Electronic Lab Notebooks- More organised, streamlined, secure and easier to search and share..??

For the past 6 years I worked as a research scientist in pharma industry working on synthesis of various molecules.  All these years I documented the procedures in paper based notebooks and ended up having several sets of notebooks.  Now today all of a sudden I started thinking why don’t we start using electronic lab notebooks.  I feel they can be organised much more easily and stored much more securely than the physical books which we generally use.

Also it makes searching of procedures easier for us.  Say you want search for a particular conversion lets say you want synthesise 2-formyl indole and someone from your company might have already worked on it which you don’t know.  Instead of searching on Scifinder (for which u have to pay) or internet, you can start the initial search with your in-house procedures first i.e. with the help of electronic lab note book.  This makes your search a lot easier.

I haven’t personally used any electronic lab notebook till now and also feel they are more expensive for any small pharma company to afford and maintain them, but thanks to the software companies who create these.  We have basic versions of e-LNB available on internet for free.  We can always upgrade to more advanced version with enhanced features but for a price.

If anyone of you reading this has the experience of using a e-LNB please put in your experiences working with them. 

I also feel paper based lab notebooks are the best sometimes as it presents our work in real synonymous with our mind while working…J

Some of the freely available ELNB on internet have been listed below for your convenience.

http://www.labtrack.com/
http://www.aejournal.net/content/1/1/4
http://www.contur.com/home/
http://www.sparklix.com/
http://accelrys.com/products/eln/

For a detailed review of various e-LNB available in market you can visit the following publication from Journal of Laboratory Automation.  Click here..>