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SciFinder Scholar

SciFinder Scholar logo by CAS logo

What is SciFinder?

SciFinder is an online reference database (brought to you by the Gould Library) that contains chemical and related scientific information including:

  • journal articles and patents together in one source
  • substance data
  • chemical reactions
  • chemical regulatory data
  • chemical suppliers
  • biomedical literature

SciFinder Scholar is the proprietary software required to access and use SciFinder. SciFinder is not accessible through a web browser.

SciFinder support

If you are new to SciFinder you may find this document helpful:

The Gould Library reference librarian for the Chemistry department is Charlie Priore, x4415. He is committed to supporting SciFinder at Carleton.

Any of your other Gould Library liaison librarians can help you use SciFinder Scholar as well.

Access to SciFinder

Students:

SciFinder Scholar is available for download on your personal computer using the instructions below.

Science Faculty:

You can install the SciFinder Scholar program onto your computer by following the directions below, or you may contact Doug Foxgrover (x4037, dfoxgrov@carleton.edu) if you need assistance.

Off-Campus Access:

You must be logged in to the Carleton network to use SciFinder Scholar. This is because SciFinder Scholar is not accessed through a web browser and it allows access based only on your IP address - it will not work to simply log in from home through the library's off-campus access page.

New! SciFinder Scholar 2007!

SciFinder Scholar 2007 for Windows (2000/XP/Vista)

System requirements:
  • Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, or NT 4.0
  • Minimum 32 MB memory for Windows 98, Me, or NT 4.0, 64 MB recommended; minimum 64 MB memory for Windows 2000 or XP, 128 MB recommended.
  • Minimum 150 MB available hard disk space for installation.
  • For SciFinder Scholar Toolbar for IE, 25 MB additional available disk space.
  • Access to Carleton network.
  • Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher, Netscape Navigator 4.0 or higher, Firefox 1.0.

Installation instructions:

  1. Download SFS2007.exe (40.2 MB) and save it to a temporary folder. (~12.2 MB self-extracting executable.)
  2. Run "SFS2007.exe" to install the SciFinder software. You can do this by:
    • Double-clicking it in Windows Explorer (or My Computer)
    • Choosing Run from your Start menu, typing in the full path to the file, and clicking OK.
  3. Follow the prompts to complete the installation.
  4. Download site.prf.exe (86 K, campus-only link) and save it to a temporary folder, such as your desktop.
  5. Double-click on the "site.prf.exe" icon to extract the "site.prf" file from the self-extracting archive.
  6. Move the "site.prf" file into your SciFinder Scholar application folder, which is normally the SFSCHLR folder on your C: drive.

SciFinder Scholar 2007 for Mac OS X (10.3 or 10.4)

System requirements:
  • Mac OS X (10.2 or higher)
  • Minimum 40-50 MB available hard disk space

Installation Instructions

  1. Download the SciFinder Scholar zip file SciFinder2007ForMac.zip (14 MB) to your desktop or a download folder on your OS X drive.
  2. Double-click SciFinder2007forMac.zip. It will open into a folder called "SciFinder2007forMac".
  3. Open SciFinder2007forMac folder and follow the instructions you find inside.
Need an older version of SciFinder Scholar?  Click here for SciFinder 2006.