Numerical databases for chemists: present and future

The field of chemistry has been in the forefront in applying computer technology to the storage and retrieval of technical information. While the reasons probably include some sociological and economic factors, the need of chemists to deal with some ten million unique compounds has been the most important driving force. Long before the advent of computers, the chemical community had to learn to systematize the means of designating these compounds, which form the framework on which the science is based. Computers became available at the same time that the expanding research effort throughout the world produced a rapid increase in the rate at which new compounds were being synthesized and characterized. It was a natural step to grasp this new technology as a means of coping with the vast growth in chemical information.