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What is the Analytical Sciences Digital Library?
The Analytical Sciences Digital Library (ASDLib) at Analytical Sciences Digital Library is a peer-reviewed collection of instructional materials for teaching analytical chemistry, contributed by educators and researchers in the field since 1998. It is supported by the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, and its content is aimed primarily at undergraduate analytical chemistry instructors and their students.
What you'll find there
- Courseware and learning modules — ready-to-use teaching materials for analytical chemistry courses.
- Labware, including remote labs and e-labware — experiments designed to supplement or substitute for existing lab work.
- E-books and web resources — reference and background material.
- Videos, images, and datasets — visual and data-driven resources for coursework.
- Active learning and classroom activities — materials and instructor's manuals that promote student participation and in-class collaboration.
- At-home, hands-on experiments — practical exercises students can do outside a formal lab setting.
- Problem exchanges — shared problem sets for coursework.
Who it's for
The primary audience is instructors teaching analytical chemistry at the undergraduate level who want to refresh or expand their courses without building materials from scratch. Students can also use the modules, datasets, and experiments for self-study or lab preparation. Because the materials are peer-reviewed, instructors can adopt them with more confidence than random web content, though the depth and format of individual items will vary by contributor.
How to decide if it's useful for you
| If you need... | ASDLib is a good fit when... | Look elsewhere when... |
|---|---|---|
| Ready-made teaching materials | You want peer-reviewed modules, labs, or problem sets you can adapt | You need a full, sequenced textbook curriculum with assessments |
| Lab alternatives or supplements | You want remote labs, e-labware, or at-home experiments | You need hands-on instrument training with specific hardware |
| Active learning ideas | You want classroom activities with instructor's manuals | You need discipline-wide pedagogy research rather than materials |
A practical next step
Browse the library's labware and courseware sections first, and pick one module or experiment that maps onto a topic you already teach. Try it in a single class session or lab before committing to a broader redesign. If you find the materials useful, the site also invites you to join the ASDL community, where you can contribute your own resources and connect with other analytical sciences educators.
How can I find peer-reviewed analytical chemistry teaching resources on ASDL?
Start with the library's own browse and search tools at Analytical Sciences Digital Library, then filter by the type of teaching material you need. ASDL describes itself as a peer-reviewed collection of instructional resources built by the analytical science community since 1998, so the review step is part of the collection rather than something you apply afterward.
H3 Practical route into the collection
- Decide what you are replacing or supplementing: a lecture topic, a lab session, a dataset exercise, or an active-learning activity.
- Browse the matching category. ASDL names several kinds of material: courseware, learning modules, e-books, labs and e-labware, videos, web resources, datasets, images, problem exchanges, classroom activities and instructor's manuals.
- Use the peer-reviewed label to narrow your shortlist, then check the format against your teaching context.
- For lab teaching, look at the remote labs and e-labware as additions to existing labs, and at the at-home, hands-on experiments if students cannot attend a lab.
- If you want to contribute or compare notes, the community side of the site is where analytical sciences educators and researchers share what they have developed.
H3 Matching format to your situation
| Your need | Material type to look for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Refresh a lecture or problem set | Courseware, learning modules, problem exchanges | May need adapting to your syllabus and notation |
| Run a lab with limited equipment | Remote labs, e-labware, at-home experiments | Less hands-on bench experience than a full wet lab |
| Get students working together in class | Classroom activities, instructor's manuals | Requires class time and preparation |
| Build quantitative skills | Datasets, images, videos | Students may need guidance on interpreting data |
H3 A concrete example
Suppose you teach an undergraduate instrumental analysis course and your spectrophotometry lab keeps failing because the instrument is booked. Search ASDL for a remote lab or e-labware alternative, read the peer-reviewed description, and check whether the learning objectives match yours. If they do, run it as a substitute for one session and keep your existing lab for a later week. If the objectives differ, use the ASDL material as pre-lab preparation instead.
Your next step: pick one topic you teach next term, browse the corresponding ASDL category, and shortlist two peer-reviewed items, one for class and one for lab. If nothing fits, the community pages show who to ask.
What remote labs and e-labware does ASDL offer for analytical chemistry courses?
ASDL's remote labs and e-labware are framed as additions to labs you already run, not replacements for hands-on bench work. The library describes them as "excellent additions" for instructors who want students to practice instrument-based analysis when campus equipment, time, or scheduling is limited. The collection also sits alongside courseware, learning modules, e-books, datasets, video, images, and problem exchanges, so a remote lab can be paired with preparatory reading or post-lab analysis rather than used in isolation.
What the library emphasizes
- Remote labs and e-labware — presented as a way to extend existing laboratory curricula, useful for large enrollment courses or programs with limited instrument access.
- At-home, hands-on experiments — ASDL highlights these separately, which matters if your students cannot reach campus at all.
- In-class collaboration materials — instructor's manuals and activities designed to increase student participation.
- Peer-reviewed instructional resources — contributed by analytical sciences educators and researchers since 1998, with ongoing support from the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry.
How to choose among them
| If your constraint is... | Look first at... |
|---|---|
| Too many students per instrument | Remote labs and e-labware |
| Students learning fully off campus | At-home, hands-on experiments |
| Lecture-only engagement | Classroom activities and active learning materials |
| Need for authentic data without new equipment | Datasets and problem exchanges |
A practical next step
Pick one learning objective you currently assess only through a wet lab — for example, calibration curves, method validation, or signal-to-noise interpretation. Then search ASDL for a remote lab or e-labware item covering that objective, and check whether it includes instructor notes and student-facing data files. If it does, trial it as a pre-lab or makeup exercise before redesigning a whole unit. For broader teaching resources in the chemical sciences, the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry and the American Chemical Society are the relevant professional bodies; ASDL itself is the specialist library for this subject.
How do I use ASDL's active learning materials in undergraduate analytical chemistry?
Use ASDL's active learning section as a source of ready-made classroom and lab activities, then adapt them to your course rather than adopting them wholesale. The site describes peer-reviewed labware, courseware, videos, web resources, and active learning materials contributed by analytical sciences educators, plus in-class collaboration materials with instructor's manuals and at-home hands-on experiments.
A practical way to start
- Pick one topic you already teach where students struggle (for example, calibration, equilibrium, or method validation).
- Browse the active learning and classroom activities sections for a matching module.
- Read the instructor's manual or teaching notes before the student-facing material, so you know the intended sequence and time budget.
- Run it once in a low-stakes slot — a recitation, review session, or single lab period — and note where students stall.
- Revise the prompts to match your instrumentation and your students' preparation.
Matching format to purpose
| Goal | ASDL material type | What to plan for |
|---|---|---|
| Replace a passive lecture segment | Classroom activities, learning modules | Decide what content students must read beforehand |
| Add lab experience without new instruments | Remote labs and e-labware | Verify data formats work with your analysis software |
| Keep absent or online students engaged | Videos, datasets, at-home hands-on experiments | Check what supplies students must obtain themselves |
| Build collaboration skills | In-class collaboration materials with instructor's manuals | Assign roles and a reporting format in advance |
Example scenario
Suppose you teach quantitative analysis and want students to interpret real signal data before they touch an instrument. You could assign a dataset-based activity as homework, then use class time for a structured discussion of why their calculated results diverge. The instructor's manual gives you the intended reasoning path; your job is to decide how much scaffolding to remove for your cohort.
Decision criteria
- Choose remote or e-labware when your department lacks instrument time or enrollments are large.
- Choose at-home experiments only if students can safely obtain and handle the materials.
- Choose full courseware when you are redesigning a unit; choose single activities when you just need one better class session.
Since the library has been community-contributed since 1998, treat each item as a starting draft: check that its assumptions about student background and available equipment match your setting. For complementary peer-reviewed teaching ideas, the American Chemical Society and its Division of Analytical Chemistry context are worth knowing, since ASDL notes ongoing division support.
What at-home hands-on experiments are available through ASDL?
ASDL provides at-home, hands-on experiments as one of its instructional collections, alongside remote labs, e-labware, courseware, learning modules, and e-books. The at-home experiments are intended for analytical chemistry teaching, so they are designed to be done outside a formal lab, using materials that students can reasonably obtain and work with themselves.
What to expect from the collection
- At-home experiments: practical, hands-on activities collected under ASDL’s “All Hands On Deck” experiments section.
- Instructor support: ASDL also offers materials and instructor’s manuals that support student participation, which is useful if you need guidance on setup, safety, or assessment.
- Related resources: datasets, video, images, labs, and problem exchanges are available to complement the experiments.
- Peer review: resources are described as peer-reviewed and contributed by analytical sciences educators and researchers.
Who it suits
- Undergraduate analytical chemistry instructors looking for ready-made experiments that students can do at home.
- Students who need practical lab experience when campus lab access is limited.
- Curriculum designers who want to combine at-home work with ASDL’s remote labs, courseware, or active-learning materials.
How to choose
Start with the at-home experiments if your main constraint is that students cannot attend a physical lab. If you need to preserve instrument-based training, compare those experiments with ASDL’s remote labs and e-labware, since the two serve different purposes: at-home work builds hands-on technique and observation, while remote labs can expose students to instrumentation they cannot access directly.
A useful next step is to browse the experiments section and check whether each one includes an instructor’s manual or supporting materials, then match the required supplies and time commitment to your students’ situations. For broader teaching resources, the library also links to the Division of Analytical Chemistry (ACS) community.
How can analytical sciences educators join the ASDL community and contribute resources?
Joining the ASDL community is a two-part action: sign up as a participant, then contribute through the library's editorial channels. The site presents itself as a community-driven collection, with resources contributed by analytical sciences educators and researchers since 1998, so the practical path is to engage with the existing editors and community rather than submit to an anonymous drop box.
Joining
- Use the "Join Us" invitation on the homepage to become part of the ASDL community.
- Follow the associated ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry group on social media to stay current on events, awards, and community news; the library notes ongoing support from that division.
Contributing
- Contribute the kind of material the library already collects: courseware, learning modules, e-books, labware, remote labs and e-labware, videos, web resources, datasets, images, problem exchanges, and active-learning materials with instructor's manuals.
- Because the collection is described as peer-reviewed, expect your submission to go through review by ASDL editors before it appears. That review is what distinguishes the library from a general file-sharing site, but it also means contribution takes longer than posting to a personal page.
A realistic first step If you teach undergraduate analytical chemistry, start by browsing an existing category that matches your course, such as remote labs or in-class collaboration activities. Then contact the ASDL community through its Join Us channel and offer a specific piece: a single lab, a problem set, or a module. A concrete offer is easier for editors to place than a general expression of interest.
Where ASDL fits ASDL suits educators who want peer-reviewed, teaching-focused material and are willing to participate in a community of practice. If you need a quick, unreviewed upload, a general repository may be faster; if you want your teaching material reviewed and reused by other analytical chemistry instructors, ASDL's editorial model is the point. For complementary peer-reviewed teaching resources in the broader chemical sciences, the American Chemical Society and the Chemical Education Xchange are worth knowing.
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