Chemical Education Today
Letters Online Sources of Organic Data In the March 2005 issue of JCE, I read the article concerning the JCE ChemInfo: Organic Web portal (1) that is currently being developed (2). In the article, Hans Reich mentioned that this new site was being developed to provide direct links to high quality data (pKa values, acronyms, A-values, named reagents, etc.) that organic chemists would likely prefer to have at their fingertips (via two-click access). I believe another important Web resource for organic information is the ACS Division of Organic Chemistry’s Web site (3). This site is a portal that chemists and others can use to find information relevant to organic chemistry. The main page of the site serves as a bulletin board to announce major meetings and provides basic information on them (such as registration deadlines and abstract submission directions). It also lists information on the availability of and winners of awards provided to graduate students and others. Furthermore, separate pages on the site are provided to give rapid access to electronic copies of journal articles, links to high quality organic resource sites, and free advertisements by professors and companies seeking to employ organic chemists as postdoctoral researchers or scientists. Each page of the Organic Division’s site also links directly to Matt McIntosh’s excellent site (4) listing graduate organic research groups in the U.S., including those seeking open postdoctoral positions, and any academic institution with an open faculty position. Recently, it became apparent to me that the Organic Division’s Web site has lacked a comprehensive readily available listing of various tables of high quality data that researchers, students, and others can use as a reference source—a resource that Reich has been working diligently to provide over the past several years, and one that JCE Online hopes to provide as well. While I had questioned the necessity to start another organic chemistry Web portal, Reich rightly pointed out that the problem with the Web is not too many links, but the necessity to provide accurate comprehensive (useful) tables of data. (For example, several sites list named reactions, but none
www.JCE.DivCHED.org
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of the sites are comprehensive in their listings of the reactions.) In any event, each page of the Organic Division’s Web site now includes a link to Reich’s organic data site in the sidebar via the link labeled “Organic Data Tables” (5). Also of note, an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed for the Organic Division’s Web site was recently created. Now, people can access the most recent Division news headlines via their favorite RSS reader (like the Web portal http:// my.yahoo.com). It is anticipated that RSS will develop into a fundamental technology that people will use to get the most important updates for the information that they personally select in a way that they want to receive it. For example, CNN has separate RSS feeds for national news, world news, financial news, and technology news. The ACS Division of Organic Chemistry’s Web site is intended to serve the members of the organic community. Thus, you are encouraged to send announcements of interest to the organic community (such as meetings, calls for nomination of awards, announcements of major awards won), suggestions, and any comments. Literature Cited 1. Reich, H. J. J. Chem. Educ. 2005, 82, 495–496. 2. JCE DLib: JCE ChemInfo: Organic. http://www.jce.divched.org/ JCEDLib/ChemInfo/Organic/index.html (accessed Aug 2005). 3. ACS Organic Chemistry Division. http://organicdivision.org (accessed Aug 2005). 4. McIntosh, Matt. Organiclinks. http://www.organiclinks.net (accessed Jul 2005). 5. Reich, H. J. Organic Division Information. http://www.chem. wisc.edu/areas/organic/index-chem.htm (accessed Aug 2005). Brian J. Myers Webmaster, ACS Division of Organic Chemistry Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Ohio Northern University, Ada, OH 45810
[email protected] Vol. 82 No. 11 November 2005
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