We have used NERAC for nearly 2 years now and are very pleased with their
service.
Its a fixed subscription for the year dependent on number of users.
You can get passwords for individual customers as well as for the
information staff.
It is not an online system as such, but nearly as good as.
You pose a question through the web site and receive results with abstracts
either by email or posted on a web site.
The turnaround is usually one working day, bearing in mind weekends and
American bank holidays.
They are based in the USA and seem to have a large number of information
scientists available to carry out searches on demand.
If you are not happy with the search results that you first receive, you can
email the information scientist who did it and they are more than willing to
try again.
Output is in HTML format which our customers seem to like.
There is an option to download results in database format for e.g. Reference
Manager etc.
You can ask for a "retro" search and/or set up SDIs ("Tech tracks").
Where NERAC is particularly useful is when we are very busy.
After being downsized we do not have enough resource in-house to do all the
searches we get.
We can quickly get a literature/patent search arranged with NERAC which in
80% of cases is good enough for the customer.
The database coverage is similar to the technical databases on Dialog, but
does not include the business or company databases.
It is less extensive than on STN which we would use in-house for more
in-depth searches and patent searches.
NERAC cover some business databases but we find it is not extensive coverage
and too US-biased.
We use this facility to quickly get a search arranged with NERAC which gives
the customer something until we have time do a more extensive search.
NERAC will also do a web search which again can be useful when we don't have
time to do it ourselves.
NERAC provide a free full text patents delivery service in PDF format which
we now use as our main source of patents.
Only US, PCT and European patents are covered, but this covers 80% of what
we need these days.
Main criticism is you get no abstracts with Chemical Abstracts references
(as with Dialog), only bibliographic details and index terms, so you would
still have to go to STN for CA when abstracts and chemical structures are
required.
Hope this helps.
Regards
Eddie Carter
Information Scientist
Shell Global Solutions (UK)
Cheshire Innovation Park, Chester CH1 3SH, England
Tel: +44 (0) 151 373 5476
Fax: +44 (0) 151 373 5230
Email: [log in to unmask]
Internet: http://www.shellglobalsolutions.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Gill Wareing [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 13 August 2002 14:52
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: NERAC.com
Good afternoon everyone
Has anyone heard of this database host before? Does anyone use them?
I have just had a call from one of the sales reps based in the US who
offered me a trial.
The database range is practically identical to Dialog. I have never heard
of them and I thought I knew all the main providers.
If you have any comments I would like to hear them
Thanks
Gill
Gill Wareing
Senior Information Officer
SHS International Ltd
100 Wavertree Boulevard
Liverpool
L7 9PT
United Kingdom
tel: 0151 228 8161
fax: 0151 228 2650
http://www.shsweb.co.uk
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