Here's an example of a typical problem: you need to find out about

What do you do?

Clearly, the first problem is terminological, and its essence is that this structure might have any of several names --all more or less correct. You could start with what seems to be the easiest, searching by its molecular formula:

C6H6O2

The online service ChemFinder (there's a link to it on the Chemistry Dept. page) is a handy way to begin, and yields this basic information:

Search produced 16 results:

Hydroquinone
Pyrocatechol
Resorcinol
2-Acetylfuran
5-methylfurfural
E,E-2,4-Hexadienedial
E,Z-2,4-Hexadienedial
Benzenediol
o-Benzosemiquinone
p-Benzosemiquinone
2,4-Hexadiyn-1,6-diol
Propargyl acrylate
Hexa-1,5-diene-3,4-dione
3-Cyclobutene-1,2-dione, 3,4-dimethyl-
Bicyclo[3.1.0]hexan-2,4-dione
1,4-Cyclohex-2-enedione

i.e., C6H6O2 is all of the above. Turns out the one we want is Resorcinol, and here's what Chemfinder gives us for that:

Resorcinol

[108-46-3]

Synonyms: Resorcin; m-dihydroxybenzene; 1,3-benzenediol; 1,3-Dihydroxybenzene; 3-Hydroxyphenol; C.I. 76505; m-Hydroquinone; Eskamel
C6H6O2
110.11

and a bunch of physical properties, and then a bunch of links to various databases in which the compound appears. A good beginning, especially because we have THE KEY to finding more: the CAS Registry Number

[108-46-3]

There are other ways to think about naming this compound: it's a benzene ring with two hydroxyls: Those all seem possible. In fact Chemical Abstracts knows it as

1,3-Benzenediol

but how would one know that?

One wouldn't, though one would have to find it out in order to use Chemical Abstracts to find out what had been written about the compound. More on that below.

And we've already learned (thanks to ChemFinder) the "trivial" name: RESORCINOL.

Using Chemical Abstracts (now an almost-obsolete skill!!):
BEGIN with the Index Guide (updated every 4 years), which tells you for
In the (annual) Chemical Substances Index, under 1,3-Benzenediol, you'll find listings of references to abstracts of articles (and books and patents) having to do with uses, compounds, derivatives, analysis, preparation, etc. etc.

Alternatively, you can use the Formula Index volumes (annual) to find listings for C6H6O2 --but there will probably be quite a few of them, and as we've seen, the molecular formula applies to quite a few compounds.

Anyway, eventually you look in the Abstracts volumes to find brief statements about the articles (etc.), including bibliographic information that allows you to retrieve the articles (etc.) themselves.

I did a DIALOG ChemAbs search and found 8819 occurrences of 'resorcinol', and 5477 occurrences of 'resorcinol' as a descriptor (i.e., in CA records which are really "about" resorcinol. Here's a listing of the first 10 records (the most recently added to the database), to give you an idea of what the online version is like.

Other routes to finding out about the compound involve various reference books, such as: Each of these offers a different sort of summary of materials on compounds.
The Patent Office offers another perspective. A quick search of the IBM patent server turns up 531 hits, a number of them "process for manufacture of...", and one can learn quite a lot from the 'state of the art' sections of patents. The Patent Office yields 4 patents with 'resorcinol' in the title in the last year, and 113 since 1976.
Another approach to finding out about resorcinol is to use a Web search engine, and the results of such an exercise are revealing. Something more than 2700 hits on AltaVista, many of them in the .com realm (suppliers, manufacturers). Others have to do with compounds in which resorcinol is an actor (like resorcinol formaldehyde, a thermosetting resin, and used in ion exchange resins [see a document on cesium removal]) and health considerations (diglycidyl resorcinol ether --an epoxy resin-- is a carcinogen; some resorcinol derivatives are adrenoceptor agonists, used as antiasthmatic agents). It turns out that there's a book (Resorcinol: its uses and derivatives, Plenum Press, $239) on "resorcinol's rapid development as a specialty chemical with broad-raning applications in commerce and research..."). The point is: the Web can often give us a quick idea of the broad significance of a chemical.