International Access to the Petroleum Abstracts Information System

Summary

The Petroleum Abstracts Information System, which has operated since 1961, consists of two services: the weekly current awareness bulletin, Petroleum Abstracts, and the information retrieval service of printed indexes and magnetic tapes. Both services are supported by subscriptions from 53 major subscribers in the United States and in 18 other countries, and by 148 minor subscribers, mostly in the United States. In addition to this widespread coverage, some major subscribers also supply materials of the Petroleum Abstracts System to their offices in various localities around the world. Since October 1975 access, on an international basis, has been through the System Development Corporation (SDC) computer in Santa Monica, California. Major European points of access are London and Paris. Some major subscribers outside the United States use their own or Tulsa University computer programs locally to search the Master Record Tapes. Currently the level of search time for the SDC TULSA File is approximately 90 hours of computer time per month, of which 21 percent originates outside the United States. When the EURONET and SCANNET Systems become operative, an evaluation will be made of possible impact upon the present structure of the retrieval capabilities of the Petroleum Abstracts System. In the future, a more complete coverage of the literature of energy resources (wind, ocean currents and thermal differences, solid wastes, etc.) technology and economic minerals will be offered by the Petroleum Abstracts Information System.