[en] What is INIS? The acronym INIS stands for International Nuclear Information System. INIS was planned and is operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in collaboration with its Member States. Its purpose is to provide a comprehensive nuclear information and abstracting service, using modern computer and micrographic techniques. This includes: 1. processing input received from Member States, 2. providing Member States with output in a variety of forms for dissemination on a national basis, and 3. assisting Member States in improving their methods of information handling. History: The origins of INIS go back to 1965. In that year the IAEA, recognizing that it had a statutory obligation to foster the exchange of nuclear information amongst its members, invited consultants from the USSR and from the USA to draw up an outline scheme for an international information system, that would cover adequately the expanding amount of literature on the peaceful uses of atomic energy. The consultants proposed to the IAEA a cooperative system, one that would serve the information requirements of countries of varying levels of development and with different backgrounds and traditions in the methods and techniques of information handling. The system would make use of the latest computer and micrographic techniques. During the next few years the consultants' proposals were submitted by the Agency to a number of international panels of experts for discussion and elaboration into a detailed systems design. In February 1969, the Board of Governors of the IAEA approved the setting up of INIS on an experimental basis. The first output products of the new system were issued in April 1970.