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The purpose of this paper is to report a new resource for the study of the history of the development of information science and information services in the late twentieth century. The Monty Hyams archives include documents relating to the career of Montagu Hyams (1918-2013), the Founder of Derwent Publications, and an innovator in patents information, chemical and pharmaceutical information, and online information access. The Archive is housed in the Department of Library and Information Science at City, University of London.

The origins and development of the Monty Hyams Archive are described, and its value examined by an initial analysis of the light it sheds on the development of Derwent’s World Patents Index.

The newly established Hyams Archive allows analysis of previously private and unseen documents, which reveal the fascinating and complex personalities, issues and negotiations which led to the establishment of some of the most significant information sources and access methods of the pre-internet information environment.

The Monty Hyams Archive is a new and unique resource for the study of the development of the scientific information environment in the last decades of the twentieth century.

Introduction Optical sensors, and especially fibre optic sensors, offer some significant technical advantages over conventional electronic sensors. These technical advantages have been perceived to be sufficiently significant to have stimulated a large amount of research activity in the UK and elsewhere. Much of the original research has been carried out in universities and polytechnics, but there has also been considerable corporate R&D activity aimed at developing commercial products and systems. The results of much of this corporate work have not been published, except in the form of patents. Patents therefore provide a useful literature which, though of considerable interest to companies, is difficult to analyse and assimilate. For this reason, the DTI Advanced Sensors Technology Transfer Programme commissioned a study of recent optical sensor patents. The aim was to classify and analyse the patents, and to present the findings in a manner which a small or medium size instrumentation company could readily digest.

In the field of non‐polymeric basic chemicals generic structures play an important role. Searching generically for compound classes is essential since in addition to novelty searches we are very often confronted with questions pertaining to the infringement or validity of patents. Searching generically has hitherto been possible with Derwent's Chemical Code or IDC's Gremas System, both of which employ fragment codes. With the release of Derwent's Markush DARC the first topological system became available; the second, CAS's Markush System, should become available in the near future. The systems available to the public are briefly reviewed. Comparison searches have been carried out to examine their efficiency — complete recall and high precision were the criteria applied. From the problems encountered, it was concluded that improvements could be made which might well increase the users' benefit/effort ratio in the respective topological systems.

The RINGDOC database of Derwent Publications Ltd. is the world's most comprehensive database covering pharmaceutical literature. RINGDOC contains over 500,000 references from 1964 to date and is searched using two indexing systems. Codeless scanning is a system of searching keywords and the Ring Code system is a unique method of searching chemical substructures and biological activities. This paper looks briefly at the history and structure of the RINGDOC database and describes methods of searching it.

Online database revenues up 28% Amidon/Litman, a consulting and research firm out of New Jersey, has released a report that states online revenues for 1988 were $1.03 billion for eight business‐to‐business markets. This represents a 28% growth rate over 1987, according to the report Vertical Information Markets & Company Profiles: A Dance Card. It contains lists of interesting information products and players suitable for acquisition, joint venture and product development.

New Derwent representation in North America. Effective mid July, 1981, Derwent Publications Limited will be represented in the USA and Canada by a new company:

With a few exceptions copies of patents are easy and relatively cheap to acquire. The patents holdings of major depositories are listed and some of the potential pitfalls affecting requests for copies are considered. The value of tapping the bibliographical skills of the supplying libraries is emphasized.

Pergamon launches patent drawings on videodiscs. One of the principal draws at the recent National Online Meeting in New York was the launch and demonstration by Pergamon International Information Corporation of Videopatsearch.

Information supermarket in Oslo. An information supermarket has been established in Oslo in the new building of the Norwegian Society of Professional Engineers (NIS).

Of significance for patents information during the past decade or so have been the major changes in patents legislation, improvements to the publications of the principal patenting systems, and the transforming effects of computerized databases. The review covers these changes and outlines the current publication procedures of the European Patent Convention, Patent Cooperation Treaty, and the major national systems. The importance of the patent specification as a source of information, and developments during this period in its construction and bibliographic data are explained. Official and non‐official publications associated with the specification are covered. Particular emphasis is given to computer databases covering patents, since they now form a powerful, numerous and growing means of searching specifications in the majority of subject fields. Reference is made to efforts to increase general awareness of the value of patents as information and to improve their availability by schemes such as the UK's Patents Information Network.