ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 726/C&RL News Internet resources for chemistry By F rancie Bauer A compendium o f information from quick facts to 3-D images L ike all information available over the In­ternet, chemical information has prolifer­ ated rapidly. For scientists as well as reference librarians, getting accurate information quickly is critical. Much progress has b een m ade in collecting, building, organizing, and verifying chemical information. Since the Internet is an ongoing, am orphous process, links may change or b e tem porarily unavailable, but there are many sites to choose from now . Yet it is still a “buyer bew are” market. There is m uch free in­ formation and m any sites will link directly to other sites w ith still m ore information, but there is no guarantee that the records or information obtained has been checked, verified, juried, or refereed by peers in the scientific community, w hich is an im portant consideration for pro­ viders of scientific information. Chemical information is o f potential use and interest across a w ide variety o f academ ic dis­ ciplines as well as in business, corporate, phar­ maceutical, and industrial companies. Research­ ers in an im al scien ce, m o le c u la r biology, chemical engineering, materials science, plant and soil science, botany, biology, zoology, vet­ erinary science, pharm acology, and medicine can all have need of chemical information. With the current interest and em phasis on protect­ ing the environment, many businesses and in­ dustries will also need current, accurate chem i­ cal information. There are excellent compilations available but the changing nature o f the Internet makes it hard to b e com prehensive. Care has been taken to m ention sites in w hich an effort has b een m ade to organize, check, and verify data as w ell as offer it free to the browser. The user should still check for disclaimers w hen using the information w ithout further verification. Best sites/good places to start For a general overview o f w hat is available, here are several sites that have w ell-organized directories and provide direct links to resources all over the world. • T he World-W ide Web Virtual Library: C hem istry. This has o ne o f the best, most com ­ prehensive, easy-to-use directories available. The contents page is arranged by type o f site from academ ic institutions and nonprofit orga­ nizations to commercial ones. It also indexes gop her servers an d Usenet groups and links to other sites for Chemistry Resources. Access: http:/ / w ww .chem .ucla.edu/chem pointers.htm l. • C hem istry o n th e Internet: The Best o f th e Web 1995. Originally presented at an American Chemical Society symposium, this is a selected list of the authors’ top picks for the “best w orld collections of chemistry and chem ­ istry-related resources.” It also lists w ho com ­ piled the resources. Visitors can vote for the 1996 awards. Besides the collection o f general pointers, there are links to Chemical Internet Standards, Visual and Teaching Resources, Elec­ tronic Journals, and Conferences. For serious researchers there is also a very useful collec­ tion o f specialized “value-added” lists o f pro­ c e s s e d in fo rm a tio n . Access: h t t p : / / a r g o n . c h . ic. ac. u k /in fo b a h n /b o c . htm l. "Value-added," subject-oriented sites • SCOP: Structural C lassification o f Pro­ tein s. Quality descriptions of the structural and F rancie B a u e r is a science reference librarian a n d the chem istry bibliographer a t the University o f W yom ing Science Library; e-mail: fbauer@ uw yo.edu http://www.chem.ucla.edu/chempointers.html http://argon mailto:fbauer@uwyo.edu December 1996/ 727 evolutionary relationships o f all know n p ro ­ tein structures. Free to academ ic searchers; comm ercial users m ust subscribe. Access: http: / / scop ‚mrc-lmb. cam . ac ‚uk/scop/. • E xp asy M olecular B io lo g y Server. A searchable database o f protein sequences and their families leading to bibliographic citations, and 3-D color im ages from the University of G eneva. Access: h ttp ://ex p asy .h cu g e.ch /. • G aussian Basis Set Library. A search­ able database from the Environmental Molecu­ lar Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) in Richland, W a sh in g to n . Access: h ttp ://w w w .e m s l.p n l. gov:2080/. • C h em ical In fo rm a tio n Sou rces from In d ian a U niversity: CIS-IU A Guide to th e M ain I n t e r n e t a n d O th e r I n f o r m a t i o n S ou rces fo r C h em istry. A nother excellent, extensive com pilation o f sources for chemical information. This o n e is searchable by both natural language an d controlled vocabulary. Gary Wiggins, chem istry librarian at Indiana University, has dedicated a lot o f time to devis­ ing a useful classified arrangem ent o f the most significant chemical information resources on the Internet. He also wants to m ake users aware o f non-Internet resources that may be useful, such as guides to using classic references like B eilstein, G m elin, a n d C hem ical Abstracts. There are instructional materials for teachers, access to chemistry courses on the Internet, con­ ferences, listservs, an d new sgroups. Access: h ttp ://w w w . indiana. edu/~ chem info/. • C h em D ex Index. T he index arrange­ m en t is by type a n d country. Links to conferences, journals, publishers, societies, and univer­ sity, governm ent, an d com m er­ cial sites. There are sections on chemical education an d software archives by specialty area m ain­ tained by Mark Winter, a chem ­ ist at the University of Sheffield. Access: h ttp ://w w w .sh ef.ac .u k / -c h e m /c h e m d e x /. Reference tools and data collections T hese w o u ld b e nice to have bookm arked for easy access to factual information. • C h em F in d er. This is a searchable database w ith access by com m on or trivial chemical nam e, m olecular w eight or for­ mula, or CAS registry num ber. It even searches for structures draw n in ChemDraw, a chemical software program. For those w ho may not have ChemDraw but can dow nload ChemDrawNet from the Web, directions are given for a m odi­ fied structure search. Retrievable information includes melting, boiling and flash point, spe­ cific gravity, v ap o r density, w ater solubility, RTECS, DOT, an d EPA codes. Access: h ttp :// chem finder.cam soft.com . • W e b E le m e n t s a n d t h e P e r io d i c a l T able. This is o n e o f the many good sources gathered together an d m anaged by Mark Win­ ter, a chemist at the University o f Sheffield. Still evolving, W ebElements has already w on many awards. There are several levels of information ab o u t each elem ent. Besides chemical infor­ mation, o n e can click on a m enu that leads to physical, nuclear, electronic, biological, geo­ logical, crystallographic, reduction potentials, isotope abundances, electronic configurations, and ionization enthalpies data for each element. In som e cases, literature sources are given for further reading an d verification. Access: h ttp :// w w w .shef.ac.uk/~ chem /w eb-elem ents/. • T he HPLC T rou b lesh ooter. An int ing system devised to give help on w hat to check if the anticipated results did not occur in s p e c t r o g r a p h i c r e a d in g s . A ccess: h t t p : / / helium .fct.unl.pt/Q O F/hplctsl.htm l. • M aterials Safety Data S h eets (MSDS). An alphabetical list of chemicals giving safety a n d toxicity inform ation. Access: g o p h e r :// atlas.chem .U tah.edu:70/ll/M SD S. erest­ T h is i s p a r t o f t h e E x p a s y M o le c u la r B io l o g y S e r v e r S w is s 3-D I m a g e d a t a b a s e a t t h e U n iv e r s it y o f G e n e v a . http://expasy.hcuge.ch/ http://www.emsl.pnl http://www http://www.shef.ac.uk/ http://www.shef.ac.uk/~chem/web-elements/ 728/C&RL News • M olecular W eight Calculator. Enter the m olecular formula for m olecular w eight infor­ m a tio n . A ccess: h t t p : / / w w w .c h e m i e .f u - berlin.de/cgi-bin/m olform . • U sin g CAS D atabases o n STN. A stu­ dent m anual containing eight lessons o n d e ­ veloping a search strategy for searching C hemi­ ca l A bstracts online. This is a tutorial w ith practice problem s o n ways to increase o r d e ­ crease answ er sets. Access: http://w w w .cas.org/ ACAD/cover. htm l. Environmental chemistry and toxicology • ECDIN ( E n v ir o n m e n ta l C h e m ic a ls Data and In form ation N etw ork). Searchable by EDCIN number, CAS registry number, chemi­ cal nam es, and m olecular formula, the Envi­ ronm ental Chemicals Data and Information Net­ w ork is a factual databook created by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the Commission of E uropean Communities. Its p urpose is to m ake information on chemical products u sed in the environm ent accessible to environm ental m an­ agers and researchers in various fields an d dis­ ciplines. ECDIN deals w ith the w hole spectrum o f facts and properties that might help the user evaluate the real o r potential risk in the use of a chemical and its econom ic and ecological im­ p a c t. A ccess: h t t p : / / u l i s s e .e i .j r c .i t / E c d i n / Ecdin.html. • EXTOXNET. The Extension TOXi NETwork is a searchable information database on pesticides w ritten for the nonexpert. It is a cooperative effort sponsored by the University o f California-Davis, O regon State University, Michigan State University, an d Cornell Univer­ sity. The citations retrieved are mainly from their institutional fact sheets and newsletters w hich lin k to f u ll- te x t a rtic le s . A ccess: h t t p : / / a c e .o rst.ed u /in fo /ex to x n et/. Users w ithout a W eb brow ser may telnet to: ace.orst.org and type “lynx” at the login prom pt. Press “return” at the passw ord prom pt and type “G ”. Then enter the URL given above. • EPA T oxic S ubstances List. Gives haz­ ards sum m ary and w orkplace exposure limits. Access: gopher://ecosys.drdr.virginia.edu/11/li- b ra ry /g e n / toxics. General listservs and data collections • O verview o f C h em ical M ailing Lists. A com prehensive list o f listservs and discus­ sion groups relating to all aspects o f chemistry and its specialty areas. T here is a good descrip­ c tion of each site telling w hether o r no t the list is m oderated and archived. O ne helpful fea­ ture is that a link is provided to each listserv to s u b s c rib e directly. Access: h t t p : / / b i o n m r l . rug.ac.be/chem istry/overview .htm l. • In tern et C hem istry R esources— Data­ b a s e s a n d D ata C o lle c t io n s . L o cated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, this is a clearly arranged, easy-to-read alphabetical compilation an d guide to som e o f the m ost im portant types of specialized databases. Links are organized according to type o f server (listserv, FTP, or g o pher sites) as well as by type o f information (publishers’ catalogs, periodicals, conference proceedings, teaching resources, software ar­ chives, an d data collections). Gives access to most o f the governm ent databases. Access: http:/ / w w w . r p i . e d u / d e p t / c h e m / c h e m i n f o / chem res.htm l. Specialized databases H ere are som e m ore specialized compilations of data an d resources that are not listed o n the general site given above. O ne g oo d feature of specialty W eb sites is that they have links to the professional societies, conferences, and job opportunities in that field. • C rystallograp h y w o r ld w id e . A thor­ ough, com prehensive, w ell-organized collec­ tion o f all kinds o f sites leading to information about crystallography including a w orldw ide olaodgdyr ess list o f crystallographers, research insti­ tutions, journals, and software. Access: h ttp :// w w w .u n ig e .c h /c ry s ta l/w 3 v lc /c ry s ta l.in d e x . html. • MAG-NET—Y our M agnetic R eson an ce In tern et R esou rce Guide. A rapidly grow ing directory to more than 70 resources w orldw ide relating to NMR (N uclear Magnetic R esonance) and MRI (Magnetic R esonance Imaging) w hich also provides links to go p h er and FTP sites, u senet new s, electronic mailing lists, confer­ ences, and course, educational, and software information. Access: (current) http://130.101. 9.1:8080/cdeρt.docs/nmrsites.html. Access: (ef­ fective m id -D e c e m b e r 1996) h ttp ://m a g n e t. chem istry.uakron.edu/. • O rganic C h em istry R esou rces W orld­ w id e . Started this year by chemists for chem ­ ists, this is an interestingly arranged, useful collection of all types o f information im portant to organic chemists at the postgraduate level an d beyond. It is organized according to task o r n e e d a n d is se a rc h a b le . Access: h tt p :/ / 131.96.145.20/ρ o st_ d o cs/k o en /w o rg ch e. h tm l. http://www.chemie.fu- http://www.cas.org/ http://ulisse.ei.jrc.it/Ecdin/ gopher://ecosys.drdr.virginia.edu/ll/li- http://bionmrl http://www.unige.ch/crystal/w3vlc/crystal.index http://130.101 http://magnet December 1 9 9 6 / 729 • P o ly C o n ten t W eb Site. Links to tech n i­ cal an d business inform ation regarding poly­ m ers an d the plastics industry. A prime exam ple o f just how goo d a W eb site can be, th e intent is to provide links to content rather th an to corporate or advertising sites. O rganization is by logical groups a n d technical level so th at it is useful to p eo p le in industry and academ ics. T here are introductory-level articles o n the vari­ ous aspects o f plastics an d polym ers, a glos­ sary, a trade nam e an d abbreviations index, and a list o f technical reports available on the Web. Access: h ttp ://w w w .p o ly m e rs .c o m /d o tc o m / polycon/. Electronic journals— comprehensive listings • B etaC yte List o f C h em istry J o u rn a ls. This site bills itself as “th e Most C om prehen­ sive Collection o f Chemical an d B iochem ical Jo u rn als” o n the Web. T he journals are orga­ nized alphabetically not by subject specializa­ tion b u t by sections th at describe h o w m uch inform ation is available online (full text o r table o f contents w ith o r w ithout abstracts) an d h o w free the inform ation is. Access: h ttp ://w w w . betacyte.pair.com /journals.htm l. • ESTOC. Elsevier has m ade the tables of contents to all its journals accessible on the W eb by subject area. C ontents are searchable by author, title, ISSN, an d date. Users can subscribe to a TOC e-m ail delivery service. Access: http: / / w w w .elsev ier.n l/esto c/. Electronic journals— specialized • LC*GC T he M a g a z in e o f S e p a r a tio n S cie n c e . Provides the tables o f contents for ar­ ticles, colum ns, an d departm ental notes in the area o f liquid an d gas chrom atography. Access: h ttp ://w w w . te c h e x p o . com /toc/lcgc ‚html. • T h e o r y a n d M o d e lin g in C h e m is tr y . O nly the su p p lem en tary m aterial is free but som e com es w ith color pictures. Provides links to re la te d ty p es o f journals. Access: h tt p :/ / w w w . e l s e v i e r . n l : 8 0 / s e c t i o n / c h e m i c a l / th e o c h e m /m e n u . htm. • C h e m is tr y a n d I n d u s tr y M a g a z in e . O f general interest to a w ide audience an d in ­ ternational in scope, this site has a synopsis o f th e articles in its current issue along w ith docu- m ent-delivery information. It has today’s to p stories u p dated daily an d covers new s o n chem ­ istry a n d related issues dealing w ith the com ­ mercial an d political aspects o f new advances in science an d technology that affect ed u ca­ tion, industry, business, safety, a n d the envi­ ronm ent. T here is a R eaders’ Forum for com ­ m ents a b o u t th e articles and a connection to jobs in industry. Access: h ttp ://c i.m o n d .o rg /. Patents A consideration o f chem ical inform ation w ould not b e com plete w ithout a m ention of patents, w hich are an often o v erlooked source, an d p o ­ tentially im portant to m any chemists, chem ical engineers, an d chem ical com panies. A paten t can b e granted for a n ew com position o f m at­ ter (a drug, catalyst, polym er, o r petroleum for­ m ulation), a process (synthesis, industrial p ro ­ cess, o r analytical m ethod), or for a m achine o r equipm ent. It is estim ated that one-sixth o f the p atents granted every year are chem ical p a t­ ents an d that 10-30% o f these are nev er p u b ­ lished in any o th er format. T he follow ing al­ low for free searching an d limited retrieval. . QPAT-US. Front pag e inform ation from all U.S. patents issued since 1974 is available at n o c h a rg e to th o s e w h o w ill re g iste r w ith Q uestel-O rbit. Paying subscribers can search a n d r e t r i e v e fu ll t e x t . A c c e ss: h t t p : / / w w w . q u e ste l. o rb it. co m /p aten ts/. • U.S. P aten ts at CNIDR. Covers paten from 1976 to 1996. H as easy-to-follow instruc­ tions for sim ple tw o-w ord B oolean searching an d advanced searching techniques. Has a clear explanation o f th e m any searchable fields a p ­ plicable for patents, gives cited references, ref­ eren ces in Chem Abstracts, front p ag e inform a­ tion from th e patent, an d an abstract. Also has th e U.S. Classification Schedule an d Class Defi­ nitions List. Access: h ttp ://p aten ts.cn id r.o rg /. ■ Feature your collection on the cover of C&RL N e w s C&RL News w ants to feature aesthetically pleasing photos o f items from library col­ lections o n its covers. If you have material in y o u r library’s collections that you think w ould m ake an attractive C&RL New s cover, please se n d us a p h o to g ra p h o r a color p h o to co p y and a brief description o f the item an d the collection. Photos may b e ei­ th er color or black-and-w hite and should b e 5" x 7" o r 8" x 10". Illustrations w ith a vertical orientation w ork best. Send to: C&rRL News Covers, 50 E. H uron St., Chicago, IL 60611 . ts http://www.polymers.com/dotcom/ http://www http://www.elsevier.nl/estoc/ http://www.elsevier.nl http://ci.mond.org/ http://patents.cnidr.org/