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Inspec landmarks

The IET has been serving the research community for over a hundred years. The Inspec timeline charts these developments..

Inspec Landmarks

1960s

  • 1964 - Current Papers for the Professional and Electrical and Electronics Engineer launched;
  • 1966 - Control Abstracts - Science Abstracts Section C launched;
  • 1966 - Current Papers in Control and Current Papers in Physics launched;
  • 1967 - INSPEC launched;
  • 1969 - Computerised production system;
  • 1969 - Control Abstracts becomes Computer and Control Abstracts.

1970s

  • 1970 - INSPEC Magnetic Tape Service introduced;
  • 1970 - SDI and Topics Services launched;
  • 1971 - INSPEC Treatment Codes introduced;
  • 1972 - August - First issue of INSPEC Matters;
  • 1973 - January - INSPEC Thesaurus and Unified Classification Scheme introduced;
  • 1973 - September - INSPEC goes online at Lockheed DIALOG via the Tymeshare network in the USA;
  • 1974 - INSPEC goes online at CISTI and at ESA-IRS;
  • 1974 - September - 1000th issue of Physics Abstracts;
  • 1974 - October - Physics Abstracts reaches one million abstracts;
  • 1975 - Key Abstracts series launched - 6 titles;
  • 1977 - INSPEC goes online at BRS;
  • 1978 - INSPEC goes online at SDC Orbit and FIZ Karlsruhe.

1980s

  • 1981 - April - Electrical and Electronics Abstracts reaches 1000th issue;
  • 1982 - March - Inspec reaches 2 million records;
  • 1983 - IT Focus launched (Section D of the database);
  • 1983 - August - Electrical and Electronics Abstracts reaches one million abstracts;
  • 1984 - July Physics Abstracts reaches two million abstracts;
  • 1984 - September - Inspec extends coverage to IEEE standards;
  • 1984 - October - Japan Update - weekly updating service introduced;
  • 1985 - Treatment code R ('Product Reviews') introduced;
  • 1986 - April - Inspec available on STN;
  • 1987 - January - Inspec reload on ESA-IRS. File now goes back to 1969;
  • 1987 - Chemical and numerical data indexing introduced;
  • 1987 - Inspec reaches three million records;
  • 1988 - January - Key Abstracts series increased to 18 titles;
  • 1988 - January - Topics and SDI service revamped - output now laser printed;
  • 1988 - June - Inspec Thesaurus available on STN;
  • 1989 - June - Database Upgrade Project completed. Revised database named INSPEC2.

1990s

  • 1990 - November - INSPEC2 loaded on DIALOG;
  • 1990 - December - INSPEC2 loaded on STN;
  • 1991 - March - INSPEC2 loaded on Data-Star;
  • 1991 - September - Inspec Ondisc (produced by UMI) launched;
  • 1991 - October - Inspec reaches four million records;
  • 1992 - Weekly updating of Tape Service introduced;
  • 1992 - Correction Tape Service introduced;
  • 1993 - First loading of corrected records on Data-Star and ESA-IRS;
  • 1993 - November - Inspec available on OCLC's EPIC and FirstSearch Services;
  • 1993 - December - Inspec wins best Information Product from the European Online User Group for the quality enhancements made to INSPEC2;
  • 1994 - Inspec's Document Delivery Service (run by Ask*IEEE) introduced;
  • 1995 - January - FIZ Kahlsruhe and INSPEC merge the INSPEC and PHYS databases;
  • 1995 - January - Astronomical Object Indexing introduced;
  • 1995 - June - Inspec reaches five million records;
  • 1995 - December - site licences (hard disc) made available from SilverPlatter;
  • 1996 - Inspec extends coverage to electronic journals;
  • 1996 - Site Licences (hard disc) made available from Ovid;
  • 1997 - Institute of Physics links cited references in journal articles to Inspec records;
  • 1997 - Inspec goes online at QUESTEL;
  • 1998 - Inspec US Marketing Office moves to new location;
  • 1998 - June - Inspec announces New Windows CD-ROM (produced by Headfast);
  • 1998 - August - Inspec reaches six million records;
  • 1998 - October - Inspec national site licence made available for academic institutions in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

2000s

  • 2000 - January - Electronic delivery (via e-mail in HTML format) of INSPEC's fortnightly Topics and SDI service;
  • 2000 - February - Inspec® made available via ScienceDirect®;
  • 2000 - March - Prominent IEE Journals made available via SilverPlatter's SilverLinker®;
  • 2001 - August - Inspec reaches seven million records;
  • 2002 - Inspec available on Web of Knowledge;
  • 2002 - Inspec available on EBSCOhost;
  • 2003 - December - Section E: manufacturing and production engineering added;
  • 2003 - Inspec sales office opened in Hong Kong;
  • 2004 - Inspec Archive (Science Abstracts 1898 - 1968) produced;
  • 2004 - Inspec reaches eight million records;
  • 2008 - Inspec Direct launched.