AbstractThe Administration on Aging (AoA) sponsored a national information system known as the SCAN system. The SCAN bibliographic database went on‐line in March 1982. Congress, however, had repealed the authority for the clearinghouse, so the Government let all of the services of SCAN expire by September 1982. The Government then tried to keep the SCAN information accessible by offering it to the private sector. The Government solicited applicants through both theFederal Registerand theCommerce Business Daily.As a result, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and AoA signed an agreement calling for AARP to make much of the SCAN information accessible on‐line and to update