The Catalogue of [Fe/H] determinations provides a database for various topics related to chemistry in the stars or in the galaxies. This Catalogue has been foreseen for two kinds of users. The first, often photometrists, are those interested in the Catalogue because they are specialists in the chemical evolution of the Galaxy, or of other galaxies (see for instance the calibrations performed by Golay et al. 1977a,b, 1978).
The second kind of user of the Catalogue, and probably the more numerous, is working in high resolution high S/N spectroscopy. These astronomers use the Catalogue in preparing their observing programs, in verifying whether some of their program stars have high resolution, high S/N observations, and in studying what kind of literature already exists in connection with their observing program. And, once having reduced their spectra, the Catalogue can be useful in helping the authors to interpret the results.
We want to conclude by saying that many of the stars contained in the Catalogue have been included in different programs for the Hipparcos mission, particularly those concerning the observational study of galactic structure and chemical evolution of the solar neighbourhood. The imminent availability of precise distances and proper motions for those stars, together with good atmospheric parameters, will give the opportunity to study the correlation between kinematics and metallicity with excellent observational material.
Acknowledgements
First of all, we want to thank Pr. Hauck for his constant help during the previous editions of the Catalogue. Then, our thanks go to the successive collaborators of the Catalogue, who spent energy and time working for it. We are also very thankful to those of our colleagues who directed our attention to newly published analyses, and to others who provided their data in electronic form or who sent us lists of errors contained in the Catalogue. Many thanks to Monique and François Spite for sending remarks and corrections all along these years. We made extensive use of the SIMBAD and NASA-ADS databases, and we are extremely grateful to the staff of these two services for maintaining such valuable resources. And at the end, we want to thank again the members of the Centre des Données Stellaires in Strasbourg for keeping up to date the computerized version of this Catalogue.