Geoscience Information : a state-of-the art review Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Geological Information London, 10-12 April, 1978

The International Conference on Geological Information represents the first major attempt to bring together geoscience information specialists from allover the world. The purpose of the conference was to assess the current state-of­ the-art in geoscience information from both the regional and functional point of view. It was hoped that the conference could take steps to bring about increased international cooperation and collaboration in the field of geological information. The papers ranged over the whole spec­ trum of documentation from primary publishing back to the user, including data. Perhaps a keyword for the conference might be "cooperation". The idea of, and need for, cooperation was stressed in almost every talk. The final panel session was devoted to a discussion on the formation of a proposed International Association for Geological Information. Despite the growing pressure on information managers, stimulated by increasing international activities in geology, the global perspective of plate tectonics and worldwide concern for the availability of non-renewable resources, there does not exist an international organisation specifi­ cally concerned with geological information. Delegates agreed that there was no need for a new professional society of individuals but that a federation or similar organisation might be desirable. In the final session it became apparent that if the geological information community is to make the best use of all the systems and developments available there is very clearly a need to know what exists in all these areas at present. An urgent task is to identify these systems. Front Matter....Pages N1-iii State-of-the-Art in Geoscience Information — USA....Pages 1-8 Canada: Current Activities and Issues in Geological Documentation....Pages 9-14 Geological Documentation in the Federal Republic of Germany....Pages 15-18 Geological Information in France....Pages 19-23 State-of-the-Art of Geological Documentation in the United Kingdom....Pages 24-33 The Current Australasian Earth Sciences Information Scene....Pages 34-39 Geoscience Documentation in India....Pages 40-50 History of Geoscience Information in India....Pages 51-60 Geological Documentation in Brazil....Pages 61-65 International Aspects of Geological Documentation....Pages 66-69 Publication Practices Used by Professional Societies....Pages 70-73 Indexing and Abstracting: Degrees of Freedom....Pages 74-80 The Role of the UNISIST/ICSU-AB Reference Manual in Data Base Processing....Pages 81-88 Computer-Assisted Editing of Bibliographic Information....Pages 89-95 Geological Data Management....Pages 96-100 Online Information Retrieval — Present Status and Future Implications....Pages 101-101 What Information is Available for the Applied Geologist....Pages 102-106 International Resource Data — International Resource Analyses....Pages 107-126 International Data Exchange for Geothermal Energy Power Production....Pages 127-140 Data Banking in IEA Coal Research....Pages 141-159 International Access to the Petroleum Abstracts Information System....Pages 160-176 An Advanced Hydrogeological Data Storage and Retrieval System in Use in New South Wales....Pages 177-192 Applications, Availability and Acquisition of Earth Satellite Imagery for Geology....Pages 193-198 Bibliographical Control of Geological Maps....Pages 199-216 The Link between “Data” and “Documentation”....Pages 217-225 Earth Science and the Foreign Language Problem....Pages 226-246 Geology Presented in Collections of Papers from the Published Literature....Pages 247-262 Geoscience Information Sources and Services from the User’s Viewpoint....Pages 263-270 Information Transfer to the Geoscientist Through the International Union of Geological Sciences....Pages 271-276 Status of Information Education for Geoscientists in the United States and Canada....Pages 277-283 Some Practical Approaches to Geoscience Information Problems of Developing Countries....Pages 284-287