Structure of the local interstellar medium from high resolution spectroscopy

The importance for studying the local interstellar medium (LISM) is stressed as well as the need for high resolution spectroscopic data. Such ground-based observations at high signal to noise ratio of interstellar absorption lines in spectra of nearby stars are presented. The kinematic analysis of the detected features reveals the existence of at least three velocity components over five parsecs from the Sun, and another one within twenty parsecs. Using when available UV data, we confirm local variations in the abundance of interstellar deuterium, and suggest the presence of highly ionized species in the LISM. Some preliminary conclusions about the complex structure of the LISM are proposed.