1980s Forging Partnerships on the Information Front

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1980: Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Databank signed for the exchange of computer codes
1981: Bilateral MOUs began with other countries to exchange non-nuclear information
1981: Department of Energy Panel on International Scientific and Technical Information (STI) concluded that foreign STI should be aggressively acquired and disseminated, and all foreign information should be routed through TIC to ensure maximum availability and usage
1981: Economic analysis issued, known as the King Study, which concluded that centralized DOE information program saved the Department billions of dollars by avoiding duplication and increasing productivity
1983: First DOE directive dedicated exclusively to STI management issued, expanding Technical Information Center's (TIC) responsibilities within the Department
1984: TIC became Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) and assumes programmatic responsibility for Department’s Technical Information Management Program (TIMP)
1985: CENDI chartered via MOU among Departments of Energy, Commerce, and Defense, and NASA, establishing an interagency group focused on federal STI programs
1985: OSTI provided over 150 DOE and contractor libraries and over 260 GPO depository libraries with collections of DOE reports in microfiche form
1985: Bilateral exchange agreements in place with eight industrialized countries: Denmark, France, Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom
1986: Use of RECON ended with OSTI’s implementation of BASIS text information retrieval software
1987: Scientific and Technical Information Coordinating Group chartered to address DOE’s cross-cutting STI issues
1987: Energy Technology Data Exchange created under IEA; program includes 11 participating countries
1987: OSTI named U.S. Delegate and Operating Agent for the International Energy Agency’s Energy Technology Data Exchange agreement