Through the collaborative efforts of three Germanic based organisations a new chemistry information and knowledge platform www.chem.de has been launched, writes Daniel Griffin.

The partnership consists of the German chemical society - Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh), Europe’s largest chemical society with 27,000 members; the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) Hannover and Fiz Chemie, a non profit making entity that provides chemistry information services in the fields of science, education and technology. The initiative received funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The jointly operated resource will siphon information from each of the partners own digital content repositories and is intended to be used by those operating in the German and European professional education, training, research and conference fields. Users will be able to view both German and English language versions and there is free basic access for non subscribers.

The data will range from chemistry-based information on research projects, e-learning courses to conference data and meeting activities in chemistry. Other features will include a discussion forum for the community with search and information updates also present.

The service will be running at next weeks Online Information 2006 exhibition at Kensington Olympia.