Librarian Leverage

Time, as they say, is of the essence.  Researching developments of your fellow researchers on the Web takes time. The time you spend on the Web takes away from the time you can spend on your research.
 
Do yourself a favor.  Enlist the help of your librarian or research assistant.
 
To make the most effective use of their help, I recommend training them to be able to spot the items that will be most useful to you.

Follow these steps to make the most of the talents of your librarian or research assistant.

• Find a book focusing, broadly speaking, on your area of interest
• Buy the book
• Read the book. If, after reading it, you decide it is not quite right, find another book and start over
• Ask your librarian or research assistant to read the book
• Meet with this person to explain precisely which aspects of the technology described in the book are of greatest interest to you

Then set them loose.  The results of their online research will be so outstanding that you will be grateful for the time you spent on training.

Example … Since catalysis plays so central a role in just about everything, you might consider the following item.

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Catalysis: An integrated textbook
U Hanefeld, L Lefferts - 2017
From the Preface
This book aims to be a consise yet thorough introduction to catalysis for the interested reader, be it a student or a research scientist who quickly wants to refresh essential knowledge. The book Catalysis: An Integrated Textbook is based on the CAIA course (Catalysis, An Integrated Approach) organized by NIOK (Nederlands Instituut voor Onderxoek in de Katalyse) for more than a quarter of a century. Since 2001, this course is taught in one week on the North Sea island Schiermonnikoog. It has been the first post-doctoral course on catalysis in the broadest sense ... The unifying concepts of biocatalysis, homogenous and heterogenous ctatalysis are ... highlighted.
Free preview: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=lang_en&id=reQ5DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=petrochemical+(integrated+OR+integration+OR+integrating)&ots=1SLJ2a1EDm&sig=1P-mlmh-rv-ZdpikmAbXVi0_DiI#v=onepage&q=petrochemical%20(integrated%20OR%20integration%20OR%20integrating)&f=false
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To repeat … if the first book you identify does not work for you, find another book.

TIP: Finding the right book is KEY to making this strategy work.  While finding the right book is necessary, however, it is not sufficient.  You must follow the other steps to get the results you want.

NOTE: If you are in the unfortunate position of being without a librarian or research assistant, contact us at Jean Steinhardt Consulting (www.jeansteinhardtconsulting.com)  We are quite trainable.