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From: Info <info**At_Symbol_Here**ILPI.COM>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] DCHAS-L Archives Update, Part 1 of 2, Searching For Answers
Date: Oct 21, 2025 02:29 UTC
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Message-ID: <D493C09D-1F45-44BD-B0FD-18FAA6F30178**At_Symbol_Here**ilpi.com>
In-Reply-To: <97338433-DED5-4A6F-BBA2-C75A8123BFDE**At_Symbol_Here**ilpi.com>
A. NO TRACKING. Our server, of course, logs search requests but we are not using that data for any purpose or tying it to the user. If anything, we will use that data to see what the most popular searches are in order to improve the search or create new content. This engine resides on our virtual server and is owned and controlled by us. Your privacy is assured.B. Default search is to look for any words. But once you get your results, you can toggle it to match ALL words. Secret tip (I need to add this to the page somewhere) it will also do exact matching if you put the query in quotes. So "eye wash" will match only if those words appear together in that exact order.C. Plural and wildcard support. The search engine automatically takes into account plural variants. It also accepts the ? wildcard for any letter and * for any string. So "organ*" will find organic, organometallic, organo-phosphate, organization etc.D. You can refine the categories you search in. Those are currently lumped into a manageable set of All, DCHAS-L, General + Inorganic Chemistry, Glassblowing, Organometallics, and SDS and HazCom. That latter category includes over 800 pages from our SDS HyperGlossary and enhanced versions of official OSHA interpretation letters on the HazCom Standard.E. Autocomplete in the search box. I included this, although I am not 100% sure if I'll keep it. It suggests terms as you type based on what is in its dictionary.F. Sort the results by relevance, date (newest to oldest), date (oldest to newest)G. Category suggestions. If you're searching in a category and not a lot of results are found, it will suggest additional categories or All categories. If you have a pile of matches, it shows you the number in each category for refinement. It also suggests term for possible typos.H. Mobile friendly design. Search category checkboxes are stacked vertically. I also made them highlight in yellow when selected for additional feedback as checkboxes are hard to see without reading glasses at my age, LOL.I. Limited ads. As you're probably aware, Safety Emporium, our retail division, supports these free resources. For a certain number of keywords, one or a maximum of two slots will appear above the results with a link to pertinent info on SE. They are minimalist, tasteful, non-intrusive, and non-tracking.J. This thing is uncannily accurate. I wanted to know when the listserv moved from Cornell to Princeton's server and when I searched on "listserv moving Princeton" (without the quotes) - bam, it nailed it. Want to know everything on piranha solution or floor drains with safety showers? Bam, all relevant stuff.
On Sep 18, 2025, at 5:12 PM, Info <info**At_Symbol_Here**ilpi.com> wrote:Just a heads up that we were in the midst of converting our various SDS/safety resources, DCHAS archives and more to a new unified interface w/ breadcrumbs, more modern design, more mobile friendly, https secure, more reliable version to run in the cloud when our ancient, creaky, deprecated web server that we hosted in-office died a sudden and tragic death after a 15+ year battle with obsolence over the weekend.--- For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.orgSo we pushed out this update a bit before it was ready for prime time, but it’s mostly good. Other than some minor cosmetic issues and web pages that need some work deep in our annotated version of OSHA interpretations on the HazCom standard, most everything works. The notable exceptions on that for the moment are that search is not working yet and the software magic behind the MS-Demystifier has to be recoded. We hope to resolve most all of this by the end of the month.The SDS Hyperglossary section got a good once-over on maintaining and checking the thousands of links it contains, as did other sections: https://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/index.html All told, we have somewhere around 800 pages on HazCom.We did a slight reorg and changed the main SDS landing page, putting the list of sites to look for SDS’s on the Internet on its own dedicated page.The Demonstration Safety page is keeping vigil for more incidents: https://www.ilpi.com/safety/demosafety.htmlDCHAS Archives: https://www.ilpi.com/dchas/index.html - the new and improved search that’s coming will make it easier to find pertinent results. And once this migration is done I can look into bringing the archive up to date. At the moment there are over 17,000 posts in that section. Long-term plans are to include an FAQ or may just some AI summaries of common questions. We also have to automate a way of going in and deactivating the dead links in the Archives. Link rot is the bane of a large collections like this.We’ll be adding some more recent OSHA HazCom interpretations and changes once everything is all settled, as well. Another nice outcome is that we’ll be more flexible to adding new external resource links to our pages based on information discussed on DCHAS-L as we’re not trying to spread ourselves across two versions anymore.Thanks for all for your support and encouragement in building this trove of resources over the years.Best wishes,Rob TorekiLabLocks™ - The first device that can lock out standard laboratory ball valves: https://www.safetyemporium.com/07400US-Made NIOSH and FDA-approved N95 respirators: https://www.safetyemporium.com/safety-items/respirators/Safety Emporium - Laboratory and Safety Supplies
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