The Table of Contents is a slippery itemchanging URLs are only part of the problem. The selection of a web search engine is a factor. A great site for educating yourself about search engines is The all-4-one Search Machine (http://all4one.com/). A search is done simultaneously on four different search engines. To give you an example, I typed in ("search engine" and tutorial) and got amazingly different results on two of the four searches: AltaVista gave 100,000 hits, but Yahoo returned only 1. Search engine selection should be the first step in building a useful Table of Contents.

Have you downloaded Rasmol (http://klaatu.oit.umass.edu:80/microbio/rasmol/getras.htm ) and/or Chime (http://www.mdli.com/chemscape/chime/chime.html)? These are keys to the candy store of molecular structures. Look at the links at these sites to get an idea of the larder. Think about comparative studies of molecular structures. Your students can find a molecule, rotate the molecule in real time, measure bond lengths with Rasmol, and do some discovery learning.

Using the information from a great site is not always self-evident. Let's look at the National Cancer Institute database, aptly named for its 127,000 structures (http://www.chem.com/127,000_3D_structures). Upon entering the page, three frames are presented. The lower right frame lists compounds and CAS#s found in the Drug Information Center NCI database. Enter the CAS# in the top search button on the left frame. A search by name (in order to retrieve the CAS#) can be done in the lower part of the left frame. After entering the CAS#, the top right frame changes to the blue word: Syncon. Click on the word Syncon to retrieve the line structure. Now click on an empty part of the frame, hold down the mouse, and a pop-up menu appears. Go to 3D rendering to get the 3D molecule. Hold down the mouse again for another pop-up menu, and select "Sticks" under the Display option. Click and hold on the molecule to rotate in real time. The lack of clear directions is not unusual for Internet pages. Nevertheless, this free database is a remarkable site.

What is my favorite way to find great information? Go to a great homepage. My latest find is Abby Parrill's page (http://slater.cem.msu.edu:80/~parrill/). Look at the Integrated Reaction Roadmap. First semester organic reactions are accessible from one large Roadmap. The Reaction Roadmap integrates these reactions visually, hopefully making the connections among reactions easier for students to grasp. This is truly a case where the total is greater than the sum of the parts.

Why do you read a journal? To keep abreast of the field? To stimulate intellectual thought? To augment your presentations for your students? Look to the Internet for all these reasons. Wandering through this journal may be frustrating at times, but it is truly worth the trip.