When you want to start to search for information, you start by asking yourself some questions:

• If you're just browsing, start anywhere by pointing the arrow to any of the colored and underlined text called hyperlinks. These are active links to other Web sites. Or, you can point and click on the Net Search button which will take you to one of the Internet search engines. Place the arrow in the box, press the left mouse key and type in your idea. Browsing is a great way to discover new information. If you want more practice on searching and/or additional information on the World Wide Web (WWW), look at any of these Web tutorials:

Learning to use the World Wide Web, Ithaca College Library.

The Best of the Internet Tutorials

Exploring the World Wide Web

• If you want to find current information, future trends, or engineering applications about a topic, a good starting point is OhioLINK's Research Databases.

There are lots of choices of where to begin:

If you want competitive analysis, costs, market trends, commercial applications, then click on the Business category and select, ABI/Inform Global, one of the premier business research tools, covering all aspects of business and marketing from 1971 to date.

More that 800 journals covered in ABI/Index Global ; some which are :

Chemical & Engineering News
Chemical Business
Chemical Engineering
Chemical Marketing Reporter
Chemical Week

You may search ABI/Inform by any of the following:

article author
periodical title
article title
company name
words in article title, subject, or company name


(This is the most common starting point.)

Or,

If you want to look at technological advances and engineering applications for your idea, click on Science and Technology and then select Applied Science and Technology Index which covers articles in more than 400 engineering, science, and technology journals since 1983. [http://www.ohiolink.edu/cgi-bin/iiihelp/asti?1] It provides subject access to all the major fields of engineering including the fields of chemistry and chemical engineering.

Like ABI/Inform Global, you can search by:

article author periodical title
article title
company name
words in article title, subject, or company name


(This is the most common starting point.)

There will be some duplication of coverage among journals BUT you will want to search this electronic file ALSO BECAUSE the focus of the journals will be different than the focus in the business database, ABI/Inform Global. AND, there will be journal covered in this file that ARE NOT covered in ABI/Inform Global.

Or,

If you want to look at engineering research, then you will want to choose within the Science and Technology subject category, select Compendex which has worldwide engineering research, conferences, journal articles, research and applications.

Compendex covers worldwide journal and conference literature for engineering and related technical disciplines. Over 2200 titles are available to be search

Compendex has a different search engine (Ovid) than you found in both of Applied Science and Technology Index (III) and ABI/Inform Global (III).

You may select other years of coverage than the 1980 to present. If this is your choice, click on the SEGMENT that best fits your search. The system defaults to 1980 to present.

If you want to change from a KEYWORD search to a SUBJECT or AUTHOR or JOURNAL TITLE search, you must select the appropriate icon from the top of the home page.

If you want to perform a KEYWORD search, place the arrow in the box and type in your topic. Click on the PERFORM SEARCH to see your results.

Compendex allows a high degree of sophistication for searching and retrieving information. Very specific fields can be search independently. The BASIC mode is the quickest and easiest to use BUT the ADVANCED mode gives you more retrieval options.

Some fine points to consider:

Each electronic file gives you the opportunity to search multiple access points. The most common are either a WORD (also called KEYWORD) or by SUBJECT. A good review of the differences between WORD and SUBJECT searching can be found by clicking here.

Be resourceful….choose the words that best express your topic. You can truncate words and make your search more general or use words that are more specific. How you choose the words and if you perform a WORD or a SUBJECT search will effect your search results.

Every file is different…distinct. Use more than one electronic file to get a broader focus, perspective, coverage, bias, etc.

You have access but will not always have availability. Carlson Library only owns a small percentage of the citations you will be able to access. Your options are outlined below:

Your options:

See what is at Carlson Library by checking the TITLE of the JOURNAL in UTMOST.

In ABI/Inform Global, you will have the option for some citations to order the Full Text of the article and have it faxed to Carlson Library. This option is NOT AVAILABLE in Applied Science and Technology Index or Compendex.

If Carlson Library does not own the journal title but another OhioLINK library has the title, you can complete the Interlibrary Loan form (available at the Circulation Desk). This is a FREE service but can take up to two weeks to get you the article.

Before you begin your search, you might want to review the COMPARISON CHART. Each of the three electronic files (ABI/Inform Global, Applied Science and Technology Index, and Compendex) has been searched using the sample topic, "aspirin."

Like any skill, the more you use each of the electronic databases that better search results you can retrieve. And, remember, if you need help, ALWAYS ASK!

Biological Abstracts (Select the subject heading, Science and Technology)
Covers almost all areas of the life sciences with access to more than 6000 worldwide publications. Updated monthly. This a good choice is your information needs have an environmental or biomedical focus. Like Compendex, Biological Abstracts uses an OVID search engine.

Medline (Select the subject heading, Health Sciences)
Provides access to worldwide publications on all fields related to medicine and health care since 1966. Updated monthly. Another choice for biomedicine topics. Like Compendex and Biological Abstracts, uses an OVID search engine.

OCLC Article First/Contents First (Select the subject heading, Science and Technology)
Provides access from the table of contents pages to more than 11,500 journals that cover the fields of science, technology, medicine, business, and more. Updated daily. Covers from 1990 to date. Like Applied Science and Technology Index, this database uses a Triple III search engine.

Periodical Abstracts (Select the subject heading, Science and Technology)
A multi-disciplinary database that covers 1986 to present. It does index Chemical & Engineering News, Chemical Reviews, CHEMTECH, along with a few other science and technology publications. Has a Triple III search engine.

CARL UNCOVER
UnCover is an online article delivery service, a table of contents database, and a keyword index to nearly 17,000 periodicals that covers the sciences, engineering and technology. Citation searching is free but document delivery is fee based.

EI Village
A "one-stop shop" of access to the published engineering literature of the world. Provides fee-based document delivery. Free trail subscription available.

ACS publications
Electronic access is currently available to five ACS publications:
Biochemistry ; Environmental Science & Technology (the research section only, magazine portion to be added in '97) ; Journal of the America Chemical Society (FREE access for a limited time) ; The Journal of Organic Chemistry (FREE access for a limited time) ; The Journal of Physical Chemistry, parts A) Materials and B) Molecules.

Toledo-Lucas County Public Library
This site allows you to search the collections of titles available within the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library system. U.S. Patents are available in a microfiche format in the Science and Technology area of the Main Branch Library. U.S. Patents can be searched via IBM Patent Server

MSDS
Material Safety Data sheets give safety and toxicity information for commercial and industrial uses of chemicals.

Yahoo's Engineering site
A easier to use locator within Yahoo that ties various engineering sites together; allows searching for specific aspects of chemical engineering within this search mode.

Chemical Engineering URLs Directory
An international directory of web sites of interest for chemical engineering faculty, students, researchers and practitioners. This site has electronic ties to everything from news group, to professional societies, to past, present, and future conferences. A good choice to browse to get an idea of the wealth of electronic information available.

World Wide Web Virtual Library: Chemistry
One of the most comprehnsive, easy to use directories for chemistry and chemical information. Indexes gopher servers and Usenet groups and links to other chemistry related sites.

Web Elements and the Periodical Table.
As stated in its name, this site gives multiple levels of information about each element including physical, nuclear, electronic, crystallogrpahic, reduction potentials, isotope abundances, electronic configurations, etc. for each element.

Send comments to: glenn.lipscomb@eng.utoledo.edu