Beating the drum … Site Wide Access to Online Resources

“If thine enemy wrong thee, buy each of his children a drum” -- Chinese Proverb

Too often corporate management relegates acquisition of online database subscriptions to the IT department. This is a mistake. IT expertise is essential for ensuring the technology works, but IT is not equipped by training, experience, or desire, to evaluate, monitor, and negotiate for online databases like EbscoHost, ScienceDirect, LexisNexis, Platts, Argus, Dialog, and so on.

Librarians are so equipped. Online database providers recognize this. Here, for example, is the abstract of a promising article …

Chemical Communications
Isolated Cu(I) sites supported on β-cyclodextrin: an efficient π-complexation adsorbent for thiophene capture
Xue-Lin Song, Lin-Bing Sun, Gu-Se He and Xiao-Qin Liu
Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CC04587J , Communication
Ask your librarian to arrange site-wide access
Abstract
A novel π-complexation adsorbent is fabricated by grafting Cu(I)-containing molecule precursors onto β-cyclodextrin. The adsorbent provides a molecular-level dispersion of Cu(I), which is particularly beneficial to the adsorptive removal of aromatic sulfur thiophene, and is impossible to be realized through the conventional thermal method.
source: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2011/CC/c0cc04587j

Notice the invitation to “ask your librarian.” Why, you may wonder, do you need to involve a librarian in what appears to be a self-service situation? There are many reasons. Here is just one …

Monitoring usage

No matter how wonderful the database, if no one uses it, you are wasting your money. By monitoring usage, your librarian can determine whether to subscribe to a competing database instead. Or, he or she can decide to continue with the current database but will find ways to raise awareness of the database and to promote its use. Either way, your organization wins.

Follow the Desulfurization Blog (http://www.desulf.blogspot.com/) for more winning search tips … and let your colleagues know.