for Librarians

Conference website: https://sites.google.com/site/greatlakessbc/home