The European Patent Office (EPO) has recently implemented the last part of its ambitious automation project aimed at creating an automated search environment for approximately 1200 EPO patent search examiners. The examiners now have at their disposal an integrated set of tools offering a full range of functionalities from online searching, via full text browsing, to document delivery on the workstation screen or a nearby departmental printer. Online searching, via a common command language, is carried out in a great number of bibliographic and full-text databases on the EPO in-house host service or in commercial databases. Specially developed "dual-mode" viewer software enables the examiner easily to browse full-text documents (in character mode) and view patent images (in facsimile mode). Browsing and viewing, as online searching, are interactive operations with very short response times. The recently installed electronic document server, finally, gives access to the EPO's complete search collection comprising some 25 MIO documents, totaling approximately 14 terabytes of storage space. The storage technology is based on the use of magnetic cartridges placed in robots, which offer not an interactive online service, but rather a "near-line" service with maximum 15 minutes response time. (Author)