As of Monday, February 11, members of the Penn community have a choice of interface to use with SciFinder Scholar, the largest databases in the chemical sciences. In addition to the traditional client-server interface, Chemical Abstracts Service has added a Web interface, which should facilitate off-campus use of the database.

Advantages to using SciFinder on the Web are:

• No client or plug-in installation needed
• Easy off-campus access for both PC and Mac computers using E-ZProxy, the regular Penn proxy system
• Fewer clicks needed to do basic analysis and refinements of search results
• Easy to click through to substances or reactions referenced in a particular paper
• Ability to save answer sets to the CAS server and access them from any computer, anywhere
• Ability to set up an e-mail alert for topic, author, structure, or reaction searches, so that you are notified when new information is added to the database

Advantages to using the SciFinder Scholar 2007 client are:

• Slightly faster response times, especially for structure and reaction searching
• More sophisticated substructure tools
• Click on substances in all modules (reference, reaction, structure) for more information
• Save and combine answer sets
• Export commercial suppliers to Microsoft Excel
• Remove duplicates of references that appear in both the Chemical Abstracts and MEDLINE databases
• More sophisticated analysis tools

In order to use the Web interface, it is necessary to register for a SciFinder Web account, using your name and Penn e-mail address. This account will give you space on the CAS server and inform the system to which address to send your Keep Me Posted results. To register for or use your Web account or to download the most recent PC and Mac clients, please visit http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/7033.

For more information:
contact Judith Currano, Penn's Key Contact for SciFinder Scholar