The fore-runners to ASFA were initiated in 1950, by FAO in Rome. It originally came out, twice yearly, as a current awareness service covering fisheries. With the growth in literature in this field FAO became overwhelmed with data and by 1970 the bibliography was out of date. French and German institutes offered to help and by 1971 the idea that a co-operative collaboration of countries would be the best way forward was established. From the start ASFA was intended as a computerised system.
Some national partners have national networks providing input.
LN pointed out the benefits to becoming a partner, namely entitlements. The more records you input the greater the value of the ASFA service you get free e.g. 370 records a year would entitle the data input centre to a years free access to ASFA over the internet. As well as this input sites get to select the material, so they can select items for example by staff or cover a particular area of relevance to that institute. They must be able to be searched and provide data retrieval and document delivery facilities. The challenges faced are making a standard format standard.