The Importance of Using a Lab Notebook

We receive many questions regarding the "hows" and "whys" of laboratory notebooks. The main points we feel are most important:

• Keeping a laboratory notebook teaches students "real-world" science.
• Our carbonless style copies allow instructors the luxury of a lighter load as opposed to carrying whole stacks of notebooks.
• Our notebooks deter cheating through eliminating "dry-labbing"

The following are some perspectives from the scientific community:

---

"A laboratory notebook is one of a scientist's most valuable tools. It contains the permanent written record of the researcher's mental and physical activities for experiment and observation, to the ultimate understanding of physical phenomena. The act of writing in the notebook causes the scientist to stop and think about what is being done in the laboratory. It is in this way an essential part of doing good science."
from Writing the Laboratory Notebook by Howard M. Kanare; American Chemical Society 1985

---

"The laboratory notebook is a permanent, documented, and primary record of laboratory observations. Therefore, a students notebook will be a bound journal with pages numbered in advance and never torn out. This notebook contains a carbonless duplicate copy so that when you write you will produce an original and a copy. The original remains in the book as a permanently bound record and the copy is to be turned in for grading."
derived with permission from Dartmouth College, Department of Chemistry; www.dartmouth.edu/~chemlab/