A method for production of a chemical library is provided, where the method involves: reacting, in a single vessel, a) a plurality, x, of aldehydes and/or ketones; and b) either (i) a plurality, y, of nucleophiles, (ii) a plurality, z, of electrophiles or both (i) and (ii); in the presence of c) a cascade catalyst capable of catalyzing reaction between said plurality of aldehydes and/or ketones and said plurality of nucleophiles, said plurality of electrophiles or both; to obtain a mixture of x-y &bgr;-nucleophile substituted aldehydes and/or ketones, xz α-electrophile substituted aldehydes and/or ketones or xyz &bgr;-nucleophile substituted, α-electrophile substituted aldehydes and/or ketones; and the chemical libraries thus produced.