The first Pan-American Environmental Information Exchange Seminar, organized by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), was held in Washington, March 15-26, 1976. The aim of the Seminar was to create a regional framework within which environmental centers in the Americas could share information resources. (a) To introduce Latin American countries to environmental information services in the United States which can be available through agreements and/or contracts; (b) to review the cooperative EPA-NTIS program both to illustrate the concept and operations of an environmental center utilizing the services of a central documents and information dissemination service, and to explain EPA/NTIS services available under the International Documents Exchange; (c) to provide a state of the art review of microtechnology as an advanced tool in information storage and retrieval and demonstration of equipment, including mini-computers; and (d) to draft guidelines for regional coordination of national environmental information systems and procedures for sharing services and products.