5. The producers

At international level, the initial efforts of the US Federal Agencies to develop scientific and technical databases were subsequently relayed by learned societies and private companies.

The presence of public bodies remains important, for example the National Library of Medicine, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Learned societies, non-profit associations, have always played an important role in science and technology, making them very active producers of databases: American Chemical Society in the USA, Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK. The need for global coverage and the high cost of production have led to the production of data by international bodies...