The Institute
A long-standing commitment to the dissemination of scientific research findings
Scientific documentation always had a strong place within CNRS since the first documentation service was created in 1939 concurrently with the creation of the CNRS itself.
This service later gave birth to two documentation centers, one covering Scientific and Technical Information and the other the Humanities and Social Sciences both located in Paris.
The birth of a new Institute
In 1988, it was decided to merge those two centers into one to create the Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (INIST). The new institute was to be located in the city of Nancy in Eastern France, an ideal location in the heart of Europe.
The mission of the new institute was not only to continue the traditional activies of the previous document centers, i.e. document delivery and bibliographic databases but most importantly to carry them into the new technological environment that was developing.
Housed in modern facilities designed by world-renowned architect Jean Nouvel with this technological environment in mind, INIST is a public institution employing a whole range of specialized personnel from shelvers to information systems specialists.
Also housed in INIST’s facilities, is INIST Diffusion, a CNRS private subsidiary in charge of marketing scientific and technical information products and services including those produced at INIST.
INIST today
With the advent of the Internet, while continuing with its traditional document delivery and bibliographic activities, INIST’s role has evolved towards providing public sector researchers with the direct and permanent access to the scientific information they need.
Nowadays, INIST is actively involved in activities concerning electronic resources negociations and electronic resource sharing, electronic publishing, electronic archiving, science monitoring, and information analysis and processing.
