The first suggestion of a database of journal paper abstracts was made at a conference on "Astronomy from Large Data-bases" held in Garching bei München in 1987. Initial development of an electronic system for accessing astrophysical abstracts took place during the following two years; in 1991 discussions took place on how to integrate ADS with the SIMBAD database, containing all available catalog designations for objects outside the solar system, to create a system where astronomers could search for all the papers written about a given object.