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Posted 12-20-99
What was once a time-consuming search through the shelves of Chemical Abstracts for information on chemical substances now is available online in minutes through SciFinder Scholar.
Case Western Reserve University faculty, staff, and students can access the service from computers connected to CWRUnet via faceplates or PPP modem lines.
The massive chemical database contains information on more than 21 million chemical substances, 8,000 journals from 150 countries in 50 different languages, and direct links to the articles in the American Chemical Society's journals. The online Chemical Abstracts date to 1967, with all synopses of journal articles in English.
These materials are now available via CWRUnet through the collaborative efforts of William Claspy, librarian for the chemical sciences and astronomy collections at the Kelvin Smith Library, and Anthony Pearson, the Rudolph and Susan Rense Professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry.
Chemical Abstracts is the leader in chemistry reference material, but the paper version is "very cumbersome to use," Pearson says.
"SciFinder allows fast retrieval of literature," adds Pearson.
During its first year of operation, the service will be available for two users at one time from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Thursday, 5 p.m. Fridays through 6 p.m. Saturdays, and 8 a.m. Sundays to 5 a.m. Mondays.
Claspy notes that he will monitor use to see if the University should upgrade access in the future. He also will watch to see how the current print subscription to Chemical Abstracts, which fill more than four bookshelf units, will be used after everyone in the CWRU domain can access this service from dorm rooms, labs, classrooms, the library, offices, or their homes.
He adds that Chemical Abstracts, which date back to 1907, were widely used when housed at the Sears Library on the Case Quad, but he has observed fewer library patrons using them after the move to the Kelvin Smith Library.
The University is able to provide SciFinder Scholar through support from the library and income from the Fred E. Sheibley Charitable Trust, which CWRU's Department of Chemistry and Cleveland State University equally share for the purchase of chemistry reference materials.
Chemistry professors already have put the database to use.
"SciFinder is an extremely powerful tool and important for both faculty and students," says John Protasiewicz, associate professor of chemistry. He has demonstrated the service to his students in Laboratory Methods and Techniques III, a course in which students design and research chemical syntheses.
During an open trial period with unlimited access to familiarize people with the service, Protasiewicz used the service to research chemical substances that would have taken hours pursuing the stacks at the library. "Before SciFinder, there was no way, if I had been searching on my own in the library, that I would have found time to locate the important chemical information that I found," he says.
Scholars can use SciFinder to conduct a search by the chemical substance or reaction, the research topic, author's name, or specific reference, says Claspy.
Chemical Kinetics, taught by Mary Barkley, professor of chemistry, is another course where searching the current chemical literature is important. The course involves reading and discussing research articles as well as preparing a talk and a paper. She encourages students to use SciFinder, along with other databases, to search for the information they need.
Also putting SciFinder to work is Kevin Vargo, an undergraduate biology major. With the volume of technical literature available, Vargo says, "I'm not entirely sure how I would go about finding the necessary literature articles for my chem lab without it."
He adds that "as far as simply guessing and checking where an article that I need might be, the efficiency of SciFinder is incalculable against he amount of time it would take to find the same sort of articles."
For information on how to use SciFinder, visit http://www.cwru.edu/UL/Subjects/CHEM/SFS/sfs30.htm or contact Claspy at 368-3595 for assistance.
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