  We report on two major surveys for metal-poor stars in the galactic halo, the
HK survey, and the Hamburg/ESO survey, which have been undertaken in order to
provide targets for high-resolution spectroscopy with the Subaru HDS and other
large telescopes. We compare basic properties of these two surveys and their
current status, and add some historical remarks.
  The candidate selection procedures of both surveys are described in detail.
We evaluate the candidate selection by comparing effective yields (EYs) of the
survey techniques for the identification of metal-poor stars. It is found that
EY for stars below [Fe/H]=-2.0 in the HES can be up to 80% for stars selected
by automatic classification from machine-scanned unwidened plates, whereas in
the HK survey, where stars are selected by visual inspection of widened survey
plates, the EY is between 11% and 32%, depending on whether a pre-selection
based on BV photometry has been applied.
  Finally, we describe techniques used for determining stellar parameters of
the survey stars by means of moderate resolution follow-up spectroscopy, and
additional UBV photometry. While follow-up observations of HES stars have just
been started, the HK survey has already produced a list of ~4700 stars with
estimates of [Fe/H] typically precise to +/-0.2 dex, some 1000 of which have
[Fe/H]<-2.0, and roughly 100 of which have [Fe/H]<-3.0.
