CINF E-NEWSVOLUME 1 NO.3

MAY 2000Edited by Bruce Slutsky

Editors note: I read that there were over 17,000 people at the recent ACS meeting in San Francisco. Many of us, including myself were unable to attend. Much of issue number 3 of the CINF E-news is devoted to reports from the meeting including links to Powerpoint presentations. You may take your time examining slides from the respective talks. I was pleasantly suprised to receive many submissions for this issue including another edition of Chemistry Site Seeing by Steve Rosenthal and a Careers Column by Svetlana Korolev.

TABLE OF CONTENTSMessage from the Chair - Bill TownThanks to CINF Sponsors -submitted by Andrea Twiss-BrooksCINF Program at the San Francisco MeetingNotes from the Open Meeting of the American Chemical Society Publications Division and Chemical Abstracts ServiceCommittee Reports

Awards Committee - submitted by JoAnne WitiakEducation Committee - submitted by Gary WigginsProgram Committee - submitted by Andy BerksPublications Committee - submitted by Carol Carr

Report from Council   - submitted by CINF Councilors Bonnie Lawlor and Gary WigginsPublisher Announcements

Beilstein Information Systems - submitted by Michael RaiChemical Abstracts Service - submitted by Eric ShivelyChemWeb   - submitted by Bryan Vickery

30 Year Members of CINF   - submitted by Michael O'HaraCareers Column - by Svetlana KorolevChemistry Site Seeing   - by Steve RosenthalInternational Patent Information (IPI) Award - submitted by Trudi JonesU.S. Patent and Trademark Office Proposes Rules to Implement Provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 - submitted by David SaariReport from the Pharma Documentation Ring   Special Meeting on LinkingThe Autonom Story   - submitted by Michael Rai

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR Bill Town

Letter from the Chair

Appropriately, I seem to be destined to write copy for CINF E-News whilst visiting the USA - this time I am back in San Francisco just weeks after the very successful ACS meeting here in March. The San Francisco ACS meeting attendance exceeded all records and for CINF too records were broken as we probably had one of the largest session attendances ever. The program was one of the strongest for a long time and congratulations are due to Andy Berks and his team. The CINF welcoming reception attendance also exceeded expectations but fortunately there was ample overflow space in the foyer which prevented us breaking health and safety regulations.

Although we have scarcely finished digesting the Spring ACS meeting, we are already well advanced on planning the Fall meeting in Washington. The Skolnik Award reception on the Tuesday evening will probably be held in the ACS headquarters building and will be preceded by a visit to the ACS Library and Information Center. Again it looks as though we will have a strong technical program.

All CINF committee positions are now filled for 2000 but we are never short of exciting opportunities for new volunteers. If you would like to be more involved in developing some aspect of CINF or would like to join one of the many committees, please let me know. You will be welcome!

Also if you have opinions on future directions for CINF, I am always ready to hear from you. (Editor's note - Bill may be reached at Bill.Town@chemweb.com)

I look forward to meeting many of you in Washington.

THANKS TO CINF SPONSORS Andrea Twiss-Brooks

Thanks a Million!

The Division of Chemical Information officers, functionaries, and members would like to extend our thanks to sponsors for their support of various technical session and social events in San Francisco. 

ACS Corporation Associates Grant for Industrial Programming in support of the ADME/Tox Symposium 

MDL Information Systems, Inc. Projection equipment for CINF technical sessions 

ChemNavigator.com ChemWeb.com Questel-Orbit Sigma Aldrich Support for the CINF Welcoming Reception 

Harry Allcock IFI Claims Patent Service The Dialog Corporation Host and sponsors of "Harry's Party" 

To visit sponsors web sites, point your browser to http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/cinf/sponsors_2000.html

Notes from the Open Meeting of the American Chemical Society

Publications Division and Chemical Abstracts ServiceSan Francisco, March 27, 2000

I. ACS Publications Division. 

1999 was a very successful year for the ACS Publications Division. Highlights include:

Instant success of three new publications:Organic LettersJournal of Combinatorial ChemistryModern Drug Discovery

Plans approved for three more new publications:NanoLettersCrystal Growth & Design (ACS's second SPARC journal)Biomacromolecules

Numerous enhancements to online journalsContinuing heavy investment in technology and staffReengineering for greater speed and cost savingsOutstanding results from new approach to sales and marketing

A new brochure depicting the standings of the ACS journals in ISI's Journal Citation Reports was unveiled at the San Francisco meeting:

28 ACS journals in 24 subject categories (chemistry and related subjects)1700 total journals in the categories studiedACS journals #1 in total citations and impact factor in 14 of 24 categoriesPublisher of less than 2% of journals but more than 50% of top spots (#1 or #2)

Report on Chemical & Engineering News by Madeleine Jacobs:Beginning March 27, 2000, as an entirely new benefit of membership, full access to Chemical & Engineering News Online became available free to all ACS members. For access, log on to http://pubs.acs.org/cen 

Update on New Products by Jack Ochs:Nano Letters

Paid circulation research journalAimed at a multidisciplinary audience of scientists working with materials at the nanometer scaleApproved in NovemberLaunch January 2001Second letters journalBoard voting on editor nominee

Crystal Growth & DesignEditor approved by ACS Board: Dr. Robin D. Rogers (Alabama)Associate Editors and Editorial Advisory Board being appointedCall for Papers issuedLaunch January 2001Second SPARC journal

BiomacromoleculesEditorial team is in place including a large prestigious, and international advisory boardFirst web article published Feb. 4, 2000First issue mailed March 14, 2000 included 18 articles and 148 editorial pages

Organic LettersSubmissions and editorial pages continue well ahead of planOnline submission, formatting, and peer review system used by 70% of authors: being extended to all ACS journalsReceipt to publication time - 7 weeksAccept to publication time - 2 weeks

Journal of Combinatorial ChemistryEditorial pages ahead of planHonorable Mention “Best New Journal in STM” (AAP)Content and characterization standards have been well receivedDr. Czarnik working closely with OTP re combinatorial chemistry ProSpectives conference in April

Modern Drug DiscoveryFeedback on editorial content continues to be very positiveStaff is working to develop additional features and departments of interestThe Pharmaceutical Century, a special supplement is planned for AugustAd pages and qualified subscribers continue well ahead of plan

Symposia Series and ACS Classics Symposia Series publishing continues at pre-reorganization levels: 30-35 titles per yearACS Classics like Reagent Chemicals and the ACS Style Guide will be maintainedLater this year Reagent Chemicals 9th edition is expected to be the first ACS book to be posted on the web

Chemical Innovation (formerly CHEMTECH)Redesigned to attract young readersRelaunchedCoverage expandedLife sciences, biotech, new materials, & nanotechnologyStrongest departments retainedOthers modified or replaced

II. Chemical Abstracts Service

Barbara Peterson (3M) is the new Chair of the Joint Board/Council Committee on Chemical Abstracts Service. She summarized the 3/24/00 meeting of the committee, on which several CINF members serve.

SciFinder Scholar

New features since January 2000 include the Analyze option, plus two new databases (ChemCats and ChemList)On 3/7/00, CAS had its first Webcast presentation about SciFinder Scholar (available on the CAS server)Requirement to maintain a print subscription has been dropped and the rates have been simplifiedCAS has announced special prices for institutions offering the Bachelors or Masters as the highest degree in chemistryPh.D. granting schools, depending on size classification, may purchase 3 concurrent users for the price of 2 or 5 concurrent users for the price of 3Customers purchasing SciFinder Scholar Special Packages before June 30, 2000 can receive a 50% credit for their already-paid 2000 CA and/or CA on CD subscription to apply toward the Special Package purchaseCustomers purchasing SciFinder Scholar Special Packages after June 30, 2000 will receive a 50% discount on CA print or CA on CD subscriptions during the term of the contract.

SciFinder 2000 expected this summer (fifth anniversary of the product)

Company name explorationExpanded access to full-text documents in the customer's corporate libraryCitation linkingReaction searching enhancementsTools for datamining and visualization

Citation Searching

Citations from both journal articles and patents are being added to CA and CAplus Began with 1999 publications: 16 million citations, with 31 million expected by the end of 2000

Potential Enhancements Being ConsideredTimes cited Links through patent family data Linking of related records Links to more databases Searching through secondary authors

Reference LinkingAll references in the bibliographies of ACS journals now have a CAS tag in the HTML version of the articles. Links to the CAS record if in the database

Additional Patent Information in CAOLDPatent numbers have been added for the 1st-7th Collective Index periods Patent family data from the 6th-7th CI periods

ChemPort ConnectionNew publishers: American Physical Society and Institute of Physics plus EBSCO As of March 2000, the ChemPort Connection provided access to a total of 1,887 journals with full-text articles linked to records from CAS and other databases on STN. The ChemPort Connection provides full-text links to the largest collection of chemistry-related journals and patents on the Web.

CA DatabasesIn the Spring of 2000, CHEMCATS and Registry Files will begin to include screening compounds from combinatorial libraries. Initially, 200,000 compounds of biological and pharmacological interest will be added over time. CA now has references to about 17 million documents; Registry File, over 23 million substances For 5 major patent offices (EPO, WIPO, Japan, Germany, US) patents are added to the database within 2 days of receipt and fully indexed within 30 days

III. Questions and Comments from the Audience.

Backfiles of ACS journals to be available fulltext?Nothing to announce, but a lot of study is going on.

Are ACS publications to be included in the multi-publisher consortium CROSSREF?

CAS and ACS want to do something in concert. It appears that secondary publishers will be allowed to participate in CROSSREF.

What do you think of the new American Physical Society tiered pricing schedule, with substantial price breaks for small schools?

Bob Bovenschulte responded that there are lots of models for pricing. ACS is considering other options, including something close to the APS model. They hope to have a new pricing structure in place for 2001 subscriptions. An economics consultant has been hired to help with this. About 85% of the cost of publishing

ACS journals is not due to distribution cost of the print.Jack Ochs said that most ACS customers still opt for both print and electronic. One problem with the APS options is that they are linked to Carnegie classifications of the academic institutions, and those are for the US only.Patricia O'Neill commented that one aim of the ACS is to insure that chemistry students are well educated, but their pricing rules out the possibility of small schools having access to the premier literature of chemistry.Bob Massie, in commenting on the problem with small schools, noted that we are in the midst of a transition to the Web. He said that CAS is fully committed to having their resources available at all levels.According to Bob Bovenschulte, most authors, editors, and librarians are unwilling to give up print at this time. However, the ACS Publications Division is ready to stop printing journals (selectively or as a whole) whenever those served say so. They are not trying to extend print beyond the time that their constituencies find it useful. Bob Buntrock stated that institutional subscribers do not have full-text access to C&EN, to which Bob Bovenschulte responded that, "A rich discussion of the topic within ACS has taken place."Grace Baysinger pointed out the problem of some ACS publications being printed on acidic paper. Bob Bovenschulte replied that until a few months ago, Pubs senior management was unaware that some of its journals were being printed on acidic paper. They immediately took action to stop this practice, despite incurring higher costs. The changeover, after the exhaustion of the current paper inventory, will be complete no later than the middle of this year. An apology was offered for the oversight.

Will all of the enhancements to SciFinder also be found in SciFinder Scholar?

In principle CAS will put most of them in SciFinder Scholar.

Kathy Whitley had a question on Medline functionality. Explore goes to CAPlus and Medline.

Ann Bolek noted that Polymer Preprints will be put on the Web, but a decision has not been made as to whether those will be available to libraries.

--Submitted by Gary Wiggins, with thanks to the ACS Publications Division for providing a copy of the Powerpoint presentation used at the 3/27/00 Open Meeting and to both ACS Pubs and CAS for their careful reading of the first draft of these notes.

COMMITTEE REPORTSAWARDS COMMITTEE - report submitted by JoAnne Witiak

The CINF Awards Committee met on Saturday, March 25, 2000 at 8:30am in the Argent Hotel, Commonwealth Room.

Present:Joanne Witiak, Rohm and Haas - chairSusanne Redalje, U. WashingtonP Edlyn Simmons, P&G

Regrets:Leo Clougherty, Univ IowaMs. Erja Kajosalo, MITJanardan Kulkarni, U. Louisville (jmkulk01@gwise.louisville.edu 502-852-7645 (work) )Norman Santora, Consultant, PA

A correction was noted to committee contact information for Jan Kulkarni - email is jmkulk01@gwise.louisville.edu and work phone is 502-852-7645.

Herman Skolnik AwardJuly 1st deadlineAdditional calls for nominations will be made, e.g. cheminf-l, piug, COMP division. JLWA press release to C&E News of 2000 winners after Aug meeting JLW

Lucile Wert Student ScholarshipLeo Clougherty had collected the two nominations and sent materials to the committee. Ms. Susanne Hantos was selected. Joanne will send a congratulatory letter to recipient and to those who wrote letters of recommendation as well as a letter to the other candidate. Both were very good candidates.Joanne will send Mike O’Hara address information so that both applicants receive 1 year free membership to CINF division Joanne will see that arrangements are made for the award to be presented either at Washington or a local section meeting.

Meritorious Service AwardJune 20th deadlinePublicize nomination criteria

Patterson Crane - Ed King2001 Dayton2003 ColumbusEd asked for help publicizing call for nominationsCINF will send representative to participate in the selection process (usually Division Chair)

EDUCATION COMMITTEE - report submitted by Gary Wiggins

The CINF Education Committee welcomed new members Rob McFarland, Mary Ann Mahoney, Guenter Grethe, and Leah Solla to its meeting on March 25, 2000.New members who were unable to attend are Madeline Douglass and Elizabeth Brown.The committee discussed the status of future "Teaching Chemical Information" workshops (to be offered at the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education in Ann Arbor, Michigan and at the ACS National Meeting in Washington this summer).Other topics were potential participation in an NSF grant proposal, development of materials for Beilstein, and new target groups (high school teachers, chemical technicians, non-chemistry-trained librarians, academic chemists, and bench chemists).Arleen Somerville reviewed her interactions with the ACS Committee on Professional Training.Arleen also called for volunteers to update on an annual basis Carol Carr's bibliography on teaching chemical information.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE - report submitted by Andy Berks

May 2000

The CINF program at the San Francisco meeting in March was very successful, and included what is probably the largest turnout ever for a CINF session – 280 people at the Monday afternoon session on ADME/Tox. In fact, all four of the ADME/Tox sessions drew at least 200 people, which is a level of response that we don’t usually get. Osman Güner gets the credit for organizing those excellent sessions. Another excellent session was the CINF contribution to the ACS Millenium Celebration series, titled “Chemical Information in the 21st Century” organized by Bob Snyder. This session featured presentations by Bob Massie of CAS and Pat Jackson of Elsevier that were outstanding. All of the other symposia and sessions in San Francisco were very good and the meeting went very smoothly.

The program for the Washington DC meeting is shaping up nicely. We can look forward to another first class program featuring a program titled “The Future of Chemical Information.” organized by Skolnik awardees Steve Heller and Bill Milne. There will be several symposia that will cover informatic aspects in drug design, including a session on virtual high throughput screening and toxicological information in drug design. A full day symposium will be of special interest to chemistry librarians on challenges of implementing chemical information. There will also be sessions on patent information, federal chemical information sources, copyright, electronic notebooks, and careers in chemical information.

Some other comments:

- The importance of the program committee. The program committee is in many ways the most important committee for a technical division. The technical divisions exist primarily to stage programming at ACS national meetings, and people attend national meetings for the primary purpose of hearing the technical program. So the success of the national meetings depends mainly on the production of a quality program – that is the job of the program committee. I am happy to report that during my tenure as program chair, I’ve had a number of excellent people on the committee that have put together excellent programs in the past few years. Thank you all for your enthusiasm and hard work. Anyone wishing to participate in this worthy cause should come to our meetings. The program committee (and most other committees) meets twice each year on the Saturday morning before each ACS meeting. You will get breakfast and lunch for your trouble if you come.

- We are fighting for LCD projectors. You probably don’t know it, but the LCD projectors that we use in our sessions at the national meetings are an extra cost item billed to the division. Up to now, LCD projectors have not been standard equipment in the meeting rooms. I have taken the position that the projectors are an important item that we should have. Especially considering that the ACS meetings are not inexpensive, our speakers and audience members expect to see LCD projectors in this day and age. The projectors add a more polished environment to the meetings, and I noticed over and over again in San Francisco that the presentations that used projectors were much easier to see than those using overhead projectors or the 35 mm slide projectors. The ACS Committee on Meetings and Expositions (CME) has taken up this issue at my urging and the urging of other divisions, so hopefully LCD projectors will be added as a standard equipment item in the near future. This will probably increase meeting fees by a few dollars, but it will be worth it and it will reduce the financial burden on the divisions.

- Bob Snyder will be the next program chair. My tenure as program chair ends after the Washington DC meeting. Bob Snyder of MDL will be taking over as chair of the Program Committee for the 2001-2002 term.

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE - report submitted by Carol Carr

Attending: Carol Carr, Grace Baysinger, David Flaxbart, Graham Douglas, Patricia O'Neill, and Marge Matthews. Bill Town, Andrea Twiss-Brooks attended part of meeting.

Regrets: Kerryn Brandt, Bartow Culp, Bruce Slutsky (Chair), and Bryan Vickery.

With the exception of Patricia O'Neill, all members of the Publications Committee are new! Because Bruce Slutsky was unable to attend, Carol Carr chaired this meeting. Marge Matthews, CINF Treasurer, came to provide much needed background information for the Committee.

CIB (Chemical Information Bulletin): Issues are published two times a year, before each ACS National Meeting. Information related to the upcoming ACS Meeting (e.g. Abstracts for CINF sessions, CINF social events) is a major focal point of each issue. Congratulations to David Flaxbart, new editor of the CIB, for ramping up quickly to get the Spring 2000 issue out on time. Many thanks to Pat Rosso for her dedication and hard work as Editor of the CIB for six years! Graham Douglas also did a great job getting ads lined up for the Spring issue. In looking ahead, there is interest in getting electronic versions of ads and seeing if the printer can handle a master that is electronic rather than print. There are plans to stay with the current printer and mailing service for now. Invoicing and payment information for CIB subscribers needs to be reviewed to make sure everything is current. Efforts to explore the possibility of making a PDF version of the CIB will be explored.

CINF E-News (CINF Electronic Newsletter): Two issues will be published each year, after each ACS National Meeting. Reports from the National ACS Meetings will be included. Bruce Slutsky is the Editor of the CINF E-News. Bruce has done an excellent job attracting and compiling news for our fledgling electronic newsletter! If sufficient content and staffing resources are available, issues may be published 3-4 times a year. CINF E-News is receiving a healthy number of submissions. The latest issue will continue to be accessible only to members with previous issues freely available to all. Editorial and submission policies as well as possible topics for upcoming issues were discussed.

CINF Membership Directory: Historically, the CINF Membership Directory was issued annually in an administrative issue of the CIB. When revenue from ads decreased, the directory was published every other year. Development has been underway to create an electronic directory using FileMaker Pro. Silvia Lee will maintain the database. However, this past year we learned that CINF membership information belongs jointly to CINF and to the ACS Membership Division. The Committee on Divisional Activities has drafted a policy regarding the creation of membership directories. It is expected that a final version will be completed and presented to the ACS Board for approval before the Fall national meeting this year. The CINF Publications Committee members noted that both print and electronic versions of a CINF membership directory are valuable.

CINF Salary Survey: CINF published salary surveys in 1992 and in 1995. Patricia O'Neill compiled and analzyed the data for both of these surveys. CINF is very fortunate that Pat has volunteered to do the same for an upcoming survey for the Division. A plan was devised to test out a survey on CINF Functionaries this summer and to send it out to CINF members in December. Survey results will be published in summer 2001. The latest survey could be sold separately or as a package with earlier surveys.

REPORT FROM COUNCILBonnie Lawlor & Gary Wiggins, CINF Councilors

Council of the American Chemical Society met on March 29, 2000 during the Spring National Meeting of the Society held in San Francisco, California. The session was relatively short (about three and a half hours) and non-contentious. This report provides some of the highlights of the Council activities. Elections and Nominations for ACS President-Elect and the Committee on Nominations and Elections

Four nominees, Glenn A. Crosby, Eli M. Pearce, John I. Brauman, and Michael P. Doyle, of which two would be elected by Council to run for President-Elect of the Society, presented their campaign statements. The two elected were Glenn A. Crosby and Eli M. Pearce. The election will take place in the Fall.

Four nominees were presented as candidates for the Committee on Nominations and Elections in order to immediately fill two vacancies. The candidates were Tomlinson Forte, Valerie Kuch, Lewis Allen, and Peter A. Christie. The two elected were Valerie Kuch and Peter Christie.

Reports from the ACS President and President-Elect

ACS President, Daryle H. Busch, gave a brief update on his most recent activities. On September 30, 1999 he participated in a reception on Capital Hill for the ACS Public Service Awardee, Dr. Neal Lane, the Science Adviser to President Clinton. In October he gave the dedicatory address at the celebration for the expansion of the chemistry building at Wooster College in Ohio (Wooster rates as the second highest U.S. college from which chemistry graduates go on to the Ph. D. level!). And Dr. Busch has attended many other meetings on behalf of the Society, including the Division Officers Training Conference held in Clearwater Beach, FL in January. It should be noted that Dr. Busch is very interested in the future of scientific publishing and has attended several meetings on this topic. 

ACS President-Elect, Attila E. Pavlath, gave a brief presentation on his goals for the Society. He is very interested in a “bottoms-up” approach to planning and has requested that Divisions, Local Sections, Councilors - indeed, any interested ACS member - contact him with regards to their ideas for the future of ACS and the development of the related Strategic Plan. He specifically wants ACS Divisions and Local Sections to work more closely together as he regards those two units as key to the success of his approach to planning, and has contacted both the Committee on Divisional Activities and the Committee on Local Section Activities to help him in accomplishing this goal. 

ACS Board Extends the ACS Scholars Program

Hank Whalen, Chair of the ACS Board of Directors, reported that the Board has voted to extend the ACS Scholars Program to the year 2005. They will use the $2.1 million remaining from the original $5 million allotted for the program and have added $1.5 million to the pool. In addition, they have removed the $2,500 cap on the amount given to each scholar and empowered the Selection Committee to determine the award amount based upon each individual applicant.

CAS and ACS Publications Continue to Meet Budgeted Revenue Growth

John Crum, ACS Executive Director, reported that CAS electronic revenues are now 80% of CAS’ total revenues, that CAS has experienced revenue growth for seven consecutive years. In addition, the Publications Division exceeded its 1999 budget for revenue and net contribution. All of the ACS journals are now available in electronic form and all citations in the ACS journals are now being linked to the CAS databases. Construction is underway for a new Data Center in Columbus with the objective of significantly improving the efficiency and effectiveness of information delivery. In November 1999 the ACS entered into an agreement with the Japan Science and Technology Organization (JST) to have the Japanese language scientific databases moved to the CAS computer system in Columbus and loaded on the STN platform. Dr. Crum also reported that ACS sold its 50% ownership of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Science back to the founding Society - the American Pharmaceutical Association. Also, a new journal - Nano Letters - was approved for publication beginning in 2001. This paid circulation journals is targeted at scientists in the fields of physical chemistry, materials science, pharmaceutical chemistry, and biotechnology. And finally, it was noted that ACS meetings are getting increased media coverage. The information presented at the 1999 Fall National meeting in New Orleans reached a potential audience of 100 million people!

ACS Dues Will Not Increase in 2001

The Committee on Budget and Finance reported that the ACS will not increase membership dues in 2001 due to the continued financial prosperity of the Society. Indeed, the total Society operations were expected to end 1999 with a net contribution of $5.1 million, primarily due to the revenues provided by CAS and the Publications Division.

Electronic Balloting Test to Continue

The Committee on Nominations and Elections reported that the electronic balloting test currently in progress with the Division of Inorganic Chemistry will continue into its third year. Results to date have shown that use of the Internet for elections did not increase overall participation in the process, but it did result in cost savings and a reduction in the time required

ACS Membership Continues to Grow

The Committee on membership Affairs reported that ACS membership at the end of 1999 had reached 161,001, with a member retention rate of 93.5% - a rate reported to be higher than any other scientific society. The membership goal for the year 2000 is to reach 165,000. The Committee has established a task force to evaluate how ACS can met the needs of its Senior members, and it is developing a tool kit for use by Divisions and Local Sections to assist in member recruitment and retention.

Guidelines for the Creation of Membership Directories in Progress

The Committee on Divisional Activities reported that guidelines for the creation of membership directories have been drafted. It is expected that a final version will be completed and presented to the ACS Board for approval before the Fall national meeting this year. The Committee also expects to have guidelines for the activities of Secretariats within the same time period. It was also reported that the Division of Fertilizer and Soil Chemistry has petitioned for dissolution - the first Division to ever do so. It is expected that the group will become a subdivision within a related Division if an appropriate agreement can be reached.

Chemistry in the 21st Century Celebration a Huge Success

Almost all ACS Divisions and Secretariats participated in the Chemistry in the 21st Century celebration that took place during the ACS meeting in San Francisco, attracting strong media coverage due to the “futuristic” spin on the technical symposia. In addition, the public events that were held on Saturday, March 25th attracted almost two hundred children along with their

teachers and parents and was included in the local TV news coverage that evening. This event was a factor in making the Spring National Meeting the new record for ACS.

San Francisco Meeting Sets New Records for the Society

The Spring national meeting in San Francisco set new records for attendance and for the number of papers presented. As of Tuesday, March 28th, registration had reached 15,454 plus 2,853 exhibitors, giving a total of 18,307. More than 8,200 papers were given during the conference, and 99% of the abstracts were submitted electronically. The exhibit was a great success with 289 companies in 488 booths. It was reported that the exhibits section for the meeting this Fall in Washington, DC is already sold out! For those planning ahead, the 243rd meeting of the Society will be held in San Diego in 2012.

Seven Local Sections Celebrate Major Anniversaries

The Committee on Local Sections Activities (LSAC) reported that seven local sections will celebrate anniversaries this year: 50th Anniversary - Auburn, Central Arkansas, Central North Carolina, mark Twain, and PennOhio; Seventy-fifth 75th Anniversary - North Jersey; and 100th Anniversary - Kansas City. LSAC will be introducing three new awards for Local Sections: Most Innovative Project, Most Progress in Membership Growth, and Strong Support of the ACS Strategic Plan. The ACS Speaker Service is now in its 65th year, and information on 250 speakers is available on the Web.

Three Petitions Presented to Council for Consideration

The Committee on Constitution and Bylaws placed three petitions for consideration before Council:

1. Petition on Graduated Dues - a new dues structure that would give discounts on membership during the first six years within which a chemist is eligible to join ACS. The goal is to attract young chemists early in their career

2. Petition to change the name of geographical areas that are used to elect directors from “regions” to “districts” and change the term “Regional Director” to “District Director”. The goals is to avoid confusion with the use of the term “region” as used for “Regional Meetings” . The geographical areas of those meetings does not coincide with the geographical areas defined for Regional directors

3. A Petition on meeting registration fees that will remove the geographical distinction in defining a nonmember and ensure that all

ACS members, regardless of their area of residence, pay a lower meeting registration fee than nonmembers. All three petitions will be voted on by Council at the Fall Meeting in Washington, DC.

ACS Journal Wins Award

The Committee on Publications reported that The Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry was given honorable mention by the Association of American Publishers in the awards category for the best new journal in science, technology and medicine. The journals was launched by ACS in 1999.

PUBLISHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

BEILSTEIN INFORMATION SYSTEMS

PRESS RELEASE (March 1st, 2000)

Beilstein Informationssysteme GmbH Michael Rai (phone: +49-69-5050 4246; e-mail: mrai@beilstein.com)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Beilstein Informationssysteme Announces First New Update of CrossFire Gmelin

Frankfurt, Germany — Beilstein Informationssysteme GmbH (BIS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Elsevier Science, today announced the first new update of CrossFire Gmelin, providing access to the Gmelin Database of organometallic and inorganic chemistry via the intuitive CrossFire user interface.

As reported in a press release in December 1999, Elsevier Science / MDL Information Systems / BIS signed an agreement with the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) for an exclusive global license for the Gmelin Database. The final approval of the contract was received at the end of December from the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF).

Since then, BIS / GDCh have been working together to meet their joint commitment to fill the current data gap in the database (from 1995 to 1999) within the next four years and to provide recent literature coverage – a

substantial investment of time and resources. The companies expect to almost double the number of Gmelin compounds to over 2 million by 2003.

In 1995, the production of the database was stopped, and in 1997 the Gmelin Institute closed. Since then, BIS has been actively negotiating to maintain the future of the Gmelin Database.

BIS Managing Director Eduard Cohen is therefore very excited about the positive future for Gmelin and states: "We have worked hard to provide the first data update so soon after the completion of the agreement. Our main goal was to relocate and restart the Gmelin production and to set up a quality control system."

BIS has now supplied existing customers with the first new data update since 1997, containing 100,000 new compounds – bringing the complete database to a total of 1,3 million compounds. Cohen comments: "From now on, BIS will ensure regular quarterly data updates. We are fully committed to the enhancement of both content and usage with our emphasis on quality."

Note for the Editors 

Beilstein Informationssysteme GmbH ("Beilstein") and MDL Information Systems ("MDL"), are recognized leaders in discovery informatics for the life science and chemical industries and organic chemical information. Beilstein's CrossFireTM System provides access to the most comprehensive source of chemical information, the Beilstein Database. MDL software, content, and services provide the enterprise framework for identifying successful new products. The companies form an international business with Beilstein headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and MDL headquartered in San Leandro, CA, USA. Both companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Elsevier Science, Inc., and operate under a unified management structure.

Elsevier Science, with its headquarters in the Netherlands, is a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group, with offices in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. It offers databases and electronic library products and publishes approximately 1,200 scientific journals in all major scientific, technical and medical disciplines. Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker e.V. ("GDCh") with its headquarters in Frankfurt, is the largest chemical society in continental Europe, with 28,000 members, half in academia and half in industry. GDCh runs conference and training course programmes and is owner and editor of top scientific journals (e.g. "Angewandte Chemie") and magazines ("Nachrichten aus der Chemie").

CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS SERVICE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMarch 27, 2000

CAS Announces Major SciFinder Innovations While Celebrating Five Years of "Changing the Way Scientists Conduct Research"

COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 27, 2000 - Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) announced plans to introduce revolutionary new capabilities to the SciFinder desktop research tool, while recognizing SciFinder's fifth anniversary at the American Chemical Society (ACS) national meeting in San Francisco this week.

Among the new capabilities planned for release with the "SciFinder 2000" version in the coming months are company name exploration, expanded access to full-text documents in the customer's corporate library, citation linking, reaction searching enhancements and state-of-the-art Exploration tools for datamining and visualization, providing multidimensional graphing and navigation capabilities.

"More than five years ago we set out to 'bring CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS to the chemist's desktop.' With SciFinder, we met that goal and more," said CAS Director Robert J. Massie. "Today, tens of thousands of chemists worldwide can easily access the world's most comprehensive compendium of chemistry-related information, then search, retrieve, analyze and link to key research information on the Web, all from their desktop."

Even before the World Wide Web became a household word, the vision of providing easy, point-and-click access to chemical information inspired the creation of SciFinder in 1995. The new intelligent research tool - a client-server product for the desktop - was an immediate hit with chemists, assisting them and other researchers worldwide with access to the CAS databases. Today, tens of thousands of scientists at major chemical and pharmaceutical companies around the world use SciFinder regularly to explore research topics, browse scientific journals and stay up-to-date on recent scientific developments. SciFinder places information ranging from chemical structures to chemistry-related literature at the fingertips of scientists with little or no training in information retrieval.

"CAS developed SciFinder with the goal of revolutionizing the way scientists conduct research," said Suzan Brown, director of marketing at CAS. "Over the past five years, our studies clearly confirm scientists' use of SciFinder has led to productivity gains and improved creativity in the research process."

SciFinder provides three pathways to knowledge. Users can explore information using conversational phrases or chemical names or authors. SciFinder also permits exploring by the molecular structure of a substance or even searching for reactions. SciFinder also allows the scientist to browse through the tables of contents of more than 1,900 key scientific journals. Finally, users can request that SciFinder monitor new literature on a given topic and alert them to the latest publications.

Highlights of SciFinder's development over the past five years include:

1995 - winning an award as "best new science/technology service" in the Information Industry Association's HotShots competition1996 - winning R & D 100 honors as "one of the 100 most technologically significant new products of the year"1997 - creating a Substructure Module, providing unparalleled substructure access to the CAS REGISTRY database1998 - introducing SciFinder Scholar, a product using SciFinder technology especially designed for campus-wide access1998 - garnering a second R & D 100 award for the Substructure Module1999 - introducing the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database2000 - growing use of SciFinder Scholar by more than 50,000 students at top research universities

With each enhancement of SciFinder, CAS has remained dedicated to maintaining an intuitive search interaction. SciFinder's power is behind the scenes, allowing the user simply to ask questions and rely on SciFinder to guide them to the answers.

Eric Shively CAS eshively@cas.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 27, 2000

CAS Will Provide Online Access to Millions of Substances from Combinatorial Libraries

CAS REGISTRY and CHEMCATS Databases will be Enriched with Compounds Identified for Drug Development Potential

COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 27, 2000 - CAS has begun adding a wealth of substance information from combinatorial libraries to the CAS REGISTRY database and will make an initial set of 200,000 compounds of biological and pharmacological interest searchable in the CHEMCATS database of

commercially available chemicals, along with supplier information. CAS announced the enhancement during the American Chemical Society (ACS) national meeting held in San Francisco this week.

Substances called "screening compounds" are synthesized in large quantities in combinatorial libraries and then screened--or tested--for desired biological or pharmacological properties. The substances are of interest to pharmaceutical companies as potentially valuable sources of new drugs. CAS has announced they will make this new substance information available for online access in two steps: 1) in April CAS will begin adding approximately 200,000 screening compounds to the CHEMCATS file of commercially available substances; these are substances already registered by CAS and newly identified as screening compounds through a search of the CAS REGISTRY; 2) over the next few years, CAS will add millions of additional screening compounds to CAS REGISTRY and CHEMCATS, including new substances that will be assigned CAS Registry Numbers.

"We are making the benefits of combinatorial libraries and high throughput screening available to a wider audience of researchers," said Robert L. Swann, CAS Director of Research, Information Systems, and New Product Development. "Being able to search this large new collection of substances by structure through our STN and SciFinder services has the potential to significantly speed drug development, to the benefit of everyone."

Substance information has long been a special strength of CAS, which indexes all substances reported in chemistry-related patents and literature and assigns each a unique CAS Chemical Registry Number for reliable identification without the ambiguity of chemical nomenclature. The newly added screening compounds in the CAS REGISTRY and CHEMCATS databases will be available for searching through all CAS electronic services including STN Express with Discover, STN Easy, STN on the Web, SciFinder, and SciFinder Scholar.

Suppliers interested in having CHEMCATS list their information on commercially available chemicals can send an inquiry by email to chemcats@cas.org.

Eric Shively CAS eshively@cas.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 27, 2000

CAS Introduces Citations, Further Expands Linking Capability of CAS Databases

20 Million Citations Will Become Available In April 2000

COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 27, 2000 - Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) now will include citations in CAS databases in SciFinder and the STN International network, greatly increasing researchers' ability to follow online research pathways from database records, to full-text documents, to the related documents they cite. CAS made the announcement at the national American Chemical Society meeting held this week in San Francisco.

"We've taken the next logical step and moved the world's leading archive of chemical information to another level," said Matthew J. Toussant, CAS Director of Editorial Operations. "Now, after identifying the published research they need among millions of journal and patent records in our databases, researchers can continue to follow the research pathway and examine the other articles and patents cited in the original documents."

In April, CAS will make approximately 20 million citations available online from articles in thousands of the most significant chemistry-related journals plus patents from the European, German, US and World patent offices, starting from 1999. Users retrieving a bibliographic record in the CA or CAplus file will see cited references in a separate "reference" field that identifies the document's author, publication reference, and, if available, a link to the complete database record in the CAS files on STN. Unlike any other scientific database, CAS files will include citations that appeared in patents as well as journal articles. Where possible, database records are linked to the full text of the cited document, giving the researcher a more complete picture of the research topic he or she is exploring.

The full-text links that appear in CAS databases are provided through ChemPort, a feature incorporated into all CAS electronic search service interfaces, including STN Express, STN Easy, STN on the Web, SciFinder, SciFinder Scholar and CA on CD. A researcher who uses any of these services can link from database records to the full-text documents on the Web sites of participating journal publishers or patent offices for no additional charge from CAS. A list of those participating in ChemPort is available at http://www.chemport.org/.

Eric Shively CAS eshively@cas.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 27, 2000

Contact: Eric Shively CAS 614-447-3847 http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/cinf/enews/eshively@cas.org

CAS Triples Number of Electronic Journal Links Offered Through ChemPort; SciTech Journals Now Approach 1,900

American Physical Society, Institute of Physics and EBSCO Journals Join Growing Digital Research Environment

COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 27, 2000 - Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) announced several new developments - strengthening the ChemPort feature's position as the largest collection of operational links from scientific database records to full-text journal articles and patents on the web - at the American Chemical Society (ACS) national meeting in San Francisco this week.

With the newly added publications from major publishers - the American Physical Society and Institute of Physics - along with EBSCO, a leading subscription service, ChemPort connects users of CAS information products to a total of 1,887 journals on the Web. Records in CAS databases and others on the STN International network are linked to the associated full-text journal articles plus patents.

"ChemPort offers our customers an unparalleled variety of access paths to full-text documents with links to publisher and patent office web sites, the customer's own holdings, and now subscription agents," said ChemPort manager Eileen Shanbrom. "By collaborating with multiple information industry participants, CAS is building a unique and rich digital research environment."

This spring, CAS will add citations to CA and CAplus, giving STN users the unique capability to link to the full-text of documents cited in both journal literature and patents that have a matching CAS abstract.

CAS regularly adds more full-text, research pathways to the network. EBSCO subscribers who are CAS and STN customers now have access to a new icon that allows them to view electronic articles from the 82

publishers served by EBSCO. An automatic authentication feature makes full-text access very fast and convenient for EBSCO customers.

The ChemPort Connection link is incorporated into all CAS electronic search service interfaces, including STN Express, STN Easy, STN on the Web, SciFinder, SciFinder Scholar and CA on CD. A researcher using any of these services can link from database records to the full-text documents on the web sites of participating journal publishers or patent offices for no additional charge. A list of those participating in ChemPort is available at http://www.chemport.org/.

Eric Shively CAS eshively@cas.org

CHEMWEB - submitted by Bryan Vickery

The Alchemist is an electronic magazine available through ChemWeb. There are various news articles reporting from the CINF-CSA sessions.If not, the URLs are:

Chemical Information and E-commerce (1)http://chemweb.com/alchem/2000/ecommerce/ec_000331_cheminf1.html Chemical Information and E-commerce (2) http://chemweb.com/alchem/2000/ecommerce/ec_000403_cheminf2.html 

Also there were these articles of interest:

Leave Us Alone The message from scientific publishers was clear. Government intervention in the field of journals and databases is not only unwelcome, but possibly unconstitutional too. This was one of many fascinating topics discussed as part of the popular CINF session at the ACS Spring Meeting in San Francisco this week. http://chemweb.com/alchem/2000/news/nw_000331_publish.htmlIUPAC Chemical Identifier Project The IUPAC Strategy Round Table will study the feasibility of creating an IUPAC chemical identifier (IChI). An ad hoc Committee on Chemical Identity and Nomenclature Systems has been set up to provide the long-term central planning, management and coordination of chemical nomenclature currently carried out by four nomenclature Commissions (to be discontinued at the end of 2001). http://chemweb.com/alchem/2000/news/nw_000407_iupac.html

Our big piece of news at ChemWeb.com, which we think effects the entire community was the launch of the preprint server: http://chemweb.com/home/prpages/pre_print_server.html 

30 YEAR MEMBERS OF CINFSubmitted by Michael O'Hara

Congratulations to the following who have been members of the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Information for at least 30 years:

Harry Anspon Dale B. Baker Edward Bartkus R. O. Beauchamp Peter Bernays Howard Bonnett Carlos Bowman Carter Nelson Brown Elizabeth Brown Mary Frances Brown Bob Buntrock Lynn Campo Walter Carlson Leonard Chandler Robert Chodosch Joseph H. Clark Carleton Conrad Alfred Cottrell James Cretsos Estraleta Dale 

Kathryn Donovan Judith Douville Eleanor Elder Dorothy Eska Ann Farren Henry Fischbach Hannah Friedenstein Herbert Friedman Mary Gall Eugene Garfield Helen Ginsberg Eric Goldschmidt Charles Granito W. Heinlen Hall Elizabeth Hardy Jacqueline Hayman Madeline Henderson Melvin Huber Ray Ihndris Stuart Kaback 

Henry Kissman Judith Leondar Dorothy Lesh Frances Libbey Kurt Loening Robert Maizell Jean Marcali Martin John Marcus Carl Merhar Judd Nevenzel John Opem Anthony Petrarca William Phillips Abby Pierce Bert Ramsay Mary Reslock Sarah Rhodes Ronald Richardson George Ryerson Betty Marie Sandborn 

Joan Schectman Rena Schonbrun Nick Semenuk Annamae Sheridan Herbert Siegel Marlene Slifka Elbert Smith Arleen Somerville Melvin Spann Leonard Spialter Dimitri Stein Frances Stewart Robert Stobaugh Nora Tamberg James Tchobanoff Heinz Turowski James Van Oot Siegfried Wahrman Charles Watson Marian Wickline 

CAREERS COLUMNThe CINF's mentor program: a pathway for professional development.

Svetlana Korolev of Wayne State University

"I do not propose to write an ode…, but as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only wake my neighbors up." --H. Thoreau

“The social and historical analysis of science poses no threat … about the existence of an accessible "Real world" that we have actually managed to understand with increasing efficacy, thus validating the claim that science, in some meaningful sense, "progresses." (Gould, 2000). To be able to contribute to the “progresses” librarians need to acquire knowledge and make some professional establishments. Science librarianship is a career

with the foundation in subject education, literature organization and continuing learning. As a new science librarian I would like to know about the professional culture, expectations and opportunities for advancements. Could the career growth be compared with the "informatics" pyramid: Data, Information, Knowledge, Knowledge communicated? Is the professional development a series of cycles or a strait line? To know the experts' views I would like to provoke the discussion on the having "CINF's mentor program." It will be committed to help new members to become distinctive contributors to the profession. The pathway will be taken in the enlightened and supportive environment under the guidance of the experienced counselors. It will help to know your "heroes." The program may have the analogy with one of the library’s current goals - relationship marketing, which consists of “the applications of up-to-date knowledge of an individual in order to develop a continuous and long- term relationship, which is mutually beneficial.” (Besant & Sharp, 2000).

STRATEGIES FOR CAREER GROWTH

The Special Library Association issued the “Competencies for special librarians of the 21st century.” This document serves as a basis for establishing personal professional goals – your starting keys for success and own mentors.

The career growth recommendations are summarized (Storm & Wei Wei, 1994):

1. Keep abreast by browsing journals: Online, Library HiTech and the Journal of the American Association of Information Science

2. Network not only with other librarians, but with professionals from other disciplines

3. Attend and submit of papers for presentation at the annual conferences of scientific associations

4. Network via electronic discussion forms on the Internet5. Pursue new opportunities in computer training.

The valuable survey results of chemistry librarians about the professional development sources and time spent each week are published (Hooper-Lane 1999): 

1. The electronic discussion lists: CHMINF-L, STS -L, PAMnet (an hour and fourteen)

2. Personal contacts with scientists/faculty (69 minutes )3. Browsing/reading the science journals (56 minutes). Titles are:

ScienceChemical & Engineering News

NatureScientific AmericanJournal of Chemical EducationJACSNew ScientistAmerican ScientistScience NewsJournal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences

4. World Wide web resources (55 minutes), for example, ChemWeb and ChemCenter

5. Taking classes or attending lectures (13 minutes).

SLA Annual, Database Workshops, ACS National meetings were mentioned as forums to attend.

CINF'S MENTOR PROGRAM ISSUES

1. Library and Information Science programs don't prepare students well for career as science librarians (Slutsky, 1991).

2. Having scientific background in essential, but the skills are crucial to the success of the sci/tech librarian (Storm & Wei Wei, 1994)

3. Knowledge should be built up actively inside the learner's mind through a wide range of techniques and sequences - stated by the constructivism theory (Herron, 1999)

4. Sources for advise may come from many directions and an immediate supervisor may not be the right person to ask comfortably. Librarians need to identify the value and smooth the barriers and challenges of the profession. (Field & Mosenkis, 1992).

BENEFITS

This information/sharing program will help new members to define the professional goals, sequence the strategies and exploit new opportunities to extend the field of knowledge. "Complexity versus chaos"- is a motto. Showing your versatility is extremely important, but it should be expanding in the "right" direction. A committee may initiate a plan with a list of objectives or research projects, match people willing to learn and evaluate the career path according the emerging technologies and new trends with whose to inspire, communicate educationally, provide evidence and stimuli. Mark Twain said: "Even if you're on the right track, you will get run over if you don't keep moving. " The mentor program could be conducted virtually in an electronic form, but seeing a wide range of work settings will be beneficial. Networking is extremely important to science librarians and difficult to start for new members. The program will support connections through the professional organization and allow compare with experienced colleagues, who are the context of the profession and insights of the

organizational culture, "which defines our uniqueness and explains where we come from in developing the professional competencies.” (DiMattia, 2000). This "ritual" program will provide cooperative spirit and peer encouragement to strengthen and prosper the science librarianship for the future.

CONCLUSION

Confucius stated: ”To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” Would the CINF’s experts agree with Thoreau: "what a man thinks of himself, that determines, or rather indicates, his fate…our own private opinion is a tyrant“ or with Keve: "every one needs a mentor, who… can hold up a mirror of us?"

Literature Cited: 

1. Besant, L & Sharp, D. (2000). Upsize This! Libraries Need Relationship Marketing, Information Outlook, 2000, March, 17-33.

2. "Competencies for special librarians of the 21st centure." Available online at: http://www.sla.org/professional/comp.html

3. DiMattia, S. Culture and Storytelling: Another Line in the Value Proposition (2000). Information Outlook, March, 5.

4. Field, J & Mosenkis, S. (1992). Mentors or management buddies. Library Management Quaterly, 15(4), 5-7.

5. Gould, S. (2000). Desconstructing the "Science Wars" by reconstructing and Old Mold. Science, 287, 253-261.

6. Herron, J & Nurrenbern, S. (1999). Improving chemistry learning. Journal of Chemical Education, 76 (10), 1354-1361.

7. Hooper-Lane, C. (1999). Spotlight on the subject knowledge of chemistry librarians: results of a survey. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, Summer. Available online at: http://www.library.%20ucsb.edu/istl/99-summer/article1.html

8. Slutsky, B. (1991). How to avoid anxiety among science librarians. Science & Technology Libraries, 12(1), 11-19.

9. Storm, P & Wei Wei (1994). Issues related to the education and recruitment of science/technology librarians. Science & Technology Libraries, 14 (3), 35-41.

10. Thoreau, H. (1962). Walden and other writings. NY: Bantam books.

CHEMISTRY SITE SEEINGSubmitted by Steve Rosenthal

Solvent Handbook Database System

The Solvent Handbook Database System (SHDS) was developed as an efficient, easily accessible, electronic solvent utilization handbook. A solvent evaluation methodology was developed for the SHDS program and is outlined below:

Identify solvents (alternatives) that are not currently restricted by government regulations for use at DOE-DP facilities, DOD facilities, and private industry, evaluate their cleaning performance, evaluate their corrosivity, evaluate their air emissions, evaluate the possibility of recycling or recovering all or portions of the alternative degreasers, test substitute solvents compatibility with non-metallic materials, input all of the data gathered (including previous biodegradability information) into a database, and develop a mechanism for efficient, widespread access to the database information system.

http://wastenot.inel.gov/shds

Solvent Database

This Solvent database was developed by the National Center Manufacturing Sciences.

The Lookup Page is the nerve center of a SOLV-DB search. The buttons on this page allow you to select the search mode.

Click on one of the first four buttons if you are looking for detailed information on a specific solvent and know either: the Name of the solvent, or the Chemical Abstracts Number of the solvent, or the Sax Number of the solvent, or the Chemical Formula of the solvent If you do not find the name of the solvent in the main list, click on the "Select by Synonym" button to see if it is listed in the databaseunder another name. Click on the button marked "Select By Chemical Category" if you want to find all solvents in the database falling into a particular chemical family (ketones, aromatic hydrocarbons, CFCs, etc.) Click on the button marked "Select By Property Range" if you want to find all solvents in the database satisfying a set of criteria. This is the workhorse search tool for such tasks as finding solvents whose boiling points lie within a certain range, etc. Click on the button marked "Select By Matching Text" if you want to find all solvents in the database whose text descriptions contain a character string that you can specify. You can do some unexpectedly neat searches with this feature.

You can get to the Lookup Page from most other pages in SOLV-DB by clicking on the SOLV-DB logo on the upper right of the page, or on the "Lookup Page" button at the foot of each page.

http://solvdb.ncms.org/solv01.htm

MatWeb, The Online Materials Information Resource

MatWeb, the FREE materials information database with property data on 19,450 materials including metals, plastics, ceramics, and composites. MatWeb's database includes thermoplastic and thermoset polymers such as ABS, nylon, polycarbonate, polyester, and polyolefins; metals such as aluminum, cobalt, copper, lead, magnesium, nickel, steel, superalloys, titanium and zinc alloys; ceramics; plus a growing list of semiconductors, fibers, and other engineering materials.

You can use their Quick Search by material name or search by material type, trade name, manufacturer, and property.

http://www.matweb.com/

The Phase Diagram Web

A free web site provided by the Georgia Tech Student Chapter of ASM/TMS showing binary elemental phase diagrams and links to prediction software and other related sites.

http://cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/asm_tms/phase_diagrams/

Science Cataloging Internet Resources

Contains current awareness Internet resources to aid science catalogers in keeping up to date with science news and research, science and technology librarianship, and current Internet resources in science and technology.

http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~spell/scicat.html

About.com - Composites Materials Guide:

The Composite Materials Guide, with About.com guide Barry Berenberg, provides categorized links to composites sites, original feature articles, a bulletin board, a chat room, daily news headlines, and job listings.

http://composite.about.com/industry/composite/mbody.htm?COB=home&PID=2770&PM=61_909_T

GEOSTANDARDS NEWSLETTER

The Journal of Geostandards and Geoanalysis The Official Journal of the International Association of Geoanalysts

Geostandards Newsletter: The Journal of Geostandards and Geoanalysis, is an international journal dedicated to advancing the science of reference materials, analytical techniques and data quality relevant to the chemical analysis of geological samples.

http://www.geostandards.lanl.gov/

Michael Barker submitted the following site: http://www.liv.ac.uk/Chemistry/Links/links.html This includes over 7500 links that may be useful to chemists. 

INTERNATIONAL PATENT INFORMATION AWARDSubmitted by Trudi Jones

PATENT INFORMATION INDUSTRY SALUTES MONTY HYAMS

Mr. Montagu Hyams, entrepreneur and founder of Derwent Information, is to be honored as the first ever recipient of the 'International Patent Information (IPI) Award'.

The news was heard this week by almost 240 information professionals attending the Patent Information Users Group (PIUG) Annual Conference in Arlington, Virginia. Mr. Jeffrey Forman, Information Services Manager of Intellectual Property Law, IBM, and representative of the international Selection Board responsible for reviewing the nominations, praised the achievements of Mr. Hyams and his unique vision in shaping patent retrieval systems. A live telephone connection linked Mr. Hyams with the conference from his London home.

Mr. Hyams was born in 1918 and, after qualifying as a chemist, served for a few years as a patent agent's assistant. In 1951 he left to start up on his own, publishing British Patents Report from his house in London called Derwent. The first real breakthrough was in 1955 with Belgian Patents Report. Following a move to larger premises, a number of patent documentation services were then started, culminating in the Derwent flagship 'World Patents Index', established in 1974 as a fully indexed online database. This is today the world's largest value-added patent resource. Mr. Hyams eventually sold Derwent to Thomson, but remains its Life President.

Since 1985 he has been producing new publications from the ASLIB offices in London, including 'Index to Theses', the UK equivalent to 'Dissertation Abstracts'. He is a past recipient of the CAS Herman Skolnik Award and of the NFAIS Miles Conrad Award.

Monty Hyams says: "I am naturally very honoured to be the first recipient of this Award which is a tribute not only to me personally, but also to all those at Derwent who helped to develop the company into the world leader in patent documentation service provision."

The International Patent Information Award is aimed at recognizing individual contributions towards the advancement of patent information, the patent information profession, and to the patent world in general. The IPI Award is sponsored by Technology & Patent Research (TPR) International Inc., and is directed by a Board of eminent patent information industry professionals representing Europe, the United States and Japan.

The IPI Award, consisting of a plaque and an honorarium of $2500, will be presented to Mr. Hyams by the Chairman of the Selection Board, Dr. Ian Sinclair, Head of Information Resources, Pfizer, UK, at a ceremony to be held in Europe later this year.

AMERICAN INVENTORS PROTECTION ACT OF 1999Submitted by David Saari

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently published in the Federal Register a series of proposed rules to implement provisions of the "American Inventors Protection Act of 1999." Please visit the PTO web site for links to the specific announcements: http://www.uspto.gov/

From an information user's point of view, I don't see any major problems with the 18-month publication proposed rule (65FR66:17946-17971, 5 Apr 2000). The Office plans to make published applications available to the public in an electronic format and individual copies on paper (see last paragraph on page 17950).

Someone who is more familiar with day-to-day patent transactions should take a look at the details. The publication requirements seem reasonable to me (and not all that different from what applicants are expected to be doing now anyway). I can't comment on the other details.

The XML approach to electronic filing should meet the needs of all but the most technologically challenged applicants. >From an information management point of view, I believe XML is the right approach to take.

Comments on the proposed 18-month publication rule must be submitted by 22 May 2000. See the FR notice for details on how to submit comments.

REPORT FROM THE PHARMA DOCUMENTATION SPECIAL MEETING ON LINKING

PDR Special Linking Meeting March 2000 - Press Release 

The Pharma Documentation Ring (PDR) held a Special Meeting on Linking on the 30-31st March 2000 in Runnymede, UK. Linking is a powerful capability that has emerged from the increased opportunities for R&D scientists to navigate from records in secondary databases of the patent scientific and medical literature directly to the corresponding full text electronic articles at the click of a mouse. The PDR is an association whose members represent the scientific information departments of the leading R&D-based pharmaceutical corporations. The meeting was attended by a total of 52 delegates, 36 of whom were from 21 different PDR member companies, and 16 from invited publishers, on-line information providers and scientific software suppliers.

Henning Nielsen, Novo Nordisk, reported on the progress of the PDR/STM Working Group on the development of a model licence for electronic journals and then summarised the user requirements for linking from the perspective of the R&D scientists within PDR member companies. He identified and prioritised a number of different types of link that users required. The need for standards was stressed as well as increased levels of co-operation amongst publishers, intermediaries, aggregators and customers of their services.

Steve Young, MDL, summarised the current status of linking technology. He reported that linking had already evolved through three discrete technology generations. The differences between static and dynamic links was highlighted, followed by a discussion of some of the outstanding issues, including the observation that the technology was developing at such a pace that businesses were finding it difficult to evolve new ways of working and new business models fast enough.

Speakers from CAS, Elsevier, ISI, MDL, and OVID, described their linking strategies and how linking had been successfully incorporated into their

products. In a number of cases, the linking strategies originally adopted had already been superseded by more comprehensive linking approaches in their most recent product releases.

David Sommer (Blackwell Science) described the CrossRef initiative which was launched in October last year. This collaborative venture aims to deliver a direct link from reference citations in published articles to the on-line content. In some cases, the link will be to the publisher’s abstract, whilst in others it will be to the full text of the article. Currently, 24 leading STM Publishers are participating in Crossref (http://www.crossref.org/) and the first release of the product is scheduled for mid-April 2000, with a total of 3 million articles.

Arnoud de Kemp (Springer), Maurice Long (BMJ), and Vitek Tracz and Ian Tarr (both Current Science) discussed the revolutions that were taking place in publishing both in terms of the impact of new technology, including the further development of multimedia and visualisation techniques, together with the introduction of new approaches to scientific and medical publishing, including the innovative Biomed and Pubmed Central initiatives.

The meeting was concluded by a panel session in which all participants could question the conference speakers. During this session, it was agreed that the PDR should approach the STM Publishers, with a view to establishing a joint PDR/STM Linking Technology Work Group to help further develop this technology and to help ensure it meets the actual needs of information users.

The meeting, which was organised by a small sub-group of the PDR and hosted by Glaxo-Wellcome, was judged by all attendees to have been very useful and worthwhile. This was due to the high quality and relevance of all the presentations, the excellent facilities of the conference venue, and the thorough preparations of the organising committee and host.

The 42nd Annual General Meeting of the PDR will be held on 27th Sept. - 29th September 2000 in Cheshire, England and will be hosted by AstraZeneca.

The PDR web site, launched in 1999, can be found at http://www.p-d-r.com/.

THE AUTONOM STORYby Michael Rai

AutoNom (Automatic Nomenclature) was the first program, worldwide, which could automatically translate chemical diagrams into systematic IUPAC names. The program was primarily designed and programmed by a computer scientist Dr Janusz L. Wisniewski with the full consultation of our nomenclature specialist Dr Libuse Goebels and the support of the Beilstein team.

It all started on:

Wednesday, 21 January 1987 approx. 10.30 a.m, Sandy Lawson’s office on the tenth floor of the Carl-Bosch-Haus, Beilstein Institute, Frankfurt/Main, Germany:

Sandy Lawson (Technical Director in R & D at Beilstein Information in Frankfurt/M) meets Janusz L. Wisniewski (currently Senior Software Developer) and while handing him the IUPAC Blue Book containing the rules of Organic Nomenclature says: “Implement this book, don’t talk to chemists too much, simply program it.”

To put this task into perspective, we were in the “prehistoric” times of IBM ATs with DOS and 8 MB of RAM, of which only 640kB was addressable. You were considered really lucky if the PCs had 40MB hard disk space but the average person had only 20MB.

The enormity of the task was made even greater by the fact nothing had been previously programmed, in the area of computer assisted nomenclature. What did exist was a single publication by Isenberg et al., 1981, (all CAS co-workers) in JCICS describing plans of such a system for application at registration of the substances in Chemical Abstracts Service. Saturday, March 18, 1989, a few minutes before midnight, Wisniewski’s office on the eight floor the Carl-Bosch-Haus, Beilstein Institute, Frankfurt/Main, Germany:

First prototype of the alpha Version 0.1 Build 1188 is launched on IBM IT in Wisniewski’s office. The first name generated by AutoNom was:

1,4,5,6-cetrahydro-pyrimidin-2-ylamine

The “c” in cetrahydro (should be “tetrahydro” obviously) was the very first official bug in the AutoNom softwareMonday, December 18, 1989, International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A. December 17-22, 1989:

First public international presentation of the AutoNom software. First discussion on the type of nomenclature supported by AutoNom (AutoNom supports IUPAC nomenclature in a Beilstein dialect). During the discussion Wisniewski was using, for the first time, the famous “AutoNom proverb”:

“The man with one watch knows what time it is, the man with two watches is never sure.” - Anonymous -

January 1990, Beilstein Institute, Frankfurt/Main, Germany:

AutoNom becomes an official tool in the Nomenclature Department of the Beilstein Institute. Note: AutoNom has named over 6 million compounds of the Beilstein databaseSeptember 1990, Washington DC., U.S.A.:

First publication on AutoNom system: J.L. Wisniewski, AUTONOM: System for Computer Translation of Structural Diagrams into IUPAC-Compatible Names. 1. General Design, Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences, 1990, 30, 324-332.

AutoNom Graduate (as invented by Libuse Goebels) is named for the first time:January 1991, Springer Verlag Heidelberg and Beilstein Institute, Frankfurt/Main, Germany:

Release of AutoNom: “AutoNom for Systematic Names in Organic Chemistry Version 1.0 for IBM PC“; DOS VersionJanuary 1991, Washington DC., U.S.A.:

Second publication on AutoNom system: L.Goebels, A.J. Lawson, J.L. Wisniewski, AUTONOM: System for Computer Translation of Structural Diagrams into IUPAC-Compatible Names. 2. Nomenclature of Chains and Rings, Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences, 1991, 31, 216-225.October 1993, Springer Verlag Heidelberg and Beilstein Institute, Frankfurt/Main, Germany:

Release of a batch version of AutoNom: “Batch AutoNom for Systematic Names in Organic Chemistry Version 1.0 for VAX and IBM PC”.Februray 1994, Beilstein Informationssysteme GmbH, Frankfurt/Main, Germany:

Release of AutoNom Version 1.1 for DOS VersionFebruray 1995, Beilstein Informationssysteme GmbH, Frankfurt/Main, Germany:

Release of AutoNom Version 2.0 for Windows 3.11 under Beilstein CommanderNovember 1995, Beilstein Informationssysteme GmbH, Frankfurt/Main, Germany:

Release of AutoNom Version 2.0 for Macintosh under Beilstein CommanderApril 1997, Beilstein Informationssysteme GmbH, Frankfurt/Main, Germany:

Release of AutoNom Version 2.1 for Windows and Macintosh under Beilstein CommanderMarch 1998, Beilstein Informationssysteme GmbH, Frankfurt/Main, Germany:

Integration of AutoNom 2.1 (Windows and Macintosh) with the MDL’s ISIS/Draw structure editor (the AutoNom Engine was born)October 1998, Beilstein Informationssysteme GmbH and CambridgeSoft corporation.

Signed an agreement for the inclusion of AutoNom 2.1 with all copies of

ChemOffice UltraDecember 1998, ONLINE Meeting London, UK:

Premiere of AutoNom with stereo-chemical features: Version 4.0 (AutoNom under Beilstein Commander and as AutoNom Engine with ISIS/Draw under Windows and on Macintosh)March 1999, Beilstein Informationssysteme GmbH, Frankfurt/Main, Germany:

Release of stereo-chemical AutoNom: Version 4.0 for Windows and Macintosh and as batch for Windows and VAX under OpenVMS.March 2000, Beilstein Informationssysteme GmbH, Frankfurt/Main, Germany:

AutoNom 4.1 as DLL for Windows: easily integratable with a third party software e.g. in structure registry systems for corporate databases.

April 2000, Beilstein Informationssysteme GmbH, Frankfurt/Main, Germany: 

Beilstein announces the first free naming capability via the World Wide Web with full functionality and unrestricted access to AutoNom 2.1 on ChemWeb http://www.chemweb.com/

Our goal is to allow complete unrestricted access to AutoNom for both industry and academics on a global scale so that all people can benefit from the advances we have made in providing IUPAC names to structures.

Happy naming!

For further details please contact

Michael Rai Product Managementmrai@beilstein.com