The future is now. AAPG makes history as it offers the entire AAPG BULLETIN archive to AAPG members (only) at a single-user subscription rate of $99 per year.
Members will have the chance to sign up when they return their paid dues statement this year, and will be able to access the entire BULLETIN database with one Internet search. The BULLETIN database includes more than 140,000 published pages.
The long-anticipated offering of single-AAPG member subscriptions to the digital BULLETIN archives is the first major announcement following the association's agreement with Datapages last fall to bring the management of AAPG digital archives in-house.
In time, other databases may be offered to single-user member-subscribers, such as those of SEPM, GCAGS and AAPG special publications' Journal of Petroleum Geology, according to Ron Hart, of the new AAPG/Datapages in-house team.
"There are a lot of things we can provide the members digitally, but planning new products is pretty risky since there are no sales histories to go by," Hart said. "Everything we do is going to be experimental."
The Datapages project was initiated as a private concern in 1989, with licensing rights granted by AAPG to digitize all BULLETINs and other science-related materials published since the association was founded in 1917.
Datapages' goal was, and remains, to make the digits available to the membership as products were created.
As a part of the agreement, Datapages performed its function at no cost to the association as well as paid licensing fees to AAPG as a percentage of the sales of the products.
Over the past 10 years, Datapages has:
- Completed the massive digitizing of AAPG materials.
- Created a number of digital products.
- Provided a number of electronic-library assets, including making abstracts available to meeting attendees on CD-ROM.
Archives of SEPM and the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies also are integrated with AAPG's complete library.
This complete library currently remains available for corporate and university clients.
Hart said plans for 2000 include expanding the products available to members to include:
♦ A Seismic Locator Database -- a GIS-based system to locate seismic data published in the AAPG archives.
♦ Oil and Gas Fields GIS Database - A graphically driven database where the user can access information about oil and gas fields, stratigraphy, structure and production history with the click of a mouse.
Already there are more than 400 fields in the database and, because the project is designed to be open ended, more fields will be added each year. Data are from a variety of AAPG and non-AAPG (mostly published) sources.
♦ Journal of Petroleum Geology -- Datapages already has published a complete CD-ROM archive of the JPG (1978-present) database and discs are available through 1996. This work is being updated and the existing CD-formatted articles are being converted to a web-friendly format so they can be included in the searchable AAPG database.
The AAPG Datapages project already has a number of electronic products available to members.
They include:
- Single AAPG articles available on the Internet. (Free search -- pay only for document delivery.)
- Comprehensive Index to Publications, 1999 Edition (AAPG, SEPM, GCAGS, WTGS, CSPG, JPG-UK, OGS, ETGS, GCS-SEPMF, Texas BEG, PBS-SEPM). From AAPG Data Systems.
This CD-ROM based utility combines titles and authors from the journals most widely searched by petroleum geologists. Current through end of 1998. More than 35,000 citations.
- AAPG BULLETIN on CD-ROM (1917-1998).
Full text and all images of all articles published in the BULLETIN since 1917.
Find anything -- instantly. Corporate licensing only. More than 200,000 pages.
- AAPG BULLETIN Quarterly Subscription on CD-ROM (1999).
The AAPG BULLETIN now is completely digital, and delivered to you quarterly on CD-ROM in Adobe Acrobat® format. Includes searchable AAPG Membership Directory, updated quarterly.
- AAPG DataROM.
A CD-ROM database of well records for the explorationist.
1. Exploratory Well File of 385,000 USA well records.
2. Geothermal Gradient Database of 23,000 temperature records.
3. Stratigraphic Correlation Database of more than 18,000 stratigraphic records.
- Atlas of Coal Geology CD-ROM (Published by the AAPG Energy Minerals Division).
Contains Volumes 1 (Coal Geology) and 2 (Coal Petrology). Adobe Acrobat® format. Search full text (incl. pictures) with Acrobat Reader with search.
- Petroleum Basins of South America.
From AAPG Data Systems (September 1996). AAPG Memoir 62 in searchable, CD-ROM (Adobe Acrobat®) form. A landmark publication about South American basins (41 articles in 792 pages).
- RIO 98-South America-Brazil.
Five basin study CD-ROMs from Associacó Brasileira de Geólogos de Petröleo (ABGP).
Digital Maps in GIS
- Bill St. John Sedimentary Provinces of the World Map in ARC/VIEW.
From AAPG Data Systems. This popular map of basins is now in ARC/INFO coverages for use with ARC/INFO and ARC/VIEW.
- Arabian Plate Map in ARC/VIEW.
From AAPG Data Systems. Beydoun's map of the Middle East now in ARC/INFO coverages for use with ARC/INFO and ARC/VIEW.
- Tectonic Map of North America in ARC/VIEW.
This recent release, sponsored by the AAPG Foundation, now is available in ARC coverages.
Special Studies on CD-ROM
- Basin History Atlas on CD-ROM.
A CD-ROM containing more than 700 worksheet-based studies linking burial history, oil generation, and stress history.
"We believe that we can best serve the AAPG membership and the professional geoscience community if we continue to be the single largest source of information in the digital age," Hart said. "Our long-term goal is to create a huge pool of scientific information from a number of sources and make it all available to our earth science community efficiently and at a reasonable price."
For information on any of the AAPG products listed, or to subscribe to the online AAPG BULLETIN Archive, contact AAPG/Datapages through the AAPG Call Center at 1-800-364-2274 (for U.S. and Canada) -- 1-918-584-2555 for outside north America.