preparation and distribution of microfiche in International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

INIS started the activity in 1970 aiming at the unified treatment of atomic energy literatures in the world. At present, 66 countries and 13 international organs participate in it, and the INIS Section in IAEA supervises the system. The participants treat the atomic energy literatures published in respective countries and send to the INIS Section in the form of magnetic tapes and others. These informations are returned to respective countries through the publication of ''INIS Atomindex'' and the distribution of the magnetic tapes for mechanized retrieval. Recently, the number of abstracted papers reached about 80000/year. One of the features of this system is to utilize microfiche as the medium of literature distribution, and the literatures which cannot be bought through bookstores are available in the form of microfiche from the INIS Clearing House. The microfiche before the establishment of INIS, the troubles concerning the equipment and the problems of the originals to make microfiche, the change of duplicating films and the conversion of frame number, the adoption of the standard for microfiche production and quality inspection, the second change of duplicating films, the recent improvement of microfiche, and the present state of the production and distribution of microfiche in the INIS Section are described. (Kako, I.)