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[SAO/NASA ADS]   ADS Historical Literature Project


The ADS is working with the John G. Wolbach Library at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to digitize microfilms from selected historical publications in astronomy, including observatory reports, bulletins and annals. During the first phase of this project (to be completed by the end of 2001), we expect to make available online the raw scans for over 170 serials, for a total of 300,000 scanned pages. These pages, which eventually become accessible from an interface similar to the ADS article service, represent the sequence of images taken during the microfilming process, and include all front- and back-matter. As a result, the page numbers of all the scanned images are unknown. In addition, in most cases we have no bibliographic records for the contents of these publications (i.e. the list of articles or reports appearing in them). Without this metadata, the collection of full-text scans is of limited use since it's impossible to browse these publications by page number or use the ADS search engine to locate specific bibliographic items in them.

We have developed a a software tool to facilitate the entry of this type of metadata by users and librarians willing to work with us to improve access to this valuable collection. All you will need to get involved is a web browser and an internet connection, and data entry can be done incrementally over a period of time. Funding for this project was provided in part by the Atherton Seidell Fund of the Smithsonian Institution.

Please feel free to take a look at the interface and let us know what you think!

A selected portion of the scanned microfilms is currently available through a page-by-page viewing interface.