Historic Observatory Publications in the NASA Astrophysics Data System

Through the mid-20th century, numerous observatories had their own outlets for disseminating their research and administrative information. Publications of the Yerkes Observatory, of the Washburn Observatory, of the Lick Observatory, of the Michigan Observatory along with the Lowell Observatory Bulletin are examples available through NASA ADS. Astronomers reported their work in observatory periodicals and reviewed journals. These historic records contain foundational work that remains relevant today, observational data of unrepeatable sky views, and evidence of the evolving culture of astronomy. As the digital astronomy library, ADS indexes, links to, and, when allowed, hosts scanned versions of historic observatory publications so that the whole community may find and access their contents. Originally, we prioritized scanning observatory publications with complete runs available. While ADS estimates our historic astronomy collection is over 80% complete, you may have something we are missing. If so, please help us ensure the whole literature of astronomy is freely accessible to everyone.

For ADS to accept historic material for scanning, it must be relevant to our mission and currently unavailable online. We also need copyright permission to provide the full-text of scanned documents.

Because ADS scanning is usually destructive, your institution may prefer to scan materials in-house and submit the files for inclusion. If so, the proposed material must meet our relevancy and technical standards.

Although digitizing historic documents makes their contents more findable and accessible, it does not eliminate the need to retain physical reference copies. In some situations, a researcher may need to review the original. Also, improvements in scanning technology may warrant re-scanning some items.

ADS is expanding to serve planetary science, heliophysics, and earth science under the broader name, NASA Science Explorer (SciX). However, NASA SciX retains its commitment to serving its core astronomy and astrophysics communities, including access to this historic literature. Including more scientific disciplines in this key resource will enable greater multidisciplinary discovery and investigations.