The role of spectroscopy in academic research and teaching is clear and long-standing. Spectral reference sources began in the 1950's with the publication of print handbooks of IR, NMR, and other spectral and chromatographic data. The hardcopy era gave way to the electronic age with the advent of personal computers and the digitization of spectral data in the 1980's. Since then, the number of available spectral collections as well as the power of the informatics tools required to manage the collections have continued to grow.

Celebrating the 60th anniversary of spectral reference sources, this talk provides an historical review of the Sadtler, Wiley, and Chemical Concepts collections, and introduces a new collection of 1.2 million spectra specifically designed for academic research and teaching.