Scifinder Scholar accessible on the Web

Happy New Year and welcome back for Winter Term!


I know many students and faculty are experiencing Winter Term off campus. I was going to wait until Spring semester for this announcement, but I am too excited. Plus, as most of you know, I will be having a baby around the start of Spring Semester, and I did not want you to miss this news.

Scifinder Scholar has migrated to its Web platform for Eckerd College. This means you do not have to access Scifinder Scholar via the desktop platform, which is only available in the library and the chemistry lab.

The new Scifinder Scholar interface is available through the library web page in the database list and on some of the science subject guides:

• A to Z Database List
• Biology
• Chemistry

To use the new interface, you have to establish an account with Scifinder Scholar. This will be a free account, and it will only accept your Eckerd email. To sign up, click here. Once you have an account, you can log in to use the database.

Not only is the platform different, but so is the search interface. I think many of you will find it similar to other databases you may use, such as Web of Science. Web training, how-to guides, and strategies for new search interface are available from CAS.

Note that while the access point has changed, our access limits are still in place. We share 2 seats among 3 colleges. Therefore, you may encounter times when you cannot enter the database. Try again later. For this reason, I also urge you to log out when you are finished so you are not blocking another user. (You will be logged out automatically if you leave the interface idle for too long.)

UPDATE: Jan 20. I have learned that you cannot register for Scifinder Scholar off campus, and at this time, you also cannot access the web version off campus. However, the latter issue is being worked on by our It department. Soon you should be able to access the Web interface from off campus AFTER you register on campus.