Chemistry for Business

ITI Bloggers June 17th, 2009

I’m not a chemist, never did chemical research, and would be scared to death if asked a question about chemistry. Yet what I learned this morning in a Chemistry Division session about doing business research using chemical databases and the types of business questions that chemistry librarians receive was extremely valuable. Ben Wagner, Buffalo University, and Tina Tomeo, CAS, explained the special fields that exist in patent databases, Chemical Business NewsBase, Gale Newsletter Database, Chemical Industry Notes, Materials Business, the ISM databases, and Rapra. Tina showed most of her examples using STN searches. Abstracts of review articles are good for industry overviews, sales and trends, according to the speakers, and finding people using SciFinder surfaces scientific authors. Look at companies that have licensed out and licensed in to figure out markets that companies are exiting and moving into.

Marydee Ojala, Editor, ONLINE: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals