What's new with FlashPoint version 3.0:

• Subject approach: You can direct your search to the subject area you're interested in, and the system will select the relevant databases for you. Focusing your search in this way will speed up the search. Or you can select specific databases of your choice.
  
  
• LANL filter: After you enter your search terms, check the "LANL research only" box, and your search will return only material by or about Los Alamos National Laboratory. This capability replaces the "Los Alamos Unclassified Publications" database, with greater coverage of the literature.
  
  
• Interface improvements: a new look and feel, and revised help files. Check the Help file for details on how search queries are handled in particular databases.

About FlashPoint:

Unsure where to begin? FlashPoint takes a look at 14 top databases to narrow down the wide array of possibilities for a particular topic. What database has the largest number of hits for quantum chemistry? Where is the journal Few body systems indexed? What database contains articles written by J. Trewhella?

FlashPoint searches the following Research Library databases: Aerospace, BIOSIS, DOE Energy, Engineering Index, GeoRef, Inspec, ISI Proceedings, MathSciNet, Nuclear Science Abstracts, PubMed, Science Server, SciSearch, Social SciSearch and the library catalog. You can see at a glance which database contains the most matches to your query. As you click on specific results, you enter the native environment of each database. You can then view records, go to full-text documents online, mark records and download or email search results.

This multi-database search tool offers two search modes:

• Quick Search offers one input box, with a choice of three basic indexes: Author, Title/Subject/Abstract, or Source/Journal. The date range is preset to the last two years and 50 records are retrieved per search.
  
  
• Advanced Search offers three input boxes for search terms, which can be combined with Boolean operators AND,OR and NOT. More indexes are available: conference, institution and report number. Date ranges can be changed, and larger result sets are possible.

Access to FlashPoint is limited to staff of LANL and other subscribing institutions. Institutions interested in subscribing should see the library Electronic Products page for more information.

Send your comments and suggestions for new features to flashpoint@lanl.gov

Why "FlashPoint"?

Webster's Online defines FlashPoint as "a point at which someone or something bursts suddenly into action or being." FlashPoint is the place to begin your information search.

• Version 3.0: December 2002. Added subject approach to database selection, LANL filter, and interface improvements. In August 2003 added ISI Proceedings database. June 2004 added GeoRef. July 2004 added Aerospace.

• Version 2.0: December 2001. Added MathSciNet, the first non-locally loaded database searchable through FlashPoint. September 2002 added PubMed, removed ePrint arXiv.

• Version 1.4: January 2001. Library catalog added, title-only index added to Advanced Search, author help expanded.

• Version 1.3: October 2000. External customer access enabled, improvements in author parsing, and addition of "near" operator

• Version 1.2: August 2000. Nuclear Science Abstracts added, databases labeled with date ranges, search tips provided

• Version 1.1: June 2000. Advanced Search module added

• Version 1.0: April 2000. Quick Search Module, with eight databases

Mahoney, Dan and Mariella Di Giacomo, Flashpoint @ LANL.gov: A simple smart search interface. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, Summer 2001.