SCIMATE Institute tor Scientific Information, 3501 Market Street. University City Science Center, Philadelphia, PA 19104 Hardware: Apple II, II+, and Ile, IBMPC, Tandy TRS-80, or Kaypro 4 and 10 personal
computers, and others which use CP/M operating systems. Componeds: 3-5 diskettes, user's manual Subject: Literature searches. Cost: University Online Searcher. $440; Personal Data Manager, $540: both for $880.
The May 1984 report of the ACS Committee on Professional Training included a recommendation that students learn "about the availability and contents of relevant computerized databases and understand the hasie techniques of online searching." While it was not anticipated that students would acquire proficiency at online searching, the ability to interact productively with a librarian specialist was expected. Anyone who has tried online searching or worked with a person who does searching of online databases will appreciate the difficulty of conveying the essential techniques to students one finds that there are a number of competitive systems for accomplishing searches of chemical topics, each has a slightly different command structure, d l of them are pretty expensive for pedagogical uses, and some kinds of errors can he quite costly. Wouldn't it he nice if one could use the general principles of Boolean algebra to search effectively several af the most impor-
tant databases provided by different distributors without learning the arcane and specific command language of each of them? That is the oramise of SCIMATE..a . oaekaee of oroerams ~. which allow the users of mnnv pupulnr prrsonal wmputeru to wnrrh Did
