Science & Engineering Library
State University of New York at BuffaloSeptember 2001
Volume 6 Number 2
SEL Directions Chemistry Corner Federal Government Periodicals SciFinder Scholar / Beilstein CrossFire Changes SELections Graduate Fellowships Available In the Stacks
Instant Librarian Debuts
Jill HackenbergThe UB Libraries are now offering a new electronic reference service called Instant Librarian. Using AOL’s Instant Messenger technology, patrons are able to ask questions without coming into the library or calling on the phone. Log onto Instant Librarian and click on the red button to enter the chatroom for the UB Libraries. Last year this service was offered on a trial basis and it was found that students, faculty and visitors alike were enthusiastic about this new way of getting help. The service allows persons working from home with only one phone line to get help while working online. Another group that will benefit from this service are students enrolled in remote courses through the distance learning programs at UB. AOL’s Instant Messenger is used by over 21 million people worldwide and is extremely popular among college students. The service is still accessible to those who do not have AOL’s software-- just click on AIM Express and it will link to the chatroom.
Hours for Instant Librarian service: Mon.-Thurs. 12-8pm
Friday 12-5pm
Saturday 12-5pm
Sunday 12-9pmBack to TABLE OF CONTENTS
Federal Government Periodicals
Fred StossAgencies and departments of the United States Federal Government publish a large number of periodicals, and many agencies are in the process of converting publications to electronic format. SEL has recently compiled a list of such publications received in the Science and Engineering Library’s Government Documents Section on the 3rd Floor of Capen Hall. View an inventory of SEL’s government periodicals.
The Business and Government Documents Reference Center (in Lockwood Library) provides a full array of services for locating government documents from local to international levels, including federal government documents.
Other sites from which you can conveniently locate government periodicals in their online formats are:
Federal Government Resources: Electronic Publications
Uncle Sam Migrating Government Publications
U.S. Government Documents: Ready Reference Collection is a collection of full-text reference resources (handbooks, directories, datebooks, etc.) many of which are linked to online HTML or PDF files. They are arranged by broad categories, including: Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Health & Social Sciences, Military, Minerals & Mining, Science & Engineering, Transportation.
Back to TABLE OF CONTENTS
Enzymes are biological or protein catalysts facilitating a broad array of biological reactions. Their function is to increase the rate at which a biochemical reaction occurs. Listed below are several Web sites for enzymes.
BRENDA: Comprehensive Enzyme Information System. This is a collection of enzyme functional data available free of charge for academic, non-profit users via the internet.
ENZYME: Enzyme Nomenclature Database. This site provides nomenclature data for enzymes, based on the recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) and each type of characterized enzyme for which an Enzyme Commission (EC) number has been provided.
Enzyme Nomenclature. This site also provides information on enzyme nomenclature, including links to individual documents, which list nomenclature additions, corrections, and proposals for new entries.
Enzyme Biochemistry. A chapter from the MIT Biology Hypertextbook reviewing chemical energetics, enzyme mechanisms, enzyme kinetics, and feedback inhibition. Sample exercises are provided.
Enzyme Structure Database. This site shows enzyme structures deposited in the Brookhaven Protein Data Bank (PDB). There are 7432 entries in the PDB involving 7109 separate PDB files - some files having more than one EC number associated with them.
Enzymes. List of conferences, databases, journals, resources, etc.
REBASE: The Restriction Enzyme Database. REBASE contains citations to published and unpublished references (some full-text), and information on recognition and cleavage sites, isoschizomers, commercial availability, methylation sensitivity, crystal and sequence data.
Worthington Enzyme Manual. Encyclopedic dictionary of enzyme data and information.
Back to TABLE OF CONTENTS
EERI Membership Roster 2001. Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. The Institute, Berkeley, CA, 2001. SEL Ref TA654.6 .E27 2001
The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) is one of the most recognized sources for earthquake risk reduction information worldwide. Established in 1949 as a nonprofit organization, EERI aims to reduce the impact of earthquakes through seismic studies, inspection of earthquake damage, education, and technology transfer. EERI members include researchers and scientists from 46 states, one district, four U.S. territories, and 56 foreign countries. The 2001 Roster serves as a valuable resource for locating these leading experts in the seismic field. Organized by individual names, state, country, and profession, this directory provides up-to-date contact information for each of its members, including positions held, mailing addresses, telephone/fax numbers, and email addresses. The organization’s bylaws are also part of this annual publication.
--Laura Taddeo
Biotechnology, Vol. 5b Genomics and Bioinformatics; Vol. 10 Special Processes, 2nd ed. H.-J. Rehm and G. Reed, Eds. VCH-Wiley, New York.
SEL Ref TP2482 .B5465 1991This reference collection was first issued in 1991. The second edition started almost immediately thereafter. The work stands in the biological literature as a peer-reviewed treatise in three parts: Fundamentals (vols. 1-4), Products (vols. 5-8) and Special Topics (vols. 9-12). Volume 5b reflects the rapid growth of the field of bioinformatics—it is new to the entire series. Volume 10 presents biotechnology processes, primarily in microbiology, including such topics as bioelectric fuel cells, conservation of human and animal cells, new applications, inorganic biotechnology, new and revised areas of biotechnology production, and new special processes.
--Fred Stoss
Back to TABLE OF CONTENTS
Science Spotlight on High Impact Research
Perhaps taking a cue from Dave Letterman’s top 10 list, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) has created a new free web site that lists the most highly cited and most frequently requested chemistry-related research publications. These lists are developed from an analysis of the citations included in the CAS databases and the full-text documents requested by scientists through ChemPort Connection. CAS Science Spotlight provides the abstract along with the full text, where available, all free of charge.
Most Cited Journal Articles, Journals and Patent Families in CAS Databases 1999-2000
CAS Science Spotlight lists the documents most frequently cited for the last two publication years in the categories of patents, conference proceedings, Web preprints or one of the 8,000 journals covered by CAS.Most Requested Documents of the Quarter
CAS Science Spotlight identifies the scientific papers and chemistry-related patents for which researchers have most frequently requested the full text via the CAS ChemPort Connection, available through SciFinder Scholar. Updates will be offered quarterly.CAS began adding citation lists to the SciFinder Scholar service in 1999 at a rate of nearly 20 million per year. SciFinder Scholar is an award-winning desktop research tool designed especially for use by students and faculty for easily access to a number of CAS databases. For information on searching SciFinder Scholar here at UB, please visit the SEL SciFinder Scholar Web page.
Back to TABLE OF CONTENTS
SciFinder Scholar Enhancements —
Calculated Properties and More ReactionsChemical Abstracts Service (CAS) is planning additional enhancements to SciFinder Scholar this fall. Over 750,000 reactions will be added to the graphical-based reaction database (CASREACT). Coverage will be extended back an additional 10 years, from 1985 to 1975. This will be accomplished by merging into CASREACT a database from InfoChem GmbH called CHEMREACT, which previously had been available only via STN, CAS’ direct access search system.
The CHEMREACT collection was jointly built by the All-Union Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (VINITI) and the German Zentrale Informationsverarbeitung Chemie, Berlin (ZIC). InfoChem GmbH is a software company focusing on the production and commercial marketing of structural and reaction databases.
In addition, CAS is adding eight calculated property values to several million substance records in the SciFinder Scholar compound database (REGISTRY): number of hydrogen donors, number of hydrogen acceptors, number of rotatable bonds, molecular weight, logD, logP, pKa, and solubility in water. Researchers seeking candidate substances for new drugs will benefit especially from the addition of calculated property data, developed by Advanced Chemistry Development, Inc. (ACD).
Advanced Chemistry Development Inc. provides integrated solutions for physical property prediction and desktop spectroscopy management. This property data will gradually be supplied for even more compounds.
Revised SEL Web Pages —
SciFinder Scholar and Beilstein CrossFireWe have extensively revised our web pages for the two premier chemistry-related databases available to the UB community. SciFinder Scholar provides access to over 31 million compounds including specific
biosequences, 20 million literature references, and 4 million reactions. Compounds and reactions are both substructure searchable. Beilstein CrossFire provides access to properties, spectra, and reactions back to 1771. Both resources require special software to be downloaded to your computer before accessing them. For more information, see the web pages listed below:
SciFinder Scholar Pages Overview (Product Information) Download/Technical Support Beilstein CrossFire Pages Overview (Product Information) Download/Technical Support Back to TABLE OF CONTENTS
Graduate Fellowships Available
Support for training scientists and engineers has been a cornerstone of research and development activities for many years. Several institutions have recently announced their predoctoral or postdoctoral fellowship programs. SEL has copies of materials in a “Graduate Fellowships” folder at the SEL Reference Desk.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI’s) Predoctoral Fellowship Program will grant at least 80 awards in 2002. HHMI provides more than $14 million in fellowship grants each year. The HHMI program is for M.S., Ph.D., Sc.D., M.D., D.O., D.V.M., and D.D.S. degrees. However, students in chemistry, computer science, engineering, physics, and related areas are encouraged to apply. Click here for details.
The National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship Program, including Women in Engineering and Computer and Information Science Awards, will grant about 900 new graduate fellowships for students entering graduate programs in science, mathematics, and engineering. Awards are made for students entering a research-based Ph.D. program in scientific disciplines. Also visit the NSF Graduate Research Fellowships site.
The Oak Ridge Institute for Science Education also provides fellowships for undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate studies, including the distinguished Alexander Hollaender Postdoctoral Fellowship.
See their Educational and Research Experiences page.Back to TABLE OF CONTENTS
SEL Re:Source Staff
Editor: Frederick W. Stoss
Production: Ruth V. Oberg
Web Editor: David J. BertucaSEL Re:Source is published 10 times a year and is available in electronic format at: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/sel/resource.html. Printed copies of SEL Re:Source are available at SEL. A .pdf copy of the print edition of this issue is also available.
Please note that information and links are time-sensitive. Some of the above links and announcements may be outdated by the passage of time. Since this is an online record of the monthly newsletter, SEL will not update links in the online SEL Re:Source, with very few exceptions. For more current information, visit the SEL Web site, or contact the SEL staff.
© 2001 Arts & Sciences Libraries, University Libraries, State University of New York at Buffalo.
