By arrangement with Monty’s executors in 2014, a collection of his legacy papers entered the care of:

http://www.city.ac.uk/department-library-information-science

This includes business correspondence fit for public viewing, most notably exchanges (from 1969) with heads of WIPO, Inpadoc and national patent offices, concerning various scenarios for a World Patents Index; then later with prospects of cooperation between Derwent and, in particular, Inpadoc.  

Correspondence internal to the Thomson organisation and concerning potential business acquisitions is initially excluded from the Archive.


The main strength of the Archive is probably its collection of:

DERWENT SUBSCRIBER MEETING REPORTS 1964-82

These typically include agenda, sample materials, state-of-play summaries, developmental issues, papers given, views expressed, attendees list. Average length is about 40 pages.

There are also two instruction manuals, hundreds of pages long.

Most of the following are complete bound booklets.           

Indented items are pages of notes, apparently in preparation for booklets.

            1964: Combined Farmdoc and Ringdoc. London & New York.

            1966: Plasdoc and Polydoc.

            1967: Pestdoc/Vetdoc  notes

            1968: Ringdoc notes

            1969: Pestdoc/Vetdoc notes

            1970: Ringdoc notes

            1971: New integrated search system notes

            1971-2: Ringdoc notes

    1971: Computer Meeting.   Frankfurt & Washington.

    1972: Literature Division Joint Annual Meetings. London & Washington.

    1972: CENTRAL PATENTS INDEX INSTRUCTION MANUALS

    1973: Literature Division Joint Annual Meetings. Tokyo, London, Washington.

    1973: Literature Division Subscriber Meetings – Reprints of papers given.

    1973: Literature Division: Ringdoc, Pestdoc and Vetdoc – Questionnaire results and decisions.

    1974: Literature Division Joint Annual Meetings: (Japan). 2 booklets, include results & decisions

    1975: CPI/WPI: Questionnaire results & Decisions.

    1975: Ringdoc: Questionnaire results & Decisions.

            1976: CPI/WPI Online Service notes

            1976: Notes on despatch

    1976: Literature Division: Report of Annual Meetings. (Japan, US, UK)

    1976: CPI and WPI  INSTRUCTION MANUALS

    1976: CPI Washington Meeting, Notes.

    1976: CPI Tokyo Meeting, Notes.

    1977: Literature Division: Report of Annual Meetings. (Japan, UK)

    1977: Literature Division: Notes for Regional Secretaries’ Meeting, London

    1977: Literature Division: Report following Regional Secretaries’ Meeting, London

    1977: CPI: Report of Subscriber Meetings

            1977: CPI UK meeting, list of attendees

    1978: International Patents Conference 1978, UK: Booklet for use at, Part 1

    1978: International Patents Conference 1978, UK: Booklet for use at, Part 2

    1978: CPI: Report of Meetings of Subscriber Representative Committees

    1978: Literature Division: Report of Joint Annual Meetings. (Japan, UK)

    1979: Literature Division: Report of Joint Annual Meetings. (Japan, UK)

    1979: CPI:  Subscriber Meeting, London. Booklet for use at

   1979: CPI:  Subscriber Meeting, US. Booklet for use at

    1980: Literature Division: Report of Joint Annual Meetings. (Japan, UK, US)

    1981: Literature Division: Report of Joint Annual Meetings. (Japan, UK)

    1982: CPI Annual Subscriber Meetings (UK, US, Japan): Booklet for use at

    1982: Literature Division: Report of Joint Annual Meetings. (Japan, UK)

    The Hyams Archive includes also these TALKS AND BROCHURES

    1962: Derwent Information Service.  Brochure. 16pp.

    1965: Foreign Patents Documentation: Article in Journal of Chemical Documentation. 6. 101.  1^st page only.

    1970: Central Patents Index. Brochure. 12pp.

    1970: Chemical Patents Information. 5pp A4. Article by MH in Chemistry in Britain. Vol.6, No.10

    1974: The role of patent information in research and development: Lecture by MH to WIPO Moscow Symposium, October 8-11

   1975. Derwent Publications Ltd. From Report of the Japan Patent Association Study Team in Europe and America. (25pp out of 198pp in the complete Report, which  is included in the Hyams Archive, which also covers 6 other services, 4 patent offices and 7 major users.)

    1977: Patent documentation for the chemical industry – future developments. Paper given to Patent Documentation Group. 8 ppA4.

    1980: Some problems of a database producer. Address to Information Industry Association. 17ppA5.

    1982: Derwent’s patent services – latest developments. Paper given to Patent Documentation Group. 16pp A4. 1982.

  1983: The Future and Derwent. Paper given to Association of Information Officers in the Pharmaceutical Industry (AIOPI). 11ppA5. (Complete proceedings includes 21 other papers).

    1984: Chemical patents information: the challenge of change. Presented at 1984 Annual Meeting of American Chemical Society. 6pp.

    1984: Monty Hyams talks to Infotecture Europe. Interview in January 1984 edition.

    1984: Multi-level retrieval of new patent compounds. Presented at Chemical Structure Association conference in Sheffield. 6pp.

    1987: Information for chemists – a European viewpoint. Aslib Proceedings. 13pp.

    1987: How to profit from information technologies. Information Services & Use. 8pp.

 Back to Derwent section contents