I590 OBJECTIVES
Updated: 1 January 2006
At the end of the course, the students will be well acquainted with the broad
array of chemistry and life sciences databases and be able to choose the most
appropriate database(s) for a given question. They will be conversant with
the STN Messenger Command language and will have a good grasp of the search
options available in the databases covered in the course. They will have a
firm understanding of the structure of the most important databases.
Specific goals are:
- To learn the main vendors or providers of database services in chemistry
and the life sciences
- To become expert in using the top databases in the disciplines
- To understand the advantages that database searching by command language
has over searching by front-end software packages.
- To learn the sources of online or offline help that can be used for a quick
overview of the full range of available databases in the respective disciplines
- To learn the aspects of a chemical substance that lend themselves to
coding and retrieval in a chemistry database
- To distinguish the added value that commercial versions of databases provide
in comparison to free implementations of those databases.
These are the tools that students will learn to use well in I590:
- STN Express with Discover! (front-end software that is loaded on the local computer)
- STN on the Web http://stnweb.cas.org/ (a Web option
that has most of the features of STN Express with Discover!)
- CrossFire (in-depth use of both Gmelin and Beilstein)
- Conquest: Cambridge Structural Database (the world's largest database of crystallographic information)
- Medline (in various implementations)
- Entrez
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Entrez/
We will also survey the most important genomics/bioinformatics databases.
In addition, comparisons of SciFinder Scholar's databases and features
will be made throughout parts of the course. SciFinder Scholar will not
be covered in detail in I590.
For a review of its use, see the relevant C471 material at:
http://www.indiana.edu/~cheminfo/C471/471home.html
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