Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2014
Since the discovery of the Diffuse Interstellar Bands (DIBs) in the early 1920s, numerous research groups have taken on the task to obtain as complete a census of the DIBs as observationally possible in order to unravel characteristics that would allow the community to tie the DIB carriers to known species. Here, I will briefly review the efforts and progress that were made for the past two decades in producing new, deeper, and more complete DIB surveys. In particular, I will review the important role that these modern surveys are playing in revealing main observational characteristics of the DIBs and their dependence on the local physical conditions in the Galactic Interstellar Medium.