Greetings! It is a great honor and pleasure to serve you as Chair of this Division of which I have been a member for over twenty years. I am writing this in Washington following attendance at an IUPAC Strategy Round Table which consider the future role of IUPAC in the fields of systematic nomenclature and potentially other structure representations. In my first message, published in the CINF Bulletin, I reflected on the changes in chemical information systems since the Division was first formed. It is perhaps symptomatic of the rapidly changing times in which we are living that other organisations such as IUPAC are also reflecting on their future roles too.
As I stated in my first message in January, I want to make it my chief mission in this, the first year of the new millennium, to initiate and hopefully conclude a major review of the aims and objectives of the Division. Already I have discovered an enormous inbuilt inertia to change resulting from the bureaucratic procedures of ACS and its divisions and I realise that my ambition is perhaps larger than my capacity to deliver in a brief twelve month period as Chair. Moreover, I don't wish to imply that the Division hasn't changed and adapted over the last twenty years - it has! However, the changes taking place in the environment in which we work are now so large and far-reaching that I believe we are forced to pause for reflection.
So what are the questions we should be asking ourselves? We need to know more about who you, the members of CINF, are, what you do, and what you expect from the Division. In the last year, we have been able to discover, for the first time I believe, the distribution of age and length of membership of the division. To our delight we discover that although we have many long term members, there are many more who have joined the Division in the last five years. However, in the recent past the members who are active in the Division committees probably haven't reflected the views of younger group of members too well. I am delighted that in 2000 some of the new members of committees this year do indeed come from this group.
I invite all of you to contact me over the new few weeks to let me know your opinions. What should we do to make the Division more relevant to the 21st century? Is the name of the Division right?: should we change the name to the Chemoinformatics Division? Should we consider proposing a merger with the Division of Computers in Chemistry (COMP)? (Some of our most successful conference programs are those in which we jointly program with COMP.) Are we organising the right symposia an national ACS meetings? Please let me know about your interests, concerns and views by e-mail (bill.town@chemweb.com). I can't promise that I will answer every message but I do promise that all your views will be considered.
This year I am facing a exceptional challenge due to the physical distance and the number of time zones which normally separate me from many of you (although a significant number of members are not US-based). As the first CINF Chair not to be based in the US, I will depend even more than is usual on the members of CINF committees. I want to publicly thank all committee members for your hard work and apologise in advance for the extra difficulties which will arise from my physical remoteness from many of you. I also want to acknowledge the hard work which Grace Baysinger has put in during her term in office and to thank her in advance for the continued support I know she will give me this year.
2000 promises to be an exciting year for the Division. Probably by the time you read this message, our first ACS National meeting of the year will behind us and we will be already focussing on the Fall meeting to be held here in Washington. I look forward to making this year a memorable one for our Division.
Bill Town
2000 CINF Chair
Washington, 11 March 2000
Andrea Twiss-Brooks
CINF Web Diva
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/cinf/exec99b.htm
The Division of Chemical Information invites all members attending the 219th American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco to join us for food, fun and conversation. This event is sponsored by the generous contributions of the following sponsors:
| ChemWeb.com | http://chemweb.com/ |
| ChemNavigator.com | http://www.chemnavigator.com/ |
| Questel-Orbit | http://www.questel.orbit.com/ |
| Sigma-Aldrich | http://www.sigma-aldrich.com/ |
Please be sure to stop by some of the social events. Please check the
following link:
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/cinf/219nm/social_events_219.html
Please keep in mind the CINF website may be found at:
We thank Andrea Twiss-Brooks for maintaining this site.
Applications are invited for the Year 2000 Chemical Structure Association Trust Award. The Trust is offering an Award of up to two thousand pounds sterling for the best applicant seeking funds for education or research in chemical information.
Anyone working in the field of chemical information research can apply and application can be made for funds to attend a relevant conference, for travel (e.g. to collaborate with another research group) or for hardware or software to assist with the research project. The award is unlikely to be given exclusively for hardware and software. The application should include:
The Trust has previously supported the continuation of research studies in biomedical interactions including molecular recognition processes and drug design; a novel combination of reaction indexing and synthesis planning; clustering of chemical structures for property prediction; and investigation of reaction mechanisms. The work of younger scientists in developing countries has also been made possible in conjunction with some of the awards.
Recent award winners, and their areas of research, are as follows:
 | Marina Molchanova, Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Moscow (use
graph theoretical and combinatorial algorithms in structure generation)
| Weifan Zheng, University of North Carolina (QSAR and combinatorial
chemistry)
| Aniko Simon, University of Leeds (chemical literature data extraction)
| Eugene Babaev, Moscow State University (computer-assisted synthesis)
| Gareth Jones, University of Sheffield (for presentation of paper on
genetic algorithms at an ACS National Meeting)
| Vladimir Kvasnicka, Slovak Technical University (neural networks for
prediction of physiochemical properties)
| Rainer Herges, University of Erlangen-Nuernberg (reaction databases and
quantum chemistry) | |
Any postal applications should be sent to:
Dr Clive Weeks
Secretary of the Chemical Structure Association Trust
39
Rounton Road
Church Crookham
Fleet, Hants GU13 0JH
UK
The Award will be presented at the International Chemical Information Meeting in Annecy in October.
George W.A. (Bill) Milne, editor of the Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences, has been appointed adjunct professor of chemistry at IU for the period 2000-2001, and John Barnard already holds an adjunct professorship in the Department of Computer Science at Indiana University. The combination of these outstanding adjunct faculty and IUB/IUPUI faculty such as Donald Boyd and Kenneth Lipkowitz (editors of Reviews in Computational Chemistry), Joseph Gajewski (of PCModel fame) and bioinformatician Don Gilbert insures the success of the program. Further information on the new School of Informatics at Indiana University can be found at: http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/
The graduate courses are:
It is expected that the new graduate and undergraduate courses will be offered in the 2001/2002 academic year.
Gary D. Wiggins
Head, Chemistry Library
800 E. Kirkwood
Avenue
Chemistry Bldg C003
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN
47405-7102
Bus: (812) 855-9452
Bus Fax: (812) 855-6611
E-mail: wiggins@indiana.edu
The following are new members of CINF for 2000: | |
| Member: | |
|---|---|
| Alfian Noor Jalan Pelitaraya VI, KP Perma, A-1 Ujung Pandang 90222, Indonesia Bus. Phone: 62 411 585991 nuklir@indosat.net.id ACS Membership #: 2252945 |
Xinghong Sun 900 W. Franklin Street, #334 Richmond, VA 23220 chexxxz@atlas.vcu.edu ACS Membership #: 2210080 |
| Affiliate: | |
| Barbara Cohrssen Powell Cohrssen Environmental, Inc. PMB203 3450 Sacramento Street San Francisco, CA 94118 Bus. Phone: 415-775-1105 ceindhyg@mcn.org |
Miss Jane Quinn ChemWeb, Inc. Middlesex House, 34-42 Cleveland St. London WIPGLB Bus. Phone: 44 171 4994748 jabe.quinn@chemweb.com |
| Diane Wian Questel-Orbit 8000 Westpark Drive McLean, VA 22102 Bus. Phone: 703-556-7444 dwian@questel.orbit.com |
Michael Wilkes 428 Kentucky Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20003 703-556-7440 mwilkes@questel.orbit.com |
| Student Affiliate: | |
| Mr. David G. Naugler Institute of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry 8888 University Drive San Francisco, CA 94118 Bus. Phone: 415-291-5657 mailto:dnaugler@sfu.edu | |
For those of you interested in ACD software, the developers of the FREE ACD/Chemsketch package there will be an ACD Workshop at the ACS Conference at the Spring ACS meeting in San Francisco. For conference details visit the conference web page at:
http://www.acdlabs.com/download/publ/um_acs_l.pdf
Tony also reports:
We just celebrated 40,000 downloads and are averaging 130 copies every
day
See : http://www.acdlabs.com/news.html
Also, Reactive Reports may be worth a look-see
http://www.acdlabs.com/webzine/ as
it's getting critical acclaim
Also, for people interested in the IUPAC rules online:
http://www.acdlabs.com/iupac/nomenclature
MOLECULES
MOLECULES-the first fully online experimental
chemistry journal. Call for a free subscription.
All libraries are invited to enter into free online subscription to MOLECULES (ISSN 1420-3049, volume 5, 2000) at the http://www.mdpi.org/molecules/ website. It maintains a rigorous peer-review system. Please obtain your free and unique userID and password from mol_request@mdpi.org (put "free subscription" as the subject title and your name and address in the text of your e-mail).
Because it is a free online journal, papers published in MOLECULES receive very high publicity. So far we have many subscriptions from individual chemists. We would like to ask all the chemistry libraries to obtain a free userID and Password to have free access to MOLECULES online edition.
Dr. Shu-Kun Lin
Molecular Diversity Preservation International
(MDPI)
Managing Editor of of MOLECULES
Saengergasse 25, CH-4054 Basel,
Switzerland
Tel. +41 79 322 3379, Fax +41 61 302 8918
E-mail: lin@mdpi.org
http://www.mdpi.org/lin/
Chemical Abstracts Service
CAplus with Machine Translated
Patent Abstracts
To make patent information available as quickly as possible, CAS is making machine-translated abstracts available in CAplus for Japanese patents issued as of January 14, 2000 and for German patents as of February 3, 2000. The machine-translated abstracts are easily identifiable - each is preceded by [Machine Translation] or [MT].
These abstracts are reviewed by CAS document analysts if and when the document is selected for abstracting and indexing. The [MT] or [Machine Translation] tag is removed after the review.
CAS E-Seminars Now on the Web
Quick and friendly instruction in the use of CAS databases and services is now easier than ever at your desktop.
CAS has introduced a new series of instructional videos on the Web called e-Seminars. Most of these movies will take less than 2 minutes to view and will discuss CAS database content and coverage in key areas of technology, plus techniques for retrieving this information. The first e-Seminar in the series, Catalysts, is now available at
http://www.cas.org/training/eseminars/index.html
You'll need the Acrobat 4 and QuickTime 4 plug-ins, which are readily available on the Web.
Patent records available in under 30 days.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, February 7, 2000 - The only major chemistry-related resource offering both literature and patent records, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), begins the year 2000 as the world's fastest resource for "uncovering the chemistry" in patents. Fully-indexed patent records for key patent offices are now appearing in the CAplus database within 30 days from issue date.
"CAS uses the latest technology to acquire, process and deliver patent information as quickly as possible to research scientists," said Dr. Matthew J. Toussant, CAS Director of Editorial Operations. "We now are providing in days--or hours--the kind of information that takes months to appear in other patent databases." In research activities such as drug discovery, where even a day can make a crucial competitive difference, CAS' latest advances in patent processing and timeliness have great significance for scientific enterprises worldwide.
According to Toussant, precise searching of chemical information requires the kind of thorough indexing that CAS provides. "We have seen a proliferation of patent resources on the Web that offer quick-and-easy text searching," Toussant explained. "But CAS analysts are scientists who understand the significance of chemical information in patents and can identify new substances and chemical ideas. This information is drawn from the complete patent document--both the claims and examples--and we make it searchable by Markush (generic) structures as well as specifically identified structures and concepts."
In addition to making fully-indexed patent records available within 30 days, CAS adds preliminary records to the CaPlus database within two days of the patents' issuance by the United States, Japanese, European, German and World (WIPO) patent offices.
To further enhance the electronic research environment, CAS has enriched its database records with hypertext links that take researchers directly from CAS services, such as SciFinder, SciFinder Scholar and STN, to full-text patent documents in the United States, German, European and WIPO patent offices. Service users can link to full-text patent documents almost as fast as they can identify them in the CAS databases, allowing them to complete the research cycle online in the same session. These patent documents are available immediately at no charge.
For more information about CAS services, call 1-800-753-4227 or 1-614-447-3700. Visit the CAS Web site at http://www.cas.org/.
Eric Shively
CAS
eshively@cas.org
614-447-3847
CHEMWEB.COM
Contact:
| Jenny Drey | Caroline Harrison |
| Press Officer | Enhance Marketing |
| ChemWeb.com | E-mail: carolineh@enhance-marketing.co.uk |
| E-mail: jenny.drey@chemweb.com | Tel: 0118 933 1331 |
| Tel/Fax: +44 (0)171 622 9301 | Fax: 0118 933 1414 |
ChemWeb.com is offering its members the opportunity to trial this extremely comprehensive database free of charge throughout February 2000. This offer will be repeated later (see below).
Bretherick's is widely accepted as the reference work on reactive chemical hazards and is essential for all those working with chemicals or responsible for others who work with chemicals. The content covers over 5000 elements or compounds and as many again of secondary entries involving two or more compounds. One of its most valuable features is the extensive cross-referencing of data, which links similar compounds or incidents which are not obviously related. The Database contains all the information found in Bretherick's Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards. It is equipped with full structure searching capabilities, and is extremely accessible and user friendly.
Bill Town, ChemWeb.com's Director of Operations said, "As a bench chemist, I always had a high regard for Bretherick's compilation of hazardous reaction information, especially as I once had the pleasure of meeting Dr Bretherick early in my career. The lives of ChemWeb.com members will now be safer as a consequence of this launch on ChemWeb.com."
Duncan Enright of Butterworth-Heinemann said, "Over the years, Bretherick's has become the most authoritative source of reference for hazard prevention for chemists and safety officers. With ChemWeb.com's help we can now bring this newly updated 6th edition to the increasing numbers of people who require this information online."
It is accessed at http://chemweb.com/databases/brethericks. Anyone who misses the opportunity of a free trial of the Database in February should call Butterworth-Heinemann on 01865 314563 for details of when the offer will be repeated.
BIO-RAD LABORATORIES, SADTLER DIVISION
To Contact the
Author:
Deborah Kernan
Bio-Rad laboratories, Sadtler
Division
3316 Spring Garden Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone:
215-349-7366
Fax: 215-662-0585
Email: deborah_kernan@bio-rad.com
Web:
http://www.sadtler.com/
With HaveItAll IR, chemists can quickly look up any record by name or structure for use as a comprehensive reference source. Alternatively, they can search the entire database by spectrum to more accurately identify or classify unknown spectra. With a paid subscription, customers can look up information or search as often as they want.
HaveItAll IR targets chemists and spectroscopists who have wanted access to all of Sadtler's IR databases but could not afford it and is ideal for those who already have data and want to supplement their existing databases. Michael Boruta, Senior Staff Scientist, comments, "We all know the more data we have, the better our chances of getting good results. HaveItAll IR now gives everyone an affordable way to have all of our data."
When the customer performs a lookup, the complete record is always shown. When a customer performs a search, results include the best 50 search results. Customers then determine whether or not these spectra offer a close enough match to their unknown spectrum. At this point, pre-paid electronic "Hit List Keys" can be used to unlock the entire hit list and view all the available information for all spectra in that results list, such as names, properties and structures. The HaveItAll IR package includes 10 Hit List Keys. Deborah Kernan, from Sadtler's Marketing Team, comments,
HaveItAll IR offers the same high-quality data that has made Sadtler the leading supplier of IR data for over 40 years. HaveItAll IR's spectral collection offers a wide range of compounds, such as Polymers, Pure Organics, Inorganics, and Organometallics and serves multiple markets, including Pharmaceuticals, Forensics, Materials Science, and Academia.
Celebrating over 125 years, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Sadtler Division is the world leader in analytical informatics, specializing in the design and manufacture of complete software and database solutions that combine the means necessary to access and build analytical databases with the ability to manage, analyze, and communicate knowledge from these databases. For over forty years, Sadtler has remained the leading producer and publisher of fully verified spectral databases, with a collection that contains over 300,000 IR, NMR, UV, and Raman spectra. Sadtler distributes its products worldwide through hundreds of direct and OEM sales representatives.
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (http://www.bio-rad.com/) is a multinational manufacturer and distributor of life science research products, clinical diagnostics and analytical instrumentation, based in Hercules, California. The company serves more than 70,000 research and industry customers worldwide through a network of 25 wholly-owned subsidiary offices.
For additional information on Bio-Rad Laboratories, Sadtler Division, visit their Web site at http://www.sadtler.com/ or call 1-888-5-BIORAD in the US or in Europe, call +44 (0) 20 8328 2555 or free phone 00800-78945000 (UK, France & Germany).
HaveItAll IR System Requirements
Windows 95, 98, or NT, 486/66 CPU
or faster (Pentium preferred), For Windows 95/98 - 16 MB RAM (24 MB
recommended), For Windows NT - 24 MB RAM (32 MB recommended), CD-ROM Drive, 12
MB free hard disk space.
Package includes: unlimited search capability, annual look-up license, and 10 electronic hit list keys. Additional hit list keys may be purchased separately. HaveItAll IR reads all the current IR instrument data file formats, including the universal IR file format JCAMP.
HaveItAll is a trademark of Bio-Rad Laboratories, Sadtler Division.
|
"Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything
else is opinion." Democritus of Abdera "Chance favors the prepared mind." |
The first graduate program in the USA was established at Johns Hopkins University in 1876. It gained outstanding reputation in the world. The U.S graduate program is more diverse in comparison with ones in some other countries. (Adams & Mathieu, 1999) The reputation of a graduate school is based on the faculty research and the graduate students are essential as research assistants on projects. It is widely recognized that association and accommodation of diverse population of students is a desirable goal of many institutions. By having the diverse representation the process of discovery, which is based on multiple modes of approaches and the ways of thinking about solving problems is enriched.
While academic graduate programs in "hard" sciences in many countries survive crises, the American universities attract many international students at the graduate level from all around the world. According to National Science Foundation data 18% of all science and engineering graduate students in the U.S. came from foreign countries in 1993 [3]. Since 1992 the international students make an approximately 30% of the population of chemistry graduate students [4]. In contrast with overall graduate school enrollment drop, the number of foreign students rose 3% in 1998 [5]. Extremely large number of foreign students are at the Chemistry Departments of Wayne State University - 72%, University of Chicago -54%, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University - 37%.
In this article as a new science librarian I would like to stimulate the discussion from the perspective of an international student regarding the needs and possible approaches to implement chemical information literacy sessions at the graduate level.
It is unstated assumption that the skills such as written and oral communication, information and computer literacy were taught, presumably, by the general education that preceded graduate training. It is also presumed that these skills could be learnt informally along the education process without organized efforts. But for many international students that assumption is unwarranted. The young researchers should pursue scientific achievements solely. Albert Einstein stated that scholars are being left in their own work: "The history of scientific and technical discovery teaches us the human race is poor in independent thinking and creative imagination. Even when the external and scientific requirements for the birth of an idea have long been there, it generally needs an external stimulus to make it actually happen; man has, so to speak, to stumble right up against the thing before the right idea comes."
| Field of Chemistry | Undergraduate | Graduate |
| Organic | 95 | 18 |
| Analytical | 38 | 11 |
| Inorganic | 53 | 16 |
| Physical | 57 | 12 |
| Biochemistry | 36 | 6 |
| Polymer | 9 | 4 |
| Seminars | 60 | 20 |
In general, with the regard that the chemistry discipline is constantly growing and new materials are being introduced, ongoing library awareness instructions about recent acquisitions are important for all students and faculty. Unfortunately, in many cases not only international students, but faculty shows lack of knowledge about library's holding. This type of program is beneficial for libraries as a marketing tool too. It adds value, promotes the availability of chemistry resources, which are extremely expensive and increases the collection usage.
Submitted by:
Svetlana Korolev
Librarian
Science & Engineering
Library
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI, 48201
E-mail: ac7109@wayne.edu
phone (313)
577-6309
fax (313) 577-3613
| Genuine Enjoyment and Interest in the Field per se | 20 |
| Wanted to Use Chemistry/Science Background | 19 |
| Alternative to Laboratory Work | 18 |
| Library Work Appealing/Interesting | 14 |
| Influenced by Employer | 8 |
| Application of Computer Aptitude/Skills | 4 |
| More Career Opportunities | 4 |
| Experience in Publishing/Database Work | 4 |
| Literature Searching in School | 2 |
| Poor Job Market for Bench/Research Chemists | 2 |
| Research in Chemical Information | 2 |
| Alternative to Research | 1 |
| Consulting/Entrepreneurial Opportunity | 1 |
| Interaction With Other People | 1 |
| Realized Impact of CIS on Research | 1 |
| Remuneration | 1 |
| Suited Temperment Better | 1 |
Let me give my story first. Three years after completing my Masters degree in organic chemistry, I was working as a medicinal chemist for Pfizer in Groton, CT. I regularly searched the printed Chemical Abstracts to determine if a target molecule was reported in the literature. Back in those days (1977) online searching was not yet available. My interest in literature searching motivated me to pursue a career in chemical information. I later pursued a Masters degree in library and information science and eventually became an academic chemistry librarian.
Bob Buntrock was interested in chemical information as long as he was interested in chemistry. He did much information searching as an undergraduate and later as a graduate student. Bob credits his research mentors and supervisors who stressed the value of information research. He searched the literature at a summer job at the Veterans Administration Laboratory and at his first two professional positions. Bob observed the way information professionals worked, and decided that this was the right career path for him. The Director of Technical Information at Amoco extended the offer if his third and last job as Technical Information Specialist.
In the early 1980s more laboratory scientists received training in searching online bibliographic databases. Thus, they could search without an intermediary. Tom Wolff first became interested in chemical information by taking Bob Buntrock's end user course at Amoco in the mid 1980s. He did very little searching while at the bench, but later made the career change. He is now Senior Research Scientist/Information Specialist at Amoco.
Lisa Jackson is now a self-taught chemical information specialist. She unfortunately became disabled after completing a degree in chemistry. She was homebound and forbidden to work around chemicals. She thought about working as an information broker as an alternative career. One course in searching CA and STN files was a start, but not enough training to qualify her for a professional position. Since she was unable to attend classes in person, she obtained the syllabuses, found a mentor, and trained herself.
Charles Citroen is unique since he became interested in chemical information at the start of his career. As a chemistry student he was impressed by his college's collection of chemistry books and periodicals. At age 28 he became acting head of a pharmaceutical company library after his boss tragically died in a car accident. He spent a year with Chemical Abstracts in an internship program before moving to the Netherlands Royal Chemical Society. He was one of the founders of the Computers in Chemistry Division who helped develop the first European access to the electronic CA. He is now Senior Consultant to the library of Delft University of Technology.
Kierstin Child also became interested in chemical information early in her career. As an undergraduate majoring in biochemistry, she worked at the reference desk in the science library. This experience inspired her to pursue a career in the library rather than in the laboratory. She is now Chemical Sciences Librarian at Brigham Young University.
Peter Willett, Herman Skolnik award winner in 1993, worked as an assistant in a local public library before enrolling as a chemistry student at Oxford University. While doing undergraduate research, Peter realized that the practicalities of chemical research were not for him. At Sheffield he developed an interest in computer programming. Mike Lynch, one of the original designers of the CAS Registry System, influenced Peter's decision to study chemical computing. Peter's Ph D under Mike Lynch involved the indexing of chemical reactions. Peter Willett is still at Sheffield where he heads one of the largest academic chemical information groups.
An article in the Chemical and Engineering news about special libraries inspired Pat Dedert. At that point in time she was in the fourth year of a chemistry graduate program. She was not happy working in the laboratory and was not sure of what alternative career path to take which would utilize her chemical training. She completed her doctoral degree the next year and landed a chemical information position with Exxon where she is still employed.
Phil Barnett enjoyed working as a postdoctoral biochemist, but felt insecure having to depend on a constant stream of successful grants. A coworker in his lab was in a similar predicament. She was completing her MLS while planning to become an academic science librarian. This woman gave Phil the idea of pursuing a career in chemical information. Phil believes that if he had the opportunity to take a course in chemical information as a student, he would have made the career change earlier. This motivated him to teach chemical information courses at the City College of New York.
Ken Randles became interested in science librarianship after working as a computational chemist. He seemed ambivalent toward laboratory work and concluded that he should pursue another career. Ken's research professor suggested a career in library science. The chemistry librarian at the University of Kentucky mentored him. Upon graduation he pursued a career in library science and is now Science Librarian at the University of Kentucky.
John* (name changed on request) was in a chemistry doctoral program when he realized his laboratory skills were not up to par. He first went into computational chemistry, but soon found out there was very little demand for the type of modeling he did. John took advice from various letters to the Chemical and Engineering News and started looking at alternative careers. (At least two people were influenced by this magazine) His decision to pursue chemistry librarianship came gradually. Chemistry librarians during graduate school and postdoctoral work influenced him.
Not all chemistry librarians were educated as chemists. A professor at Simmons College who taught a course in the literature of the sciences inspired Arlieda Ries. She became head of the Chemistry Library at Boston University and is now Physical Sciences Librarian at Miami (Ohio) University.
Steve Stich worked for Richard Sweeney at Brooklyn Polytech where he was assigned chemistry as one of his departments. What a small world! Richard Sweeney is now my boss at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. I was chemistry librarian before he came. Steve is now Science and Engineering Librarian at Johns Hopkins University.
Several of the sites covered here, including some of the more successful ones, are electronic equivalents of print products. One legitimate function of such sites is to raise awareness of the print version and to generate more print subscriptions. To do this, the main requirements are that the website should be at least as well designed as the print equivalent, and to generate interest in the news stories and other content. Some sites are over-proprietorial, restricting access to their data. It is difficult to see the justification for this restrictive attitude, which seems to spring from an overvaluation by the site owners of the information the site contains, and of the level of interest the average browser might have.
This website has clearly been designed to mimic as far as possible the printed version and to attract further readers, which it does admirably. Colour headlines attract the browser, and crosslinks are provided to related stories. The selection of articles and their content are well chosen so as to generate a high degree of interest whilst not giving away everything that is in the print version.
There are also valuable web-only features, including a job vacancy register and fully-searchable archive of hundreds of questions and answers on general science. You can search the associated Planet Science site, which is an archive of about 1/3rd of the material that appears in the printed version. A good compromise between holding users' interest and giving away everything for free on the Web.
The sole, and major, disadvantage for chemist users of this site is the low level of the chemical information presented. Most of the best stories do not concern chemistry at all.
The 'About the Magazine' link stated this is 'The industrial chemist's personal handbook for on-the-job success'.
The content was variable. An article by Steve Heller had useful working hotlinks. However, other articles were much less impressive, with a lot of scope for such links, which had not been installed.
You can also search all ACS journals from this site, but downloading them requires credit card payment or subscription to the Web edition. A sample search on Stereochemistry in title retrieved 162 documents; although the search bar says 'all years', in fact titles were only retrieved back to 1996.
A fairly useful site, but sweeping claims are made which are not matched by reality.
Access to the current issue is restricted to subscribers of the print edition, and you have to enter your ACS membership number. My number did not work - it is necessary to register your interest to receive access to the electronic version, although this is nowhere stated on the home page.
Access to certain features containing pdf files required acroread.exe, and no facility was provided to download this from the site, as is usually the case.
Having said this, once you gain access to the site the editorial content is good (more interesting than the printed magazine, and up-to-date).
There is a bias in content towards corporate news stories and ACS corporate matter, such as conference calendars and abstracts, although it is not possible even to read the full content of a conference abstract without a subscription. The written articles had good graphics and useful hotlinks, for example from an article on TRI emissions there was a link to the Chemical Manufacturers' Association homepage. However, in this respect a learned society such as the ACS can be criticized for being too much in the pocket of industry - where are the hotlinks to environmental groups' homepages?
This site has a good feel, but falls down on topicality. The areas of information covered are more at the biochemical/life sciences end of chemistry.
There were a few innovative and user-friendly features, and an extensive calendar of events, and pharmaceutical industry stock quotes.
Two features that I looked at emphasised the lack of topicality. Past Features and Book Reviews were last updated a year ago. There is no online ordering facility (such as Amazon) provided.
An attractive site for a major potential user group, but it falls down badly on delivery.
Another site corresponding to a print magazine.
The well-designed home page branches into:
In general this site gave indications of expectations exceeding performance. Many links did not work. There is a calendar section which is only accessible from the 'last issue', and when seen most of the events were already past.
This comes closer than any of the sites already mentioned to being a useful resource for mainstream chemists. Its best feature is a web-based database of databases, the Chemistry Resource Locator, which contains direct links to some useful resources. Included in these resources are a large number of specialist RSC information sites, such as Focus on Organic Dyes and Colours (monthly, but the most recent issue on the web was 6 months old).
This web page links in to the main RSC home page which leads on to information about RSC products, information and services. In general, a valuable resource but with a rather dull and bureaucratic feel, and few graphics. A good place to start for routine factual information, but not inspiring.
The home page leads to a wide range of potentially useful features, such as conferences, trade shows and directories. However, it lists only conferences organised by Chemical Week (only 10). The directories page is useful, covering a range of different topics, from each page of which you can download an acrobat pdf file.
For four of the services (index of back issues, buyer's guide, Executive Edition and product focus), it is necessary to register. The home page says 'register once only for all', but in fact it means 'register once only for each. The Executive Edition contained a dozen or so of the usual type of business news information items such as 'Church and Dwight Acquires Majority Stake in Brazilian Partner'.
Overall, a reasonable site of the business-magazine type.
Again, this website corresponds to a print publication. Chemistry & Industry is an interesting and well-written magazine, so expectations were high.
Initial impressions were good. The home page is jazzy and attractive without being trivialising.
The website is announced as 'A twice-monthly roundup of international and interdisciplinary news features, comments and views', covering chemistry and a number of good interrelated areas. It does not contain everything that is in the printed version and in general the content is fairly sketchy. It includes useful features such as a jobsearch service.
This site sadly falls down on topicality and depth of content, however. The jobs page held only 4 jobs, the deadline for two having already passed. The conference timetable only includes conferences organised by Chemistry & Industry. The magazine archive did not contain anything more recent than 1997.
All in all a great disappointment and unlikely to attract regular users.
A large site giving access to Reed chembusiness journals; European Chemical News, Asian Chemical News, Asia Pacific Chemical, Performance Chemicals International, Chemical Insight.
Performance Chemicals International was well presented and features such as the conference calendar were up-to-date. Hotlinks worked, and this gave access to information and product prices for a number of chemical companies. However, the 'Editorial Programme" in fact gave access only to article titles, leaving you to take out a print subscription or request a sample copy just to find out if the article is really of interest to you. Asian Chemical News and Chemical Insight were even more heavily restricted, and accessible over the Web only to print subscribers or those requesting a free sample print copy.
Again, to sample Chemical News and Intelligence, you have to register and fill in an extensive form -then 'someone will contact you by phone/email to arrange your free trial'- too restrictive for a mere browser.
At last! A home page that looks as if it is designed by and for chemists rather than industrial managers or bureaucrats. This is the webzine of ChemWeb.com, the virtual community for chemists. How nice to see some pure chemistry detail as part of the well thought-out comment in some of the news stories. The news items on the opening page are a lively mixture of pure chemistry research advances, applied chemistry, and quirky 'side-issue' items.
Updated daily, each news item has hotlinks to related stories, websites and ChemWeb.com-wide search results. The conference diary is reasonably up-to-date, though not particularly extensive (although it does link in to the full ChemWeb.com Conference Diary which lists hundreds of chemistry events worldwide).
There is also a Conference Reporter, providing online updates direct from worldwide chemistry events, as well as a Job Exchange. The book reviews section contained some extremely well-written reviews by subject specialists.
If this site can be criticised, it is that it casts its net very widely outside chemistry, and in the search to stay lively, includes items of peripheral interest. It is a tricky balance to hit, but the writers give the strong impression that they are moving in the right directions.
The Alchemist is a pure webzine, not a marketing vehicle for a print product, and therefore has no reason to hold back any information from the reader. The news is updated daily, and it's all free.
The Alchemist http://chemweb.com/alchemist/
Chemical Engineering http://che.com/
Chemical & Engineering News http://pubs.acs.org/cen/index.html
Today's Chemist at Work http://pubs.acs.org/journals/tcwoe7/index.html
BioPharm Magazine http://www.biopharm-mag.com/
New Scientist http://www.newscientist.com/
The Core http://www.uilondon.org/index.htm
Chemistry & Industry http://ci.mond.org/
ChemSoc Newsbytes http://chemsoc.org/gateway/chembyte/chembyt3.htm
Chemical Week http://www.chemweek.com/
Chemical Online http://www.chemicalonline.com/
Reed Chemicals Magazines http://www.reedchemicals.com/
Dr John Buckingham
Freelance Chemistry Writer/Publisher, Consultant
Editor - Dictionary of Natural Products
Jenny Drey
Freelance
Writer
Tel/Fax: +44 (0)171 622 9301
Email: jenny.drey@dial.pipex.com
(Editors Note - This will be a permanent feature of the CINF E-News. I am constantly looking for chemistry web sites that will be of interest to chemistry researchers)
The first 11 sites were contributed by Steve Rosenthal:
Macrogalleria, a site for school children, introduces polymers using 3D
pictures of molecules and movies of reactions.
http://www.psrc.usm.edu/macrog/index.htm
freshman chemistry level
A huge virtual textbook that's searchable,
making it a useful reference.
The site has a virtual lab with interactive
applets that let you test the viscosity of a polymer solution or the
birefringence (light bending properties) of a material.
http://plc.cwru.edu/tutorial/enhanced/main.htm
The Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is a NASA-funded project whose main resource is an Abstract Service, which includes four sets of abstracts:
In addition to the Abstract Service, the ADS provides access or pointers to
astronomical data catalogs and data archives, thereby making data collected by
NASA space missions available to astronomers.
http://adswww.harvard.edu/
The one-stop webpage covering all aspects of Capillary Electrophoresis (CE)
and Capillary Electrochromatography (CEC).
http://www.ceandcec.com/
The WWW site for the exchange of practical information about secondary ion
mass spectrometry. Here you will find information about the Annual Workshop on
SIMS - the non profit organization devoted to education on various aspects of
secondary ion mass spectrometry. You will find some links to introductory
information about SIMS as well a history of the SIMS Workshop. Material about
the goals for this WWW site and the SIMS Listserver is included. Some
practical information about how this site was developed is given and a library
of some of the graphics used on this site is provided for your use.
http://www.simsworkshop.org/
Part of a project supported in part by the National Science Foundation to
provide computer aided instruction software for surface analysis techniques.
Developed by Ron Fleming. Covers SIMS, RBS, AES theory and instrumentation in
6 separate tutorials. Also contains links to other similar sites.
http://www.cea.com/tutorial.htm
The award-winning site:
** WebMolecules.com **
is now available at http://www.webmolecules.com/
Visualize
molecules in 3D - real-time on the Web - for FREE!
WebMolecules.com is a FREE, sponsor-supported site.
Designed for the 3D
visualization of molecules, it contains over 125,000 molecular structures in
3D.
Thousands of common molecules are organized into 30+ categories.
Our TOP
2000 includes molecules of commercial value, educational importance, and of
topical interest. It is indexed by formula and category and is also fully
searchable.
Our TOP 2000 molecules include:
 | Top 100 pollutants
| Top 100 commercial chemicals
| Top 200 pharmaceuticals
| Common valence geometries
| Common orbital configurations | |
WebMolecules.com is great for student and classroom use.
I found this site mentioned in a message from CHMINF-L.
http://www.aist.go.jp/RIODB/SDBS/menu-e.html
Dr. Joseph Hornak of the Rochester Institute of Technology presents this
high quality hypertextbook for in-depth coverage of the physics and technique
behind Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) (For Dr. Hornak's _Basics of MRI_, see
the August 4, 1999 Scout Report for Science & Engineering). The material
is presented in a detailed and clear manner without over simplifying the
concepts. Chapters include "The Mathematics of NMR," "Spin Physics," "NMR
Spectroscopy," "Fourier Transforms," "Pulse Sequences," and much more. A
chapter on "NMR Hardware" offers an overview of components (like the
superconducting magnet and various coils) used in most NMR systems. The
"Practical Considerations" chapter emphasizes spectroscopic techniques. With
the screen split into two separate frames, explanatory graphics can be viewed
alongside the text. A glossary and a list of symbols are also included in this
carefully produced textbook.
http://www.cis.rit.edu/htbooks/nmr/nmr-main.htm
The ESCA Users group is a forum for scientists from academia and industry
with a common interest in Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis and
surface science in general. It meets twice yearly, in January and July, to
discuss the latest research and issues of interest to the surface science
community and to exchange views on current trends. In addition to these
regular meetings the group produces a newsletter for its members which is
available on-line from this site.
http://www.ukesca.org/home.html
Spectroscopy Online is the web site for Spectroscopy (the magazine). This
site contains a number of useful features about spectroscopy in general. The
contents include spectroscopy news, events, techniques, resources, useful
links, featured products, articles and archives from the magazine, glossaries,
some courses and tutorials, and career information.
http://www.spectroscopyonline.com/
Bruce Slutsky contributed the following sites:
Analytical Chemistry Springboard - http://www.anachem.umu.se/jumpstation.htm - It is maintained by Kurt Irgum of Umea University. It is an attempt to present a comprehensive list of analytical chemistry resources on the Internet.
Chuck Huber has compiled a list of chemistry departments in the United States and outside of the United States. ( http://www.library.ucsb.edu/docs/chemuniv.html and http://www.library.ucsb.edu/docs/chemuni2.html , respectively) The former contains links to the web pages of chemistry and biochemistry departments at four-year academic institutions in the United States. Also included are general science departments if chemistry is prominently featured and a bachelor's degree in chemistry is offered, as are the chemistry sections of national research laboratories (e.g. Argonne, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos), and some chemistry related research links. This site is the United States component of the International University Chemistry Departments site, maintained by Dr. Michael Barker at the University of Liverpool, a cooperative project to provide lists of academic chemistry departments maintained in their respective host countries.
How to find physical and chemical properties:
http://www.chem.duke.edu/~chemlib/properties.html - compiled by the Chemistry Library of Duke University. When users click on a physical property, they are given a list of print and electronic resourses where information may be found.
http://www.asu.edu/lib/noble/chem/property.htm - compiled by Arizona State University. Similar to the above.
Thermodex http://thermodex.lib.utexas.edu/ - compiled by the Mallet Chemistry Library of the University of Texas at Austin. This database contains records for printed handbooks and compilations of thermodynamic and thermophysical data for chemical compounds and other substances. You can enter both a type of compound and a property, and ThermoDex will return a list of handbooks that might contain this data. Full entries include title, a brief abstract explaining the work's scope and arrangement, the properties included, types of compounds included, as well as publisher and date, and local library location.
Table of the nuclides - http://www.dne.bnl.gov/CoN
Computational Chemistry List http://www.ccl.net/index.shtml - an e-mail exploder which allows computational chemistry researchers from around the world to exchange information and experiences. It was created to promote contact between researchers involved in chemistry-related computation. This list is not restricted to any particular chemistry software or methodology; anyone is welcome to subscribe.
Surfactants Virtual Library - http://www.surfactants.net/ contains links to surfactant and detergent related web sites. We strive to be the most comprehensive and organized source for surfactant information on the internet. The referenced sites contain information on companies, research centers, researchers, phenomena such as foaming, detergency, micelles, surface tension, emulsions, microemulsions, and applications such as cleaning, cosmetics,environmental remediation, etc. Links to over 1100 sites are compiled in this virtual library.
WebReactions http://www.webreactions.net/ is a unique reaction search system offering direct retrieval of reaction precedents through the internet. The system is easy to learn and use and is extremely fast in locating matches for reaction queries from the database.
World of Chemistry - http://www.chemsite.com/ - The definitive source of information for the chemical industry.
ChemEd: Chemistry Education Resources- http://www-hpcc.astro.washington.edu/scied/chemistry.html compiled by the University of Washington.
This final site was contributed by Philip Howard:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Environmental Fate Data Bases Available on Syracuse Research Corporation's Web Site
Visit the web site of the Environmental Science Center of Syracuse Research Corporation (SRC) at http://esc.syrres.com/ for free access to the Environmental Fate Data Bases (EFDB). This data base identifies or provides on-line all of the information necessary for assessing human or environmental exposure to chemicals from occupational and consumer use, environmental contamination, and food consumption.
EFDB was developed under the sponsorship of the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) in 1979 to:
Allow rapid access to available environmental fate
data on a given chemical;
Identify critical gaps in the available
information to facilitate planning of research needs; and
Provide a data
source for constructing structure-activity correlations for degradability and
transport of chemicals in the environment.
EFDB is comprised of several
interrelated files, DATALOG, BIOLOG, CHEMFATE, and BIODEG and its free access is
being supported by EPA and Procter and Gamble.
DATALOG is a bibliographic file indexed by Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) registry number that contains 18 types of environmental fate data, including physical properties, environmental degradation and transport processes, and monitoring data. This file contains over 300,000 records on over 16,000 chemicals.
BIOLOG provides sources of microbial toxicity and biodegradation
data.
BIOLOG contains 60,000 records on 7,600 chemicals.
CHEMFATE contains 23 categories of environmental fate and physical/chemical
property information on commercially important chemical compounds.
Actual
experimental values are abstracted and retained in the file. CHEMFATE contains
17,214 records on 1,728 chemicals.
BIODEG contains experimental values relating to biodegradation studies and includes evaluation codes that can be used for predicting biodegradability. This file contains actual experimental results on biodegradation studies for approximately 1,000 chemicals.
Syracuse Research Corporation is an independent, not-for-profit research and development leader focused on technology programs of national significance. Today, the Corporation employs over 300 people in nine locations across the United States. SRC is affiliated with SRC Management Inc. Over the past five years, SRC has doubled in revenue and this growth is projected to continue.