Mapping of Chemical Data Bases Using a Relational Data Base Structure

Abstract

At present there are several hundred publicly available machine-readable bibliographic and numeric data bases and more than a hundred of these are maintained online for interactive search and retrieval. Unfortunately, very few of them are connected to each other in a manner that would permit a user to search one file and use data obtained from that file in order to access a second file.* Although the connections do not exist there are data elements within many of the data bases that would permit the connection or linkage between multiple files. There are commonly held data elements that could provide linkages between them and which could serve as routes to go from one file to another file. Thus, the potential for data base mapping or computer linkage between files does exist, even though the potential has not been used. A research project entitled “Data Base Mapping Model and Search Scheme” was carried out at the University of Illinois, with National Science Foundation sponsorship, in order to test the feasibility of the mapping concept through development of a mapping model.