This expectation has been borne out fully. The average IUE Archive data retrieval rate is some 61,000 spectra per year. This compares with a new data collection rate of 5,500 spectra per year. Considering that the demand for observing time still exceeds the available time by a factor of 3, it is clear that the IUE Archive is an important source of data. The low resolution data set was chosen since it represented a data set excellently suitable for remote de-archiving, and at the same time not overloading the facilities available in 1987 at the National Host Institutes.
New hosts continue to be integrated easily and regularly.
The subset of the IUE Archive contained in the ULDA and accessible through the USSP, consists of the low resolution IUE spectra in a form directly applicable to all modern Scientific Analysis techniques. The details of the construction of the ULDA and the design of the USSP can be found in Wamsteker et al. The quantity of data in the IUE Archive is sufficiently large that it is not necessarily simple to address the data efficiently in the context of an astrophysical problem, even though access to the data is extremely easy. A further redistribution on more modern media is under consideration. In the case this will be done it is expected to update the contents to include the most recent status of the IUE Archive.