|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you choose to follow any of the links to the rated Internet sites below, you will be leaving the Strategian Web site. If you wish to return to this page from the site you are sent to, please use the Back option of your browser. NIST Chemistry WebBook | esp@cenet | National Academy Press WebElements | DOE Information Bridge National Environmental Publications Internet Site (NEPIS) 1. USPTO Web Patent Databases -- http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) Rating: 28/30 -- Quality 25/25 -- Uniqueness 18/20 -- Refresh Rate 8/15 -- Loads Fast 9/10 -- Organization 88/100 -- Total **Last Reviewed March 2, 1999** Review: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has made the full text of all United States patents issued from 1976 to the most recent weekly update (every Tuesday) available free over the Internet. Previously, this information was generally only available for a fee from commercial database providers, libraries, or the USPTO itself. This is a great boon to Chemists and Chemistry students (among others) ... patent documents are indexed by Chemical Abstracts and, until now, obtaining patent documents identified through searches of that database was not an immediate or inexpensive process. There are 2 main databases available through this Web site--the U.S. Patent Full Text Database and the U.S. Patent Bibliographic Database. The latter file contains only front-page information for the patents issued since 1976. There are 3 searching options available for each database--a Boolean option allowing a search of up to 2 terms, a Manual or Advanced option that allows for more complex searches (full Boolean capability, nesting, etc.), and a Patent Number search option. "Free" Web access to the full text of U.S. patents back to 1976 is a wonderful service. The Web site is well-organized and straightforward, and help information is plentiful. The only (unavoidable) negative about the site is the slow response caused mostly by accessing patent documents which tend to be rather large. Another must link ... How-to-use: First-time or sporadic users should check out the available help information. That will assist in making your use of this site more effective. Back to the Top 2. Energy Information Administration -- http://www.eia.doe.gov/ (Energy Information Administration (EIA) -- a statistical agency in the U.S. Department of Energy) Rating: 25/30 -- Quality 24/25 -- Uniqueness 18/20 -- Refresh Rate 9/15 -- Loads Fast 8/10 -- Organization 84/100 -- Total **Last Reviewed March 2, 1999** Review: For those with a need for "official" statistical and analytical information regarding energy supply, consumption, distribution, and price, the EIA Web site is the place to check. Most of the information relates to the United States (states, regions, and the nation as a whole) but some information for other countries is also available. A wide range of energy sources are covered including petroleum, natural gas, coal, nuclear, electricity, and various alternative energy sources. The EIA Web site makes access to many of the most popular and heavily-used energy-related Federal Governent publications much easier. New information/publications are added almost on a daily basis. The site offers many interesting and useful tools including an Interactive Query Wizard that can be used to search the data and then produce customized displays of statistical information in a variety of data formats. This site does use frames and, for those who don't like them, in this case the frames are used well. The organization of the site was well-planned and guides the user effectively to data or analysis of interest. Many of the files are made available for downloading (in a format other than HTML) and then viewing and, depending upon the file, can be downloaded in a fairly wide variety of formats; PDF (portable document format) is common. Many of the files are quite large though and thus can potentially take a while to download. EIA uses a Netscape search tool for their site, and search response tends to be pretty quick. All in all, this is a high-quality site ... and a great example of how the Internet can be effectively used. How-to-use: The EIA Web site does not require any special hints for effective use. The home page is much like a detailed table of contents and quickly gets you on your way to the data and/or analysis you may be seeking. Back to the Top 3. NIST Chemistry WebBook -- http://webbook.nist.gov/ or http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/ (National Institute of Standards and Technology--NIST) Rating: 26/30 -- Quality 23/25 -- Uniqueness 15/20 -- Refresh Rate 11/15 -- Loads Fast 8/10 -- Organization 83/100 -- Total **Last Reviewed March 2, 1999** Review: The NIST Chemistry WebBook is the place to go on the Internet for a wide array of thermochemical, ion energetics, spectral, and other data on thousands of mostly organic chemical compounds. From past experience, this site can be used to easily locate otherwise often hard-to-find data needed by students and others for lab work. The current Chemistry WebBook is the 5th release (November 1998); the initial release came out in August 1996. The data can be accessed currently by 9 different search options including molecular formula, chemical name, and CAS Registry Number. The interfaces used on this site are excellent and the presentation of the data, frankly, boggles the mind (in a good way)! The sheer amount of data made easily available in this format is staggering. Given all the data that is available, some searches can occasionally take some time though my experience, on the whole, has found search results to be returned quite promptly. The organization of the site, again with all the data that is available, is first-rate with redundant links built-in to help the user navigate effectively. Copious help information is provided. For those with relevant data needs, this is a must link ... NIST is to be commended for such an outstanding and high-quality Web site. How-to-use: The home page --http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/--is the place to start or return to for all the most important interfaces and information for using this site effectively. Back to the Top 4. esp@cenet -- http://ep.dips.org/ (European Patent Office) Rating: 27/30 -- Quality 23/25 -- Uniqueness 19/20 -- Refresh Rate 6/15 -- Loads Fast 6/10 -- Organization 81/100 -- Total **Last Reviewed March 18, 1999** Review: esp@cenet, like the patent information service provided by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office via the USPTO Web Patent Databases above, is a boon to Chemistry teachers/faculty and students who identify relevant patent documents through searches of Chemical Abstracts. The patent documents indexed by Chemical Abstracts do not just come from the United States, and esp@cenet provides access to the full-text and images of patent documents from the European Patent Organisation, World Intellectual Property Organization, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Besides these countries and organizations, esp@cenet provides access to bibliographic data for patents from many other countries of the world. Time coverage for the patent data varies by country and organization--for the full-text information, coverage generally extends back 20-30 years. The patent documents can be searched for via 9 different fields including publication number, publication date, title, and title or abstract. Single or multiple words and phrases can be searched in the title and title or abstract fields ... if desired, the words can be combined using the Boolean operators and, or, and not and the use of nesting. The patent documents themselves are made available in pdf (portable document format). One negative is that each page of the document must be downloaded and then viewed separately rather than being able to download the entire document at once--which would make the process of viewing the document much quicker and more streamlined. The patent database is updated weekly. esp@cenet is generally well-organized using a consistent set of easily-recognized icons to guide the user from page-to-page. While the provided help information is sufficient, its organization seems a bit scattered at times which can lead to a bit of confusion. Overall though, this is an important resource for Chemistry students and faculty and should be bookmarked right next to the USPTO Web Patent Databases. How-to-use: To access the full-text patent information, choose Search in worldwide patents on the home page. esp@cenet provides access to other kinds of patent information as well ... Search in worldwide patents is most likely though to get you to the information you may be seeking. Viewing the help information provided on this site is very important to effective use. Back to the Top 5. National Academy Press -- http://www.nap.edu/ (The National Academies of the United States) Rating: 26/30 -- Quality 25/25 -- Uniqueness 10/20 -- Refresh Rate 11/15 -- Loads Fast 8/10 -- Organization 80/100 -- Total **Last Reviewed February 10, 2000** Review: The National Academy Press is the publishing arm of the National Academies of the United States--the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council. This site provides access to the complete text of over 1,500 books--reports authored by commissions and panels of the various academies. These reports not infrequently find their way into the daily news as they examine prominent scientific and technical issues facing the United States and the world at large. The panels and commissions that author the reports are often composed of leading experts on the various topics, and the information in the reports has a deserved reputation for being authoritative and objective. The reports can be searched in two ways--by title and bibliographic information and by the complete text of every page of the 1,500+ books. In addition, it is also possible to locate reports of interest by browsing through a list of subject categories. Once a relevant report is identified, the text of the book can be viewed in Open Book format. This format essentially means that the text has the appearance of having been scanned and 1 page is viewable at a time. Each screen, however, includes several controls for moving through the text page-by-page, chapter-by-chapter, back to the table of contents, to options for searching text within that book, etc. Some books also offer the option of viewing the text in sections in HTML format. The National Academy Press Web site is very straightforward and easy to use for the most part. It is optimized for online purchasing of the various books though which makes the full text options a bit less apparent on the screen. All in all though, this site is a marvelous resource--a must link ... How-to-use: The available searching and browsing options are very powerful. I find all 3 of them to be very useful. Back to the Top 6. WebElements -- http://www.webelements.com/ (Dr. Mark J. Winter, University of Sheffield, England) Rating: 24/30 -- Quality 18/25 -- Uniqueness 12/20 -- Refresh Rate 8/15 -- Loads Fast 7/10 -- Organization 69/100 -- Total **Last Reviewed March 2, 1999** Review: Dr. Mark J. Winter was probably the original person to make the periodic table available over the Internet and, while there are many others who do the same today, the original may still be the best. WebElements is a very colorful, graphics-oriented site packed with information about the elements--properties of atoms, physical properties, compounds, isotopes, uses, biology and geology, and more. Both a frames and a non-frames version of the site are available from links off the home page. I actually prefer the non-frames version though the frames version may shorten download times. Dr. Winter continues to do his site right--solid organization, plenty of help information, a number of interesting ways to display data, an audio pronunciation of each element name, and much more. This site has won a number of awards for its quality. How-to-use: For those unfamiliar with WebElements, an effective way to start is by reading the Help and features section. Back to the Top 7. DOE Information Bridge -- http://gpo.osti.gov:901/cgi-bin/entry.pl (U.S. Department of Energy--DOE) Rating: 20/30 -- Quality 19/25 -- Uniqueness 8/20 -- Refresh Rate 8/15 -- Loads Fast 7/10 -- Organization 62/100 -- Total **Last Reviewed March 1, 1999** Review: The DOE Information Bridge allows access to the full text of 30,000+ reports produced by researchers working for the Department of Energy and researchers working for other organizations but funded by the DOE. The subject scope of the reports is broad--Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Environmental Sciences, Engineering, Computer Science, Renewable Energy, and more. Government-funded research is an area too often overlooked when students, faculty, and others search for information on a particular topic. This database provides welcome and much more convenient access to some of this type of literature--in this case, reports that have been received and processed since January 1996. The Web site offers both Easy and Advanced search tools which allow for pretty sophisticated searching of the database. Once search results have been obtained, reports can be viewed in either of 3 different formats and downloaded, potentially, in a wide variety of data formats (depending upon how the report was originally received). The DOE Information Bridge is well-organized and provides plenty of help information to assist the user along. Overall, this is a solid site providing good access to a useful body of literature. How-to-use: First-time users should be sure to review the General and Search Help information. Back to the Top 8. National Environmental Publications Internet Site (NEPIS) -- http://www.epa.gov/cincl/ (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) Rating: 22/30 -- Quality 16/25 -- Uniqueness 11/20 -- Refresh Rate 8/15 -- Loads Fast 3/10 -- Organization 60/100 -- Total **Last Reviewed March 1, 1999** Review: NEPIS provides access to the full text of 6,000+ publications from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The subject scope of the publications falls into the areas of Biology, Environmental Studies, Chemistry, and more. Using NEPIS, faculty, students,and others can access valuable literature that too often is overlooked in the course of a search for relevant information. The main positive of this Web site is the availability of the full-text information. To access this literature, there are 2 main search options--a Simple and an Enhanced search. As the name implies, the Enhanced search provides more options for refining the results and more options in how the full text of the documents is displayed. Please note that these search tools use a natural language-type of query and not the familiar Boolean query. In addition, a few convenient Special Collections of documents have been grouped together for easy access under topics such as Water Quality, Pesticide Usage and Disposal, Solid Waste Disposal, etc. Finally, the database can also be searched by publication number or title. Unfortunately, NEPIS has a number of negatives. The site is not organized very well once a Simple or Enhanced search has been initiated and, especially, once search results have been returned. In particular, there seems to be no quick or easy way to return to the NEPIS home page. Also, the default manner for displaying the full text of a document is scanned images of single pages of the document shown one at a time. In other words, with the default display, you have no quick or exact method of determining where, in the entire document (which may run to hundreds of pages), the information you seek may be located. It is little better than using a document in paper ... unless you use the Enhanced search mode and choose to display the document as formatted or unformatted text. In that way, you can at least use the Find capability of your Web browser to search through the text of the document for the keyword that you seek. One other gripe ... this site would be better without the blinking text on the home page. Keeping the negatives in mind, NEPIS does provide welcome remote and unified access to the full text of thousands of EPA documents--useful information that is often missed. How-to-use: Be sure to check out the available (and plentiful) help information; plus, you may wish to use the Enhanced Search mode. Back to the Top Questions about any or all of the above? Do you have a favorite Internet site(s) that you would like to nominate for possible inclusion on these lists? Please let me know. |
|
Go To ...
|