Searching for information using Computer Resources.

During the production of this project several internet based sources were used. However the amount and quality of information retrieved was variable depedning upon the source.

The scientific database searches provided most fruitful searches these included BIDS,Merck index, Belstein ...etc. All the journal sources which were used for the project were initally found using at least one of the above scientififc databases.The MSI Medchem Explorer database provided a few useful facts more about the physical properties of Tamoxifen. The Cambridge Crystal Structure Database and Brookhaven Protein Databank proved to be an excellent source of breif information and some journal references for realevent protein structures , the structure of one was downloaded and was included earlier in the project.) An excellent book which documented the medicinal uses and applications of Tamoxifen was discovered by using the Libertas (Imperial College libary database). Some of the information of interest was located in the book, but more importantly it provided many useful and interesting primary sources of information (i.e. Journal references). Finally, a search of the internet was performed, this proved to produce the most possible sources of all the searching techniques. However the quality of the information which was found (particularly from a scientific point of view) was very poor. The main problem of this type of search was the realevence of the information found. Far too often sources claimed to have vitial information on Tamoxifen and then when investigated may have had one or two sentences related to the my interest. This has re-inforced my observations from casual and recreational use of the internet, that it contains alot of rubbish!! It also however does provide some excellence information sources a few of which are interactive. These contained many realevent and interesting graphics which help in the presentation of the information avaliable. Some of these better features I attempted to emulate in this CIT project. There are some fine adjustments which need to be made to the project for purely cosmetic reasons and then I am looking into the possibility of posting it on the internet.

Overall, I think that this project is a good first attempt at designing a webpage. I was a little worried at first with this possibility, having had no previous experience. However I feel now that I have learned a valuable skills and overall I enjoyed the challenge of creating such a project. I am currently seeing the benefit of the above scientific databases as a source of information by applying such searches to my second year organic synthesis project. I now can see the benefits of using the computer as a tool for searching for information.

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