Recently, speeds of material design, search, and development, are drastically increasing in material science field. The crystal structure database is one of the most important tools in the field, because the crystallographic (including crystal structure) information is always base knowledge, to understand origins of various properties. Brief information of the databases is given here.

  Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) is the most versatile surface chemical analysis method both in the measurement functions and the operational environments. Recent activities and future outlook for SPM standardization through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is briefly reviewed. Following the highly prioritized item of standardization, SPM terminology, the data transfer format shall be standardized in order to enable the access to and processing of SPM data collected by different types of instruments. The present status of the development of open software for import of original data, conversion to standard format, comparison and processing are discussed.