I was having a plastic cup of red wine with Bartow Culp at a Division of Chemical Information reception (always good fun, those). Culp is the head of the chemistry library at Purdue, and a co-author on a number of chemistry reviews. Having a librarian collaborate on a review strikes me as an excellent idea. Someone who has been in the field for a long time undoubtedly knows all about their topic, but everyone has lacunae. A good librarian can fill in those gaps.

And an eloquent librarian, like Culp, can answer my question about why he finds the working with chemical information so satisfying. “Just look at the periodic table,” he said. “Chemistry is very concise and very visual. Chemists will always start to draw on tablecloths.” And then, after a sip: “You can’t draw a picture of a black hole.”

I was having a plastic cup of red wine with Bartow Culp at a Division of Chemical Information reception (always good fun, those). Culp is the head of the chemistry library at Purdue, and a co-author on a number of chemistry reviews. Having a librarian collaborate on a review strikes me as an excellent idea. Someone who has been in the field for a long time undoubtedly knows all about their topic, but everyone has lacunae. A good librarian can fill in those gaps.

And an eloquent librarian, like Culp, can answer my question about why he finds the working with chemical information so satisfying. “Just look at the periodic table,” he said. “Chemistry is very concise and very visual. Chemists will always start to draw on tablecloths.” And then, after a sip: “You can’t draw a picture of a black hole.”